Methodologies of Environmental Impact Assessment

8/3/2019 Methodologies of Environmental Impact Assessment

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Methodologies ofEnvironmental ImpactAssessment

A Presentation on

Presented To:

Mrs. Tuhina Sinha

(Faculty, URP)

Department of Urban and Regional Planning,

School of Planning and Architecture,

Jawaharlal Nehru Architecture & Fine Arts University,

Hyderabad.



Introduction

• Environmental impact is any alteration of

environmental conditions or a creation of new

set of environmental conditions, causes or

induced, by the action or set of actions underconsideration.

• There was separate battles to prevent the

construction of dams and preserve park and

wilderness areas.

• Due to rapid population growth and consequent

concentration in large urban centers people

were hit by a whole lot of different things

Source: Reading Material on EIA



• An environmental impact assessment (EIA) is an assessment of the possible

impact — positive or negative — that a proposed project may have on the

environment; considering natural, social and economic aspects.

Definition:

“The process of identifying, predicting, evaluating and mitigating the

biophysical, social, and other relevant effects of development proposals prior to

major decisions being taken and commitments made."

• After an EIA, the precautionary and polluter pays principles may be applied toprevent, limit, or require strict liability or insurance coverage to a project, based

on its likely harms.

Introduction

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_assessment



Methodologies

Checklist Method:

• Checklists are standard lists of the types of impacts associated with a particular

type of project.

• There are four general types of checklists:

• Simple Checklist : a list of environmental parameters with no guidelines on

how they are to be measured and interpreted.

•

Descriptive Checklist : includes an identification of environmentalparameters and guidelines on how to measure data on particular parameters.

Source:http://www.adb.org/Documents/Books/Environment_Impact/chap3.pdf



• Scaling Checklist: similar to a descriptive checklist, but with additional

information on subjective scaling of the parameters.

• Scaling Weighting Checklist: similar to a scaling checklist, with additional

information for the subjective evaluation of each parameter with respect to all

the other parameters.

Methodologies



Checklist Method

Environmental

Area

NoEffect PositiveEffect NegativeEffect Direct Indirect ShortTerm LongTerm

Wild Life X X

Air

Pollution X X

Water

Pollution X X

Noise

X X

Eco value

X X X

PublicHealth X



The Leopold Matrix :

• The Leopold matrix, was developed by Dr. Luna Leopold and others of the United

States Geological Survey .

• Matrix was designed for the assessment of impacts associated with almost any

type of construction project.

• The Leopold system is an open-cell matrix containing 100 project actions along

the horizontal axis and 88 environmental 'characteristics' and 'conditions' along

the vertical axis.

• The 'characteristics' and 'conditions' in the table are a combination of

environmental effects and impacts.

Methodologies

Source: http://www.icsu-scope.org/downloadpubs/scope5/chapter04.html



Methodologies

Source: http://www.icsu-scope.org/downloadpubs/scope5/chapter04.html



Merits:

• Open cell design to handle a wide range of projects by adding or deleting the

items.

• Comprehensive but based in form of physical, biological, socio-economic

aspects of environment.

• Good in communication.

Demerits :

• Complex to interpret.

• Problem of double counting.

Methodologies



Network Method:

• Network diagrams may be used to illustrate linkages of higher order effects in

the system.

reduction in

soil stabilityreduction of

organic inputs reduction in

fertility state

Deforestration

increase in surface area

Methodologies

Increase in

soil erosion



Overlay method:

• The overlay approach to impact assessment was first suggested by Dr. Ian McHarg.

• The study area is sub-divided into convenient geographical units.

• Within each unit, the assessor collects information on environmental factors and

human concerns

• The development of GIS can make this technique particularly stable.

• The overlay approach can accommodate both qualitative and quantitative data

• By a series of overlays, the land-use suitability, action compatibility, and

engineering feasibility are evaluated visually, in order that the best combination

may be identified.

Methodologies

Source:http://www.icsu-scope.org/downloadpubs/scope5/chapter04.html#f4.3ab



Methodologies

Source:http://www.icsu-scope.org/downloadpubs/scope5/chapter04.html#f4.3ab



Case Study: Bodhghat project



Bodhghat Project

• The Bodhghat project is a river valley project, involving the construction of a

major dam on the Indravati River in Bastar district.

• This project, conceived as a precursor to a series of dams, was planned on the

Indravati River near Barsoor a village.



The project involved the construction of the following :

• A composite dam of a total length of 1720 m at the dam top level consisting of a 855 m

long and 90 m high concrete gravity dam and fill dams of 500 m and 365 m lengths on

the left and right flanks respectively.

• A 3 km long (with 12.5 m diameter) head race tunnel.

• A 5 km long tail race canal.

• A surface powerhouse to support 4 generating units, each of 125 MW.

• This project was designed as a peaking station with an installed capacity of 500

MW (4 units of 125 MW) to provide a large peaking potential to the power station

of M.P. State.

• The forest area was made up of areas under Reserved Forest, Protected Forest and

Undemarcated Forest

Bodhghat Project



Nature And Scope Of Issues:

• The Bodhghat Dam was particularly regarded as environmentally damaging

because its functional effectiveness was directly linked to the projects proposed

downstream.

• The dam would result in the forced displacement of some 10 000 tribal people

whose sustainable way of life based on a mixed economy of agriculture, herding,

fishing and forest use would be entirely destroyed.

• The project would also lead to the inundation of a large area of forest, a resource

fundamental to tribal people and whose dependency on the resources from forest is

almost total and complete.

Bodhghat Project



• The project would result in a total loss of 20 000 hectare of wildlife habitats.

• The non availability of cultivable land and the wood lots for meeting the resource

needs of people for fuel wood, timber, food and fodder would have adverse effects on

people driven from the project area.

• The entire project area, which provides an ideal setting for designation as a

‘Biosphere Reserve’ owing to its biological richness and its pristine nature, would

become open to ecological destruction.

• The Bodhghat project would inevitably lead to the justification and the imposition of

Bhopalpatnam, Inchampalli and the other projects located downstream.

Bodhghat Project





Approaches Taken:

For the preparation of EIA report, primary and secondary data and information were

generated through systematic field studies.

The field studies primarily focused on:

• assessment of the status of wildlife habitats with special reference to wild

buffalo habitat

• assessment of the human dependencies on natural resources of the project area

• Review of the rehabilitation policy for project-affected people.

• Field investigations were made at all sites likely to be impacted by the construction

of the proposed dam.

Bodhghat Project

