An Ecological Framework For Environmental Impact Assessment In Canada

Determines the extent to which the science of ecology can contribute to design and conduct of environmental impact assessment studies and recommends ways this can be achieved. Aimed at Canadian federal and provincial agencies.

Follow up to the 1977 publication by Plewes and Whitney. Invited papers were given at a two-day follow-up workshop in October 1983. This volume covers the first day of the workshop and emphasizes current practice in environmental impact assessment.

The purpose of this work is to develop a better understanding and thinking about the cumulative impacts of multiple natural resource development projects. Cumulative impacts are now one of the most pressing, but complex challenges facing governments, industry, communities, and conservation and natural resource professionals. There has been technical and policy research exploring how cumulative environmental impacts can be assessed and managed. These studies, however, have failed to consider the necessary integration of community, environment and health. Informed by knowledge and experience in northern British Columbia, this book seeks to expand our understanding of the cumulative impacts of natural resource development through an integrated lens. The book offers a timely response to a growing imperative – proposing integrative response to multiple natural resource developments in a way that addresses converging environment, community and health issues. Informed by the editors’ experiences across several complementary areas of expertise, we envision this book as appealing to a wide range of researchers, educators and practitioners, with relevance to a growing audience with appetite for and interest in integrative approaches.

This important Handbook is an essential guide to the state-of-the-art concepts, debates and innovative practices in the field of cumulative impact assessment. It helps to strengthen the foundations of this challenging field, identify key issues demanding solutions and summarize recent trends in forward progress, particularly through the use of illustrative case examples.

This report proposes a framework that promotes cumulative impact assessment (CEA) as a decision-making process where information on the ecological integrity of national parks is integrated into park management planning. Research for the development of the framework includes a literature review, interviews with park managers and cumulative effects specialists, and field work in two Atlantic region parks. Two illustrations using a project from each park helped refine the framework and ensure its utility. The framework links three components: sources of cumulative environmental change, assessment of this change, and the options available to manage cumulative effects. The framework establishes a link between local effects induced by specific projects or activities and overall park ecological integrity by highlighting the relationship between project-specific environmental assessment and park planning. CEA is the bridge between these two management activities. The report focuses mainly on the assessment portion of the framework and provides a series of steps to assist in conducting CEAs. The steps are organized into three tiers of analysis that correlate with regional, park, and project site scales. The framework also directs the assessor to examine broad temporal scales.

This book charts the history of the application of science in environmental impact assessment (EIA) and provides a conceptual and technical overview of scientific developments associated with EIA since its inception in the early 1970s. The Application of Science in Environmental Impact Assessment begins by defining an appropriate role for science in EIA. From here it goes on to reflect more closely on empirical and deductive biophysical sciences as they relate to well-known stages of the generic EIA process and explores whether scientific theory and practice are at their vanguard in EIA and related applications. Throughout the book the authors reflect on biophysical science as it applies to stages of the EIA process and also consider debates surrounding the role of science as it relates to political and administrative dimensions of EIA. Based on this review, the book concludes that improvements to the quality of science in EIA will rely on the adoption of stronger participatory and collaborative working arrangements. Covering key topics including foundational scientific guidance materials; frameworks for implementing science amid conflict and uncertainty; and emerging ecological concepts, this book will be of great interest to students, scholars and practitioners of EIA.