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Prediction of Acid Mine Drainage Formation
Published in Geoffrey S. Simate, Sehliselo Ndlovu, Acid Mine Drainage, 2021
James Manchisi, Sehliselo Ndlovu
Many countries have now enacted national legislation, signed international conventions and regional agreements and protocols that recognise the use of environmental impact assessment (EIA) tool as a key legal instrument to manage environmental impacts of development projects and policies (Maest et al., 2005; Morgan, 2012). The International Association for Impact assessment (IAIA, 1999) defines EIA as “the process of identifying, predicting, evaluating, and mitigating the biophysical, social, and other relevant effects of development proposals prior to major decisions being taken and commitments made”. The specific forms of impact assessments may include environmental, social, health, sustainability, regulatory, human rights, cultural and climate change (Morgan, 2012). Thus, EIA process is crucial for identifying and predicting the potential impacts of projects such as mining on the biophysical and social environments. In addition, the EIA is used as an environmental management tool to develop environmental management plans (EMPs) as measures to mitigate impacts. The basic EIA steps include screening, scoping, impact prediction and evaluation, mitigation and follow-up studies for implemented projects to provide feedback (Noble, 2011; Castilla-Gomez and Herrera-Herbert, 2015). The potential for acid mine drainage (AMD) to form at mine sites is one of the key questions to be answered in an EIA process. A detailed discussion of the activities for each step in the EIA process is given by Noble (2015).
Cumulative Impacts of Bottomland Hardwood Forest Conversion on Hydrology, Water Quality, and Terrestrial Wildlife
Published in James G. Gosselink, Lyndon C. Lee, Thomas A. Muir, Ecological Processes and Cumulative Impacts, 2020
Larry D. Harris, James G. Gosselink
To date, the methodologies and actual assessments of cumulative impacts have been marginally effective. For at least 100 years, Cartesian or reductionist approaches in the biological sciences have placed emphasis on simple cause-effect relations between observable variables. This has meant a commitment to evaluation of simple, additive, direct, on-site effects as opposed to the analysis of consequences to complex ecological processes. Little attention has been given to effects that may occur off-site or may occur in time-delayed, interactive, multiplicative, or synergistic ways. In the words of Horak et al. (1983: 11): one of the biggest hazards is the expectation that traditional, deterministic procedures can be transferred from current practices to fulfill the requirements of cumulative impact assessment. The demand for cumulative impact assessment requires a complete restructuring of the problem itself; an articulation of the assumptions driving the assessment; new techniques and tools for aggregating diverse impacts; and a search for standards or criteria of significance in order to judge overall, long range impacts.
Environmental impact assessment and the quest for sustainable mining
Published in Sumit K. Lodhia, Mining and Sustainable Development, 2018
Alan Bond, Angus Morrison-Saunders
Whilst EIA is a relatively ubiquitous process practised globally, recently we identified over 40 different specialist types of impact assessment (Morrison-Saunders et al., 2015) that focus on different elements of the environment, or the socio-economic environment. These include Health Impact Assessment, Social Impact Assessment, Sustainability Assessment, Technology Assessment, Ecological Impact Assessment, to name just a few. Using a broader suite of keywords, Vanclay (2015) identified more than 150 forms of impact assessment. However, for the purposes of this chapter, we focus on Environmental Impact Assessment as: the instrument with a legal basis in most countries in the world (Morgan, 2012); the one that most usually applies to mining development; and the one which we have seen has a goal of sustainable development.
Redefining ICT embeddedness in the construction industry: maximizing technology diffusion capabilities to support agility
Published in Building Research & Information, 2020
Volkan Ezcan, Jack Steven Goulding, Mohammed Arif
Only after being aware of the internal and external links/dependencies, should an organization consider moving to the next stage. In doing so, they should undertake an impact assessment to predict the potential risks and consequences that often occur with new change – particularly on people, process and technology. This evaluation should include both cognate and non-cognate representatives, including hierarchical decision-makers; as in some cases, the needs of end-users do not get fully ‘translated’ into the final decision. e.g. ‘..we assess the pros and cons of the implementation of new technology..’, ‘..however this assessment do not include the impact on the people issues..’.
Life cycle assessment analysis, embodied energy evaluation and economic aspect study of double mirror reflector box type solar cooker for NEH region of Sikkim
Published in International Journal of Green Energy, 2022
Bivek Chakma, Lenjachung Serto, Sudhir Kharpude, Pradip Narale, Mahendra Singh Seveda
LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) is an environmental impact assessment tool used for the identification, evaluation, quantification of emissions, and waste scenarios related to products and processes. (ISO EN 2006a, 2006b) It is seen to be a proper and acceptable environmental decision support framework predicting and evaluating environmental sustainability. The framework for performing LCA has been provided by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) within series of standards from ISO 14040. LCA is also known as life-cycle, eco-balance, and cradle-to-grave analysis. This technique assesses environmental impacts associated with all the stages of a product’s life from the cradle to the grave (i.e., from raw material extraction through material’s processing, make, distribution, use, repair and maintenance, and disposal or recycling). This process of Environmental Impact Assessment is used to predict incremental and detrimental outcomes on the environment (positive or negative) of a proposed plan or product, policy, program, or project before the decision to move forward with the proposed plan of action and implementation. The LCA technique can be narrowed down to four steps, i.e., goal and scope, life cycle inventory, life cycle impact assessment, and interpretation, which address various life stages of one or more products at a time. The methods, importance, and application of LCA for variable activities can be assessed and understood by various studies like Jez et al. (2017), Hossain et al. (2019), Kharpude et al. (2019) and Mendoza et al. (2019). Along with LCA analysis, life cycle costing (LCC) analysis provides the economical footprint of the product or process under consideration. LCC includes all the cost incurred during life cycle of product and process from the initial to the final stage, i.e., material procurement, production, fabrication, utility, maintenance, use, reuse, and disposal. The process of LCC covers all operational and maintenance costs. LCC is considered to be a steady-state analysis comprising production, operation, and maintenance cost and it does not consider predicting any dynamic marketing fluctuations. (Luo, Van Der, and Huppes 2009; Petrillo et al. 2016; Santos et al. 2019; Woodward 1997) The correlation of LCA and LCC helps determine the sustainability of the system, product and process environmentally and economically. The combined LCA, LCC, and energy analysis fulfills the 3E’s of sustainability, i.e., environmental, economic, and energy.