• Title/Summary/Keyword: Environmental Impact Assessments

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Improvement of the EIA for Land Reclamation Projects in the Coastal Areas of Korea (해양매립사업 환경영향평가의 개선방안)

  • Jang, Ju-Hyoung;Eom, Ki-Hyuk;Kwon, Kee-Young;Hong, Sok-Jin;Park, Jae-Hyeon;Kim, Gui-Young
    • Journal of Environmental Science International
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    • v.16 no.7
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    • pp.847-853
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    • 2007
  • In Korean coastal areas, land reclamations are main development projects that should be based on environmental impact assessment(EIA), because those human interventions can change coastlines, damage tidal flats, and pollute adjacent areas to threat seafood safety and devaluate overall ecosystem service value. Existing procedures of the EIA for land reclamation projects were diagnosed and evaluated to enhance them. Problems were identified in the designation of survey areas, the consistency in survey sites and periods, the standardization of survey methods and reports, the confidence of survey results and the verification of predictions. Lack of integration was noticeable and could be improved by synthesizing different assessments from topography geography, marine physics, marine chemistry and marine biology. We suggest that successful precautionary marine environment management requires readjusting the cost of EIA, recruiting experts in marine environment, constructing database and establishing specialized assessment system.

Principles and Guidelines for Social Impact Assessment: A Critical Review on the US Case (사회영향평가의 원칙 및 지침에 관한 연구 - 미국 사례를 중심으로 -)

  • Jung, Juchul;Lim, Jaeyoung
    • Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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    • v.16 no.1
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    • pp.45-58
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    • 2007
  • Despite the ubiquitous practice of environmental impact assessment around the world, social impact assessment has been alienated from assessment process from the beginning. Not until 1993 was 'Interorganizational Committee' established in the United States to prepare for 'Principles and Guidelines for Social Impact Assessment.' This study is an attempt to critically examine US 'Principles and Guidelines.' First, the study traces history of social impact assessment to reveal why the latter became "the orphan in the assessment process." Second, it critically reviews 'Principles and Guidelines' to find its merits and defects. For instance, a principle regarding environmental justice is perceived as necessary as society has become conscious of social justice and equity while putting too much emphasis on predictive traits of social impact assessments only fosters "checklist mentality." Third, the study reflects on 'Principles and Guidelines' in particular and social impact assessment in general in order to probe what is social impact assessment. To do so, it pays attention to scholars, who have criticized technocratic and procedural elements of 'Principles and Guidelines.' They show that social impact assessment is philosophically and methodologically teleological in that "fluid and contested meanings" between social impacts and the public are meaningful in itself. And simple procedural guarantee of the public involvement, they argue, is not enough to define social impacts. Lastly, from the critical analysis of 'Principles and Guideline,' the study looks for alternatives to improve how to assess social impacts in a Korean context.

A Study on Securing Objectivity in Small-Scale Environmental Impact Assessments Using Delphi Analysis

  • Dong-Myung CHO;Ju-Yeon LEE;Woo-Taeg KWON
    • Journal of Wellbeing Management and Applied Psychology
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    • v.7 no.3
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    • pp.73-95
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    • 2024
  • Purpose: Since August 2000, the small-scale environmental impact assessment system has prevented indiscriminate development. However, its qualitative reports lack objectivity and consistency. This study analyzes these issues through literature and expert surveys and proposes improvements. Research Methodology: Samples were selected based on regional consultation numbers. Mitigation measures were categorized into qualitative and quantitative factors. Issues were identified, and improvements suggested. The Delphi method helped select evaluation items and propose a scoring table. Results and Conclusions: The Delphi method selected 14 absolute and 22 relative evaluation items, excluding 3 invalid ones. A 100-point scoring table was created, with points assigned based on element significance. A 1-point bonus was added for top-scoring elements to promote eco-friendly planning.

Environmental Impacts Assessment of the Wheat Flour Production Process Using the Life Cycle Assessment Method (LCA 기법을 이용한 소맥분 생산 공정의 환경 영향 평가)

  • Chu, Duk-Sung;Kwon, Hyuk-Ku;Kim, Jong-Geu;Lee, Jang-Hoon
    • Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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    • v.34 no.1
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    • pp.62-69
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    • 2008
  • The life cycle assessment method for environmental impact assessment was used, in this study, to assess the production process of wheat flour which is the most important material in the food industry. Environmental impact assessments were compared between that of the Ministry of Environment, Republic of Korea (method I) with that of the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy (method II). Life cycle inventories (LCI) was performed using internal and external databases and the production statistics database of company S. The procedure of life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) was followed in terms of classification, characterization, normalization and weighting to identify the key issues. The impact categories of method I were divided into 8 categories with consideration of : abiotic resources depletion, global warming, ozone depletion, photochemical oxidant creation, acidification and eutrophication. The impact categories of method II were divided into 10 categories with consideration of: abiotic resources depletion, global warming, ozone depletion, photochemical oxidant creation, acidification, eutrophication, human toxicity, freshwater aquatic ecotoxicity, marine aquatic ecotoxicity and terrestrial ecotoxicity.

An Examination of Variation in Risk Assessment Practices in Relation to Assessors' Goals: American and International Practices

  • Park, Lorenz R. mberg
    • Toxicological Research
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    • v.17
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    • pp.219-225
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    • 2001
  • The basic structure for assessment of potential health risks from environmental chemicals is widely agreed upon, but many of the details of risk assessment procedures differ among practitioners. Government regulatory agencies typically have guidelines or standard procedures for their risk assessments, established to ensure consistency and comparability, to set standards for adequacy, and to embody underlying tenets. In setting and updating such guidelines, each agency takes into account not only the prevailing thinking about appropriate procedures, but also its own goals and responsibilities and the precedents it has set for itself in past analyses. This results in variations in methods, and consequently in characterization of risks, among regulatory assessments, even when they are based on the same data. As a result, adopting existing assessments from a variety of regulatory bodies needs to be done with caution. This paper examines some of the variants in risk assessment approaches among American federal regulatory agencies and relates them to the variations in regulatory responsibilities of those groups. Comparisons to international practices are also drawn. The impact on development of world-wide risk standards is discussed.

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Modification of Miller-Holzworth model for Korea (국내 적용을 위한 Miller-Holzworth 모델의 수정)

  • 장영기
    • Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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    • v.11 no.3
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    • pp.299-302
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    • 1995
  • Many air quality models have been used for Environmental impact assessments. Miller-Holzworth model suggested by Holzworth is a simple air quality model is frequently used for air quality assessments in korea. Miller-Holzworth model suggested by Holzworth is a simple air quality model for the ground-level area source, The model estimates the pollutants concentration averaged over the wind centerline. An error involved in the Miller-Holzworth model was first indentified by Calder in 1977. But the model has been used without correction for unsuitable cases in Korea. This paper corrected that error and modified model formulation for application to urban and rural areas.

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A Study on Methods, Procedures, and Practices of Health Impact Assessment (환경영향평가에 있어서 보건영향평가의 방법, 절차 및 적용에 관한 연구)

  • Cho, Il-Hyoung;Park, Jae-Hong;Kim, Im-Soon;Han, Sang-Wook
    • Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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    • v.12 no.3
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    • pp.211-228
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    • 2003
  • Most environmental impact assessment(EIA) programs around the world require the consideration of human health impacts. Yet relatively few EIA documents adequately address those impacts. This article examines how, why, and to what extent health impacts are analyzed in environmental impact assessments. This article investigates these problems and provides recommendations to improve human health impact assessment(HIA), using methods, procedures and case study. Also, a comprehensive approach for the evaluation of possible health effects in an EIA is described, illustrated with the example of Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. Unlike many EIAs, we estimated quantitatively the impact of aircraft-related pollution in terms of the number of affected people for aircraft noise annoyance, odour annoyance and hypertension. In addition, an analysis of health registry data on cardiovascular and respiratory diseases and a short survey on annoyance and risk perception were carried out.

Improvement of the Consultation Systems Governing Fishery Resource Management in the Development of Coastal Areas (연안이용 및 개발에 따른 수산자원관리 실효성 제고를 위한 협의제도 개선방안)

  • Lee, Dae-In;Eom, Ki-Hyuk;Kim, Gui-Young
    • Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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    • v.41 no.5
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    • pp.399-404
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    • 2008
  • This paper proposes revisions in the law governing assessments of the environmental impact of marine projects. In particular, we suggest strengthening the consultative role of the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MIFAFF), the agency responsible for regulating coastal area utilization and development, in order to improve the system by which fishery resources are managed, thus preventing negative environmental impact. Moreover, such an improved impact assessment statement would include reasonable evaluations of the dispersion of pollutants, such as the suspended solids generated by construction projects, as well as of the dredging, dumping and sand mining involved in coastal area reclamation. Thus, public confidence in the latter would be increased by the development and implementation of standardized and consistent guidelines addressing environmental research, simulation processes and evaluations of data.

Temporal and Spatial Cumulative Impact Assessments on Forest Damages by Housing Development Projects (택지개발사업이 산림에 미치는 시·공간적 누적영향 분석)

  • Lee, Dong-Kun;Kim, Eun-Young;Oh, Kyu-Shik;Yoon, So-Won
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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    • v.9 no.6
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    • pp.107-116
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    • 2006
  • Recently, it has been important not only to evaluate environmental effects but also to assess cumulative and comprehensive effects by the development projects. This paper concentrates on temporal and spatial cumulative impacts on Suji district in Yongin, Gyunggi-do. This paper adopted two methods to assess the cumulative impacts. First, it assesses the temporal change of forest patch size and land cover according to the patch size. Second, it compares housing development zones with the neighborhood. The result of the research appears that the damage is very serious, especially in small forest. The Forest area is changed to farm land, most of them become to built-up area later. In addition, it is assessed that the secondary housing development projects did more harm than the initial one. By assessing the cumulative impacts on Suji district, this research suggests to minimize two kinds of solutions : comprehensive environmental assessments in regional unit and regulation on total forest quantity.

Environmental Impact Assessments along with Construction of Residential and Commercial Complex (주거단지 건설이 하천에 미치는 생태영향평가)

  • An, Kwang-Guk;Han, Jeong-Ho;Lee, Jae Hoon
    • Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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    • v.21 no.5
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    • pp.631-648
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    • 2012
  • The integrative ecological approaches of chemical assessments, physical habitat modelling, and multi-metric biological health modelling were applied to Gwanpyeong Stream within Gap-Stream watersheds to evaluate environmental impacts on the constructions of residential and commercial complex. For the analysis, the surveys conducted from 45 sites of reference streams within the Gap-Stream watershed and 3 regular sites during 2009 - 2010. Physical habitat health, based on the habitat model of Qualitative Habitat Evaluation Index(QHEI) declined from the headwaters(good - fair condition) to the downstream(poor condition). Chemical water quality, based turbidity and electric conductivity(EC), was degraded toward to the downstream, and especially showed abrupt increases, compared to the values of control streams(CS). Also, concentrations of chlorophyll-a in the downstreams were greater compared to the control stream(CS), indicating an eutrophication. Biological health conditions, based on the Index of Biological Integrity(IBI) using fish assemblages, averaged 19.3 which is judged as a fair condition by the biological criteria of the Ministry of Environment, Korea. The comparisons of model metric values in sensitive species and riffle-benthic species on the Maximum Species Richness Line(MSRL) of 45 reference streams indicated a massive disturbances in all sampling locations. Also, tolerance guild and trophic guild analyses suggest that dominances of tolerant species and omnivores were evident, indicating a biological degradation by habitat disturbances and organic matter pollutions. There was no distinct longitudinal variations of IBI model values from the headwater to the downstream in spite of slight chemical and habitat health gradients among the sampling sites. Overall, integrative ecological health(IEH) scores, based on the chemical, physical, and biological parameters, were low compared to the 45 reference streams due to physical and chemical disturbances of massive constructions of the residential and commercial complex. This stream, thus showed a tendency of typical urban streams which are disturbed in the chemical water quality, habitat structures, and biological integrity. Effective stream management plans and restoration strategies are required in this urban stream for improving integrative stream health.