Computer Support for Environmental Impact Assessment

About this book

Any choice with a significant impact on the environment should, in principle, be the outcome of a political process reflecting the social preferences of everyone involved. Unfortunately, this ideal procedure requires a level of time and money that does not justify its application for planning each specific intervention. Different methods, mainly derived from traditional investment analyses, have been proposed for providing a rational basis for environmental decisions that cannot be analyzed through a public debate. These methods have proved inadequate, however, and are being replaced by Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) as a less formal, but more applicable, method of incorporating environmental considerations in the decision process. Though the interpretation of EIA differs among various national and regional laws, it is now widely accepted as a potentially useful aid and is becoming a routine procedure for environmental planning and management in many countries. Computers can help to make EIA as explicit and repeatable as possible by supplying tools supporting its various phases. This book addresses topics such as the use of databases and Geographical Information Systems (GIS) in the first screening phase, the development of mathematical models or expert systems to predict the impacts, and the use of multicriteria methodologies to support the final choice. Actual implementations of integrated computer systems that can be used throughout the decision process are also described.

Contents

Part 1 Environmental database and information system: SAMBA - a way to deal with GIS, J. Boman et al; the Torre del Sale (Piombino) DEM and its contribution to an environmental monitoring oriented GIS, L. Mussio et al; a visualization system of marine environmental data, F. Fuchs; visualization of pH changes due to liming treatments in Lake Orta, Italy, using computer generated animations, E. Halfon et al. Part 2 Simulation and decision models: FLORA - a distributed flood risk analyzer, P. Burlando et al; BILANI - a computer model assisting the evaluation of the effect of water consumption upon the environmental water resources, T. Stochlinski and M. Wawro; CATNAP and PWQIS - spatial tools for river and potable water quality evaluation, A. McDonald et al; the real-time procedure LORAN to couple long range atmospheric models with monitored data - recent improvements, M. De Cort et al; a package of numerical models and graphical tools for analyses and forecast of noise impact, G. Clerici et al; multicriteria value functions for evaluating soil pollution - a new assessment procedure and its applications, E. Beinat et al; contaminated sites evaluation by use of the successive principle and artificial neural networks, O. Kiilerich and H. Ruff; tools for multicriteria decision making in a multi-actor context that may be applied to a hazardous plant location problem, S. Collette and M. Installe; determining the uses of land in the vicinity of major hazard facilities - an optimization algorithm, H. Briassoulis and I. Papazoglou. Part 3 Applications of expert systems: FRAME - a knowledge-based tool to support the choice of the right air pollution model, G. Calori et al; knowledge-based system for evaluating in-stream habitat, W. Grenney et al; application of an expert system for point source water quality modelling, W.G. Booty et al. Part 4 Integrated decision support systems: integrated environmental information and decision support systems, K. Fedra; integrated computer support for environmental impact assessment, A. Baumewerd-Ahlmann et al. (Part Contents).

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