Impact significance determination—Pushing the boundaries

Lawrence, David P.

doi:10.1016/j.eiar.2007.02.010

Cited by 34 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…They have the potential to assess and quantify some their mitigation needs early, and for multiple sites, which can lead to more biologically effective and cheaper mitigation solutions. A major challenge is successful identification of projected aggregate environmental impacts (Lawrence 2007), which could permit mitigation plans acceptable to regulatory agencies (Brown 2006;Hardy 2007). We showed that a GIS database approach could summarize road construction impacts to 55 landcover types and 177 listed plant and animal species, and that the results can be reported for different eight spatial representations of California.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Evaluating Aggregate Terrestrial Impacts of Road Construction Projects for Advanced Regional Mitigation

Thorne

Girvetz

McCoy

2009

Environmental Management

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This study presents a GIS-based database framework used to assess aggregate terrestrial habitat impacts from multiple highway construction projects in California, USA. Transportation planners need such impact assessment tools to effectively address additive biological mitigation obligations. Such assessments can reduce costly delays due to protracted environmental review. This project incorporated the best available statewide natural resource data into early project planning and preliminary environmental assessments for single and multiple highway construction projects, and provides an assessment of the 10-year state-wide mitigation obligations for the California Department of Transportation. Incorporation of these assessments will facilitate early and more strategic identification of mitigation opportunities, for single-project and regional mitigation efforts. The data architecture format uses eight spatial scales: six nested watersheds, counties, and transportation planning districts, which were intersected. This resulted in 8058 map planning units statewide, which were used to summarize all subsequent analyses. Range maps and georeferenced locations of federally and state-listed plants and animals and a 55-class landcover map were spatially intersected with the planning units and the buffered spatial footprint of 967 funded projects. Projected impacts were summarized and output to the database. Queries written in the database can sum expected impacts and provide summaries by individual construction project, or by watershed, county, transportation district or highway. The data architecture allows easy incorporation of new information and results in a tool usable without GIS by a wide variety of agency biologists and planners. The data architecture format would be useful for other types of regional planning.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Evaluating Aggregate Terrestrial Impacts of Road Construction Projects for Advanced Regional Mitigation

Thorne

Girvetz

McCoy

2009

Environmental Management

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“…The existent methods for Impact Significance Assessment (ISA) tend to be highly variable and there are no objective criteria for such determination, resulting in very subjective evaluations, generally determined by the analysts' experience and influenced by their professional profile and personal values. Several authors have discussed this issue since the 1980s, including Beanlands and Duinker [4], Canter and Canty [5], Erickson [6], Marusich [7], Lawrence [3], [8], [9] and Toro et al [10], among others. The personal value system is influenced by several aspects of the individual, including culture, social condition, geographical situation and the historical moment.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…According to Beattie (in Wilkins [11]) the personal values system will affect the impact assessment, the delimitation of the scope, the assumed assumptions in the methodology to be adopted and may vary with the social groups involved. Lawrence [8], grouped the set of existing approaches to assess the significance of impacts in Technical, Collaborative, Argumentative and Composite. The commonly employed methods derived from normative valuations use certain rating scales, which are used in the same way for quite different ecological, economic and social processes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How to Assess the Significance of Environmental Impacts

Tagliani

Walter

2018

WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment

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In the context of the Environmental Impact Studies, the determination of the significance of the impacts is a fragile aspect that has been the subject of discussion and criticism in the international scientific community. There are no objective criteria for such determination, resulting in very subjective evaluations, generally determined by the analysts' experience and influenced by their professional profile. The commonly employed methods are derived from normative valuations using certain rating scales, which are used in the same way for quite different ecological, economic and social processes. Then, once a ranking of impacts significance values is established, the subjectivity of the process is hidden under a seemingly objective number. The proposed method establishes a simple routine of integrated analysis considering a set of characteristics of environmental impacts, including persistence, reversibility spatial amplitude, synergy magnitude, and cumulative effects. Although this method does not eliminate the subjectivity of the process, it makes explicit the criteria used for assessing the significance of impacts providing greater transparency to the process, contributing to a broader understanding of the profile of the impacts of the project.

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“…Thompson 1990;Thérivel 2004;Lawrence 2007b;Wood 2008). The EU guidance is another example of an attempt to limit discretion while determining significance in screening and scoping (EU 2001(EU , 2003.…”

Section: The Process Of Determining Significance In Eamentioning

confidence: 99%

How do we make sense of significance? Indications and reflections on an experiment

Lyhne

Kørnøv

2013

Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal

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Determination of significance is widely recognised as an important step in environmental assessment (EA) processes. The prescriptive literature and guidance on significance determination is comprehensive within the field of EA, whereas descriptive and explorative studies of how we go about making sense, or construct meaning, of actions to determine significance are few. This article makes use of sense-making theory to explore how sense-making among EA researchers and practitioners influences significance determination. Focus is on the situation when persons have their first look at information about a strategic choice and as part of this make their initial judgement of significance. An experiment is designed and conducted to investigate how persons make sense of a specific case and determine significance in a screening and scoping context. The experiment indicates patterns in the test persons' sense-making, including important differences in the way individuals screen and scope. These patterns concern what we notice, how fast we frame the choice, and when we are critical about the provided information. The indications provide a basis for reflections on practice and on how to organise EA processes.

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Impact significance determination—Pushing the boundaries

Cited by 34 publications

References 19 publications

Evaluating Aggregate Terrestrial Impacts of Road Construction Projects for Advanced Regional Mitigation

Evaluating Aggregate Terrestrial Impacts of Road Construction Projects for Advanced Regional Mitigation

How to Assess the Significance of Environmental Impacts

How do we make sense of significance? Indications and reflections on an experiment

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