Assessment of environmental impact

Optimal strategies for detecting the impacts of particular activities, such as damming, dredging or site development, often need to be decided on a case-by-case basis. However, despite some criticisms (Hurlbert, 1984 Stewart-Oaten et al., 

If the aim is to detect time-series trends associated with environmentally impacting activities, then samples should be taken at regular intervals before and after the impact, with more samples taken after in case there is a lag in any effect. Of course, in many cases the impact may have occurred already if it was accidental, in which case the best design is that for comparison of ambient samples described above. It may be difficult to find truly independent sites that are sufficiently similar. For example, rivers are often monitored by comparing sites upstream of an impact with sites downstream of the impact. It is arguable whether such sites are truly independent. 

In summary, when designing any environmental monitoring strategy, including one with bioassays, considerable advice is available on optimal location and timing of samples. It is no longer necessary simply to rely on tradition or guesswork. 

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Hydropower use for electricity generation is responsible for a wide array of enviromnental disturbances to river systems. Over the past decades, aquatic science research has been successful in identifying a considerable number of relationships that exist between plant operation and ecosystem quality. This increase in scientific knowledge was, however, not matched by a corresponding reduction in environmental impacts stemming from hydropower. One of the major reasons for this situation is that political, economic, and social aspects are neglected in purely scientific assessments of environmental impacts. 

Hjelmar, O., Hansen, E.A., Andersen, K.J., Andersen, J.B. and Bjonicstad, E. (1994) An approach to the assessment of environmental impacts of marine applications of municipal solid waste combustion residues, in J.J.J.M. Goumans et al. (Eds.), Environmental Aspects of Construction with Waste Materials, Elsevier Sciences B.V., Amsterdam, NL, pp. 137-16. 

Assessments of environmental impacts from herbicides are usually done at the single-species level. These assessments use toxicological data from laboratory bioassay tests and estimates of exposure from laboratory or field studies of environmental chemistry. Few tests have assessed the impacts of herbicides on organisms in the field and few, if any, at the ecosystem level. There are two main reasons why there have been so few field or ecosystem tests They are exceedingly difficult and costly, and the current philosophies of risk assessment have evolved from classical toxicology and the federal regulatory framework that covers pharmaceuticals, food additives, and pesticides. 

Methods of Production of Biopharmaceutical Products and Assessment of Environmental Impact... 

EIA purpose is to mitigate environmental negative impact caused by NS dismantling. The basic criteria for assessment of environmental impact caused by chemical and radiation factors of NS dismantling are as follows ... 

The second phase is the feasibility study. This stage may require the expenditure of 1 to 2% of the total project cost. Thus for a 1,000 million project about 20 million will be required. This will define the location, feedstock and product market and the technology to be used. It will also typically encompass outline regulatory approval and assessment of environmental impacts. The error in the estimate is typically not less than about +/-10%. Financiers (bankers and corporate boards) like the error to be +1-5%. This level of estimate can usually only be achieved by a FEED study. 

The quantitative assessment of environmental impacts can be made using life-cycle assessment (LCA) methodology, which accounts for both inputs and emissions. LCA can be used to identify the major environmental impact categories and the sources of those impacts within a chemical processing plant. LCA can also be used to identify the major contributions to environmental impact within a product s life cycle. Impact scores derived from LCA can be used along with economic assessment scores and social indicators to provide indicators of overall sustainability of processes and products. Economic assessments are often limited through failure to account for all internal costs and especially the external costs associated with waste. 

H. Malkki, S. Hakala, Y. Virtanen, and A. Leppanen, Life Cycle Assessment of Environmental Impacts of Finnish Beverage Packaging Systems. PTR—Association of Packaging Technology and Research. Report No. 43, 1995. 

Assessment of Environmental Impacts Associated with Phosphogypsum in Florida... 

For regular tests a LIMS offers the functionality of automatic test programs that are used for processes, which can be planned exactly. Examples are calibration of instruments, audits, and assessment of environmental impact in regular intervals. After an automatic test program has been initiated, it starts working on a predefined relative date or time to compile and generate processes on the basis of the respective definitions in the standard. 

Two of the most important factors which control the solubility of chemical compounds are the pH and the redox potential of the environment in which the material is present. Many contaminants exhibit a sharp change in solubility over small changes in pH or redox potential (van der Sloot etal. 1997). For all leaching tests and assessments of environmental impact, it is important to identify the critical zone in the pH value or redox potential and how it relates to the environment in which the material is located or into which it will be placed and how the pH and redox potential of that environment may change with time. 

Commonly, leaching tests are selected for use without full consideration of what they will and will not take into account. The most common factors considered in the selection of tests are convenience of application, cost, time to perform the test and minimisation of the number of leachate samples which must be analysed. Whilst these factors are very important considerations, they must be balanced against the risk of obtaining meaningless data which cannot be used correctly in an assessment of environmental impact. 

Efforts have been undertaken mainly be the United States Environmental Protection Agency to develop standard procedures and criteria for the assessment of environmental impact of sediment-associated pollutants. Initial discussions (Anon., 1984, 1985) suggested five methodological approaches which merit closer consideration (i) "background approach", (ii) "water quality/pore water approach", (iii) sediment/water equilibrium partitioning approach , (iv) sediment/organism equilibrium" approach, and (v) "bioassay" approach. Of these possibilities, applications of "bioassays" and "background approach" have been outlined in sections 6.1 and 6.2, respectively. 

Ahlf, W. Munawar, M. (1988) Biological assessment of environmental impact of dredged material. In Chemistry and Biology of Solid Waste - Dredged Material arid Mine Tailings, eds. W. Salomons U. FSrstner, pp. 127-142. Berlin Springer-Verlag. 

Environmental fate and behavior, bioavailability, and toxicity of arsenic vary dramatically with the chemical forms (species) in which arsenic exists. While inorganic arsenite [As(III)] and arsenate [As(V)] are highly toxic, mono-methylarsonic acid [MMA(V)] and dimethylarsinic acid [DMA(V)] are less toxic, and predominant arsenic species present in most crustacean types of seafood are essentially nontoxic (1,5-8). Thus, assessments of environmental impact and human health risk sPictly based on measurements of total element concenfiation are not reliable. It is important to identify and quantify individual chemical species of the element (i.e., chemical speciation). 

Muthu, Subramanian Senthilkannan, Li, Y., September 2013. Assessment of Environmental Impact by Grocery Shopping Bags An Eco-functional Approach. Springer,... 

Environmental impact assessment is the assessment of environmental impacts that are caused by an activity or a decision. 

The assessment of environmental impacts can be performed in different contexts of which three of a fundamentally different nature can be identified ... 

An international standard has been developed for the assessment of environmental impacts in LCA as part of the standardization of the methodological foundation (ISO 2006). The standard lays down the stmcture and principles which are generally acknowledged and followed by all LCIA methodologies today. 

Steps of LCIA According to the ISO Standards The assessment of environmental impacts aims conceptually at understanding complex cause-effect chains, starting, for example, from the emissions of a certain substance into the environment and ending up with a possible damage to man or the environmenL for example, the destruction of an ecosystem. 

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is defined in Horne [4] as the compilation and evaluation of inputs and outputs and the potential impacts of a product system throughout its life cycle. In E-LCA, all input materials, waste, and emissions are accounted for at all stages raw material extraction and processing product and/or service manufacturing use and disposal and finally transportation. The comprehensive data requirement of LCA makes it a particularly effective mechanism for systematic assessment of environmental impacts when designing chemical engineerir processes to produce chemicals, fuels, and other product systems [4]. 

Life cycle assessment of SOFC technology is still uncommon due to the relatively early stage in technical development. However, several studies have been performed since the end of the 1990s. Since there is a lack of standard commercial equipment that could serve as a basis and reference point for analysis, LCA studies mostly refer to hypothetical concepts and/or extrapolate from laboratory and early market prototypes to commercial units. While the first studies had only little access to operation data at aU (for the fuel cell system itself but also for production processes), the main effort was set in the assessment of inventory data using assumptions, simplifications, and correlations [79, 80]. The main outcomes of these studies were the identification of weak points and the setting of benchmarks for further development. With more information about fuel cells available today and a simultaneous advancement in LCA methodology, the studies became more reliable and detailed, regarding system description [81] as well as the assessment of environmental impacts coimected with inputs and outputs [82]. Especially the extensive data of these two studies found their way to commercial databases for LCA [83] and thereby became available to LCA practitioners. In 2005, the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU)... 

Present alternative plans and assessment of environmental impacts... 

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