This document discusses the concept of Environmental Impact Assessment and Soft Tools in controlling carbon emissions from factories. It includes a summary of key learnings, steps to obtain approval for a project requiring EIA, importance of public participation in EIA, and a strategy to control carbon emissions from factories.
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1 ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT AND SOFT TOOLS By Name Instructor’s/Professor’s Name Course Number College/University’s Name Street Date
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2 1.Using the article“Revisiting the Limits to Growth After Peak Oil”provided in the class summarize key learnings in terms of limit to growth. What are the means by which your country is now tackling these issues? The primary idea presented by Hall & Day (2009) in the article“Revisiting the Limits to Growth After Peak Oil”is the relationship between food production, industrialization, pollution, population and consumption of natural resources. The study explores ‘limit to growth' by considering the fact that these variables seem to be exponentially increasing while advancements in technology to keep with growth is linear. Hall and Day sought to explore the possibility of a sustainable feedback pattern that is based on the alteration of the growth trends of the 5 variables investigated. In terms of growth limit, the study discovered that if no changes in the growth trend were to occur, a limit to earth growth will be witnessed by 2072 which would yield a “sudden and uncontrollable decline in both population and the industrial capacity.” The growth trends observed in 1972 could be made better to ensure a sustainable ecological and economic stability could be met. The study also discovered that the sooner the humanity commences on striving for an alternative of checking on growth, the higher the chances of achieving this objective (Hall & Day, 2009). The findings of the study led to a conclusion that these variables grow exponentially as thus limiting growth because the technological measures aimed at dealing with these issues only increases linearly. Australia as a country has been using technology to counteract the natural pressure exerted by the environment against any growth process. According to Wilson (2015) application of technology in the physical pressure environment exerts on growth process has been so successful such that interaction of various problems which results into capital growth and limit population (Zuo & Wheeler, 2019). Australia has been striving to alter growth trends by establishing ecological and economic stability that is sustainable far into the future. To begin with, the country has been attempting to improve effective birth control. The country has also been campaigning on limiting the average family size. The country has also been striving to minimize pollution by encouraging the use of renewable energy sources as opposed to non-renewable sources such as oil.
3 1.Compare the steps one needs to follow to obtain approval for a project that requiresEIA in two of your chosen state. Please select the country as per the guide below. Specify the commonalities or differences?(5%) In Victoria, the Environmental Defenders Office is charged with the responsibility of providing the recommendations adopted by the government and what conditions are met for Environmental Impact Assessment. These requirements are provided in the EE act. The requirements apply to both public and other works which are deemed to have a significant effect on the environment. The Assessment provided under EE act in Victoria is under the discretion of the minister (Fernande, Carnegie, Pegg, & Leishman, 2017). There is, therefore, no designated development for which Environment Effect Statement is compulsory and no clear trigger for when the assessment is required in Victoria. In South Australia, the Ministry of planning, its employees, agencies, instrumentalities, employees, and contractors have the mandate to review an Environmental Impact Assessment before its approval. The guidelines for such support in Australia are provided in the South Australia Development Act of 1993. The first stage of such permissions in meeting the requirements of State Commission Assessment panel (SCAP) which provides and oversee the environmental impact assessment and provide the guidelines (Fernandez Winzer, Carnegie, Pegg, & Leishman, 2017). This body considers the proposal and identifies the significant environmental, social and economic issues associated with the EIA project. Once this stage is done, the proponent prepares and releases an assessment document. There is no set time for preparing this assessment document. It, however, depends on the complexities of the proposal and the sensitivity of the of the project. The next stage involves a response to the public comments on the assessment document. The proponent then responds to any public concerns before the proposal is taken to the next stage. Assessment of the proposal then follows this stage where the ministry of planning assesses the entire proposal. Commonalities and Differences The environmental impact assessment approval requirements for the two states 5 common stages, the screening process, prediction, mitigation, scoping, auditing, management, and monitoring process. The four approval stages of application, notification, information and decision stage procedures are common to the two states. Just like any part of Australia, the
4 commencement stage of any EIA approval in these two states is the application (Robertson, Wright, Brown, Yuen, & Tongway, 2019). This is conducted in order to check on whether the projects meet the regulation guidelines in these states. In Victoria, the instructions are provided by EE while in South Australia, and the directions are provided in (SCAP). In case of errors in the application, the applicant is notified of the errors based on the state laws. In both states, the notification can be given a notice of up to 20 days should the applicant fail to comply with the announcement, such plans are terminated and never approved. The subsequent stages in accepting the EIA projects depends on the nature of the project. This is a normal process in the two states as the authority seeks to assess the implication of the project on both the economy and environment. 2.Write the importance of public participation in EIA and state where public opinion should be sought with reasons? Identify and use kinds of literature from the Journal articles to strengthen your argument.(4%) Public participation is institutionalized in EIA procedures and other government policy-making process such as food and water (Zhang, Measham, & Moffat, 2018). Public participation relies on an idea that those who are affected by any decision have the moral rights to participate in the decision-making process. This because the contribution of the public has an impact on the project's outcome. The objectives of involving the public in EIA varies based on the nature of the project. The following include the importance of public participation in EIA decision making. To begin, public participation improves the quality of the plans and projects (Wu, Xu, & Zhang, 2018). Besides public participation aids in improving the implementation process. This is achieved by avoiding the various litigations process and costly delays. This has an impact of meeting the legal requirement thus improving the active citizenship thus complementing the concept of democracy. Individual rights of the public members are therefore protected making EIA projects acceptable (Wu, Xu, & Zhang, 2018). The outcome of projects where is the public is involved in decision making are thus admissible. Zhang, Measham, & Moffat (2018) argues that public participation in the decision-making process widens the information base of the ecosystem assessment. Wu, Xu, & Zhang (2018) also points out that public participation also eliminates the
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5 notion of "Not-In-Backyard" sentiments from the public thus enhancing the acceptability of the new policies. Public participation in decision making necessary when the following aspects are of high priority in the EIA project. Acceptability. Whenever there is a need to gain stakeholder acceptance of the project, public participation in the decision making legitimizes resources spending and energy for EIA. According to Enríquez-de-Salamanca (2018), even though public assistance does not guarantee acceptance, proponents and opponents of public participation in projects assert that it boosts recognition. There cases where civil cooperation has improved project acceptance. There are however cases where the conflicting results have been found particularly when the system prevents substantive engagement (Song et al. (2018). Public opinion must also be sought in EIA where it is the public policy. According to public policies and attitude are interlinking. Public participation in EIA projects does not only lead to the acceptance of the plans by the stakeholders but also recognition of the broader policy 3.Consider a development activity in a square kilometer area (pick up any site using Google map, except the one used in the workshop) within Australia and conduct an environmental impact assessment. Your EIA should include all the steps taught in the class. Every step will be marked equally.(15%) Background This Environmental Impact Assessment is aimed at assessing the environmental constraints of the route option for the electricity cables connecting Kurnell Sub transmission substation to the Bunnerong STS. The report concentrates on the impact of this project on Botany Bay. The wires were required to replace the existing feeders from the Campsie STS to Bunnerong which were evaluated as not only unreliable but also old. The project is considered to be highly sensitive to the environment in terms of both the natural flora and fauna and heritage because the cables cross Botany Bay. Description of the Baseline Situation. The soil in sections toward Bennelong STS are generally ranged from fine to medium to grained quartzite sands. The wind quickly blows the fine-grained soils. The soil in areas towards La Perouse Headland continues to get coarser and mainly dominated with coarse-
6 grained sandstone and tends to be heavier and cannot easily be blown by the wind(Ameen, Stagner, & Ting, 2017). The soil towards the Kurnell side are sediments made of medium- grained to sand deposits and stands a chance of being blown by the wind just like any other fine grain soil particles. Evaluation of the potential Impacts. Quality of Air. The projects present a risk of air pollution. This is expected to be highest during road trenching process and the horizontal drilling part of the route construction. This will increase the amount of dust that is suspended in air and the exhaust fumes from the types of machinery that will be delivering the construction materials. Cable trenching. Excavation of soil while trenching is likely to create a cloud of localized dust. The sediments will probably be suspended in the wind and transported to other parts. The trenches created will also destroy the various plant life along the cable paths. Threats from the drilling process. The machinery which will be used in the project will emit gases. The gases emitted contains. Both the cable trenching and directional drilling in route construction all seem to pose a potential threat to the entire process. Land use. The project is likely to pose a threat to the surrounding environment. The project stands a high chance of interfering with the activities in the area during its construction. Water at Botany Bay is used for various activities. The drilling process will increase dust suspension in the air which will pollute water sources in this area. Besides, exhausts from tracks used in transporting materials will emit gases such as carbon dioxide which are high pollutants of the water. This will go a great depth in interfering with the plants and animal life along(Ameen, Stagner, & Ting, 2017). Mitigation and Findings Mitigation and Monitoring The project management should consider taking actions aimed at suppressing dust by using methods such as suitable water spraying mechanism. This measure will be aimed at limiting the amount of dust that is suspended in the air as a result of the project activities. Besides, the quality
7 of air will be improved by checking on the amount of air that is suspended in the air. The project manager should also consider using tracks with limited emission of the greenhouse. Where applicable, heavy machinery should be avoided if their alternative ways of transporting raw materials. The amount of suspended dust should also be monitored to keep a check on the amount of dust which escapes into the atmosphere. The construction environment management plan for the horizontal drilling system should also consider putting into place the measures aimed at improving the efficiency of the exhaust system for the horizontal drilling operations. The land use monitoring system should be put in place to check on the effects of the project on the various land uses. The water at Botany Bay is mostly used for recreational activities such as boating and limited fishing activities. During this project, care should be taken to monitor the interruption of this project on these activities. Recommended Findings. From the Environment Impact Assessment of this project, it is clear that this project is likely to lead to pollution of both air and water source in Botany Bay. The project will increase the amount of dust suspended in air, increases the emission of vehicle exhausts likely to increase greenhouse gases and the formation of acid rain. The project is also a possible cause of disruption of human activities such as boating every day in the region. It is thus recommended that the project management team employ measures aimed at limiting these possible environmental pollution activities. By effectively monitoring these activities, the projects stand a chance of having a minimal environmental impact 4.Soft tools are essential in changing the behavior of the public. Design a strategy (especially one or more soft tools and associated modifications) to control the following behavior ofReducing carbon emissions from factories in general (This is to be either state or federal government Policy). Your answer should include research on strategies adopted in other countries of similar socioeconomic status to the country you are designing the strategy.(7%)
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8 According to Ameen & Mourshed (2019), there is a rapid growth of urban centers across the globe. Statistically, urban centers contain approximately 50% of the total population in the world. Furthermore, future projection indicates that this figure may rise to 69% by 2050(Ameen, & Mourshed 2019). Already, the existing cities contribute a lot in depletion of agricultural lands and natural resources. Precisely, the cities provide more than 70% of global pollution in the form of emissions from vehicles and exhausts of industries and power plants. Besides, fossil fuels are burnt to provide the energy required for these processes. With the likelihood of increased dependence on energy in these cities, the environment stands a chance of more degradation. As a consequence, the need for cities to adopt green building systems has gained momentum among city planners. Green building has benefits such as low costs of development and operating, an increase in comfort, high-quality indoor environment, and enhanced durability(Ameen, & Mourshed, 2015). There are various policies in the transport sector which are aimed at moderating greenhouse emissions from roads vehicles. With a broad objective of addressing greenhouse emissions, policies aimed at reducing fuel consumption at a level lower than non-intervention have taken effect in Australia(Ameen & Mourshed, 2019). These objective has been achieved via regulations in fuel taxes and the fuel economy. However, the current levels of fuel taxes do not explicitly stimulate the desired levels of carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles. Soft tools compliment all these regulations aimed at minimizing carbon dioxide emissions from cars. This has a general effect of addressing emissions of greenhouse gases. To begin with, the use of a computer simulation tool VECTO is a strategy that will limit CO2 emissions from vehicles. As a strategy, this simulation software provides a piece of transparent and reliable information in the fuel consumption information which is based on standard testing method (Karpate, Sharma, & Sundar, 2018). Through this project, environment policies makers and customers will be able to choose the most CO2 efficient vehicles. The vehicles which do not meet environmental standards will thus be exempted from emitting more carbon dioxide into the environment. VECTO software will also be capable of reflecting the complexities of a heavy- duty vehicle because it accounts for what influences CO2 emissions of complete cars. VECTO tool will also provide credible standardized means of comparing fuel efficiencies. This will have
9 an impact of improving the transparencies of competitions among motor vehicle manufacturers forcing the market to adopt cleanest vehicles in terms of carbon dioxide emissions. Besides, information obtained from this software will also form the basis upon which the various environmental policies are based. The overall impact of this project will be a reduction of this program will be a reduction of CO2 emissions as seen among the 25 vehicles fleets ran by Transport Labs in Sweden that used monitored this type of measure and recorded 50 fuel consumption between 2008 and 2013 (Karpate, Sharma, & Sundar, 2018). Inclusion of a sustainability tool similar to Qatar Sustainability Assessment System (QSAS) is another strategy that will limit carbon dioxide emission into the atmosphere (Ferwati, Al Saeed, Shafaghat, & Keyvanfar, 2019). This will include a series of sustainable criteria and categories, and each of these aspects will be linked to the direct environmental impacts. Because emission from the motor vehicles is part of the environmental concerns, a tool similar to QSAS will help in limiting carbon dioxide emissions. QSAS prioritizes on promoting the environmental conditions of the neighborhood thereby increasing healthy circulation of air. Besides, it focuses on the compactness of cities. Cities like Tehran should adopt this flexible tool. QSAS tool, in this case, should be modified to have a series of categories and criteria on the types of vehicles and vehicles' density, each with a direct effect on greenhouse gas emission concerns.
10 References Ameen,F., Stagner,J.A., & Ting,D.S. (2017). The carbon footprint and environmental impact assessment of desalination.International Journal of Environmental Studies,75(1), 45-58. Ameen, R. F., & Mourshed, M. (2019). Urban sustainability assessment framework development: The ranking and weighting of sustainability indicators using the analytic hierarchy process.Sustainable Cities and Society,44, 356-366. Enríquez-de-Salamanca,Á. (2018). Stakeholders' manipulation of Environmental Impact Assessment.Environmental Impact Assessment Review,68, 10-18. Fernandez Winzer,L., Carnegie,A.J., Pegg,G.S., & Leishman,M.R. (2017). Impacts of the invasive fungus Austropuccinia psidi (myrtle rust) on three Australian Myrtaceae species of coastal swamp woodland.Austral Ecology,43(1), 56-68. Ferwati,M.S., Al Saeed,M., Shafaghat,A., & Keyvanfar,A. (2019). Qatar Sustainability Assessment System (QSAS)-Neighborhood Development (ND) Assessment Model: Coupling green urban planning and green building design.Journal of Building Engineering,22, 171-180. Hall,C., & Day,J. (2009). Revisiting the Limits to Growth After Peak Oil.American Scientist, 97(3), 230. Karpate, Y., Sharma, S., & Sundar, S. (2018). Modeling fuel efficiency for heavy-duty vehicles (HDVs) in India.Energy Efficiency,11(6), 1483-1495.
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11 Robertson,G., Wright,J., Brown,D., Yuen,K., & Tongway,D. (2019). An assessment of feral horse impacts on treeless drainage lines in the Australian Alps.Ecological Management & Restoration,20(1), 21-30. Song,Y., Hou,D., Zhang,J., O'Connor,D., Li,G., Gu,Q., … Liu,P. (2018). Environmental and socio-economic sustainability appraisal of contaminated land remediation strategies: A case study at a mega-site in China.Science of The Total Environment,610-611, 391-401. Wilson,T. (2015). The Demographic Constraints on Future Population Growth in Regional Australia.Australian Geographer,46(1), 91-111. Wu,J., Xu,M., & Zhang,P. (2018). The impacts of governmental performance assessment policy and citizen participation on improving environmental performance across Chinese provinces.Journal of Cleaner Production,184, 227-238. Zhang, A., Measham, T. G., & Moffat, K. (2018). Preconditions for social license: The importance of information in the initial engagement.Journal of Cleaner Production,172, 1559-1566. Zuo, A., & Wheeler, S. A. (2019). Maximizing the use of national pollution data: Views from stakeholders in Australia. Journal of Cleaner Production.