welcome again today we continue to stay on track towards the completion
of the IB Environmental systems and societies syllabus
topic two point seven
point three
describe and evaluate the use of environmental
impact assessments
pristine climax
forest
nestled in the mountains a developing society
needing a source of energy
the question
should a rich coal deposit
in these hills
be exploited
at the expense
of the rich
and diverse
climax forest
do you think that
it's worth
clearing some of the forest
to develop
and what are some reasons
for your perspective
the government
of this area however
subscribes
to this principle
sustainable development
development to meet the needs of the present generation
without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs
the classic
balancing act between
having some development
and having some environmental protection though it is with
sustainable development
as the goal
that we have
EIA
environmental
impact
assessment
an EIA
is a method
of detailed survey
required in many countries before
a major development ideally it should be independent of but paid for by the
developer
such as survey
should include a baseline study
a measure of environmental conditions
before development commences
and to identify areas and species of conservation importance
the report produced
like the one below
is known environmental
impact assessment
or sometimes as an environmental impact or an EIS
the monitoring of this
should continue
for some time
after the development
and as you can see here
an EIA is
a very extensive document
sometimes taking
over two years to prepare
or sometimes being prepared hastily
after the developments already begun
it depends on the conditions and the levels of transparency and integrity
within each administration
but in general
an EIA is a comprehensive document
prepared by a team of experts so back to our question
should we exploit this
pristine climax forest
the administration that runs this region
have decided to
focus on sustainable development they have decided to
conduct an environmental impact assessment
it's not that EIA is required for every project
but if a project meets certain criteria it's necessary to
investigate the environmental impacts
in a bit more detail
and suggest alternatives
and to examine ways of
preventing
as much as possible
the impacts while allowing the project to proceed or perhaps not even a lot of
the project to proceed
this initial
phase of
looking at what the project entails
the scale of it
and deciding
whether or not a full
environmental impact assessment is required
it's what we call screening
where the laws of the country will decide
what scale project
requires
a full environmental impact assessment
in most countries with EIA
a project
of the scale shown here in this map
with these
two peaks representing our mountains and all of this area here
the pristine climax forest
and
a railway line for
connecting town a to town b
where you will have coal mining
a project of this scale
is likely to qualify for full environmental impact assessment
and what follows from this is
a phase of the process referred to as scoping
a very relevant phase for
the environmental systems and societies
student
because it
involves a
coming together
of stakeholders from all areas
to identify the issues
and as you can see here this involves
a range
of groups that have to come together
to share their expertise and their ideas
as we focus in
on some of the special areas of concern
the scoping this followed by a
collection of the baseline data
where is the environment right now?
and where has it been going for the last few years what are some trends?
and now that the project is being proposed
what are some likely changes or impacts
with option a maybe
or with option b_
or with option c
what would be the business as usual or the trend
assuming that no project is
allowed
this point of
predicting
what would happen in the future
requires
another kind of input
but it's very important
to document where things are
before we look at predicting where things might go in the future
this process of documenting
the current state of the environment
the pre development state of the environment
is referred to as the baseline data collection
following this
through expert input of all kinds
impacts are predicted
possible alternatives are discussed and
ways to reduce the impact
are considered
what then are some tools available
for the prediction
off the impact of this
railway line
from a to b
for the purpose of exploiting coal
in this pristine
forest its first necessary
to document the current state of the environment
and perhaps
this state
has already been documented
perhaps we already have some data of (about) the kind of
trees
and the diversity
and the populations of different species that live in this area
and perhaps
if there are any man made things like gas lines and utility lines running through
this area underground
if there is a river running through the area and
documenting and bringing together
information
on the present state of the environment is what we call
that baseline data collection
in years gone by
it was necessary to overlay several maps from different sources
to bring together a composite picture
of the environment but
in the modern age of computer technology
information from different sources
about a particular area
can all be lumped together
in what we term the geographic information system
the g_i_s_
and this is a bringing together
a composite
of everything that we know about an area
so that
environmental managers can quickly
document
the information that's already there and available
about the area
added to this of course is the power of satellite imagery
which can give us
high quality resolution images of
all areas of the earth
this however
does not mean that
we would not go out into the field and actually verify some of this
for (because) ground verification
is always good way to go
and then of course there is the need to include
expert knowledge
and knowledged of similar projects
that had EIA's completed (and)
were audited or reflected upon
to see what
actual
impacts did happen
versus what impacts for predicted (birds chirping)
if we proceed with the project
and we decided to
allow our railway line to go through the
pristine
climax forest
then we need to get onto the field and collect
some baseline data
so what tools have we considered so far in our course
that we might (can) use
to help us collect
some information
on the diversity of
of the plants and animals in this area
perhaps we might need to do a count of
the number of bird species and the number of nests that are going to be
disrupted throughout the length of the railway line
the number of trees that would (will) have to be cut down
the species of these tees
what other kinds of wildlife would be affected and how
what would be the level of noise in the area
so there are a whole range of impacts to be considered some which may involve
social issues and not just issues of
endangered species and wildlife
some which may involve engineering issues
and with all of these issues in mind
we decide whether or not the project should
go forward
and if and when the project does proceed
then we need to monitor
and monitoring should happen once approval is given
it should continue throughout the project
for there are certain mitigation measures that might have been
proposed in the EIA
and it's important for
some independent regulatory body
to visit
the construction site
to ensure that
what might be written
in the EIA report
is actually carried out in reality
for instance
if there are certain
special hours for the construction to proceed
and special periods of the year designated for construction to proceed
then it's important that some
regulatory body
visits the
construction company
to insure that what was proposed in the EIA report
is translated into reality in the actual construction (sound of a train coming)
finally the railway is complete
and now
monitoring must continue
monitoring is very important now because
all of the experts and all of the input and all of the effort that went into
making a prediction
now's the time for us to be actually test
and to collect data
to decide
whether or not
our predictions
held true
for we can go out into the field over the next
five years ten years as the coal mine is explored
firsthand information
on what was the environmental impact
of building ths railway line to exploit coal
carrying out a post
development audit
a very very important part of the EIA because it is the
part where we actually learn something at the very end
something that could be used in other EIA's for the data that we
collect in the post development audit
to make any sense
it's just as important for the
baseline data
to have been collected so we would have a knowledge of what was there
pre project
so that if there's a change
post project
we would be able to tell what the
impact was documented here for you
all of the phases
of the EIA process
it's important to note that not every project requires an EIA
evaluate the use of environmental impact assessments
ecocentrists reject EIA as corrupt and designed to gloss over
abuse of the environment technocentrists see EIA as a waste of resources
and they point to the use of advanced technologies to address all possible
issues arising out of a project from pollution
to species loss imagine that you are an environmental manager in charge of the
public meeting
the scoping phase of an EIA
i want you to identify some points that you would highlight
to address both the ecocentrist and
technocentrist concerns
