Title page - International Association for Impact Assessment

[pic] Abstracts Volume The Environmental Professional's Forum
Bringing together environmental decision-makers,
industry and community leaders, and professional practitioners
Impact Assessment
& Capacity Building Building Capacity for Impact Assessment 17-20 June 2003
Palmeraie Golf Palace & Resort
Marrakech, Morocco
[pic] 23rd Annual Meeting of the
[pic]
International Association for Impact Assessment In collaboration with the
[pic] Francophone Secretariat of the International Association for Impact Assessment Host
Ministry of Land Use Planning, Water and Environment
Kingdom of Morocco
NOTES
This volume contains the abstracts of papers and posters presented at
IAIA'03, the 23rd Annual Conference of the International Association for
Impact Assessment. Abstracts received by the International Headquarters and with the
presenting author registered in full on or before 15 April 2003 are
included. Abstracts are arranged in the approximate order in which presenters
confirmed their participation via registration and/or revised abstracts
were received. Key words and author indices are included at the end of this
volume. Abstracts have been minimally edited for grammar, spelling, and mechanics,
and formatted for style consistency. Length in excess of 300 words was
subject to deletion. Abstracts, contact information, and key words are
otherwise reprinted as provided by the author(s).
POSTERS
GISABILITY OF SEA (poster) Gullón, Natalia
Confederación Hidrográfica del Júcar
Ministerio de Medio Ambiente
Avda. Blasco Ibáñez, 48
46010 Valencia, Spain
+34 96 3938800 Fax: +34 96 3938801
natalia.gullon@hotmail.com To what extent could GIS be a suitable tool for SEA? Strategic
Environmental Assessments usually address a large geographical area and
capture considerations from various disciplines, integrating ecological,
economic and socio-cultural criteria. The data scale and level of detail
are reduced. Sustainability indicators and broad concepts are used, such as
energy consumption, spatial impacts, atmospheric and noise pollution,
cultivable soils loss, etc. Could GIS be used to integrate all of them,
providing a direct reference to the spatial context in which they occur? Geographic Information Systems allow modelling, dynamic visualization, up-
to-dates, etc., and offer a great capacity of data treatment. Could they be
used to integrate the large amount of data of various natures (qualitative
and quantitative, graphic and alpha-numeric) that have to be taken into
consideration throughout the planning and decision-making process? Could
GIS be a used as a spatial analysis tool to represent and analyse for
example the evolution of complex systems such as cities (spatial
development or urban decline) and the effects of human action on the
natural environment? This poster tries to give an answer to all these questions and presents
some conclusions on the GISability of SEA. Key words: decision-making, geographic information systems, GIS, strategic
environmental assessment, SEA
LEARNING ABOUT SOCIAL CHANGE: USING SOCIAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT IN THE
PLANNING/DECISION PROCESS (poster) Burdge, Rabel J.
Department of Sociology and Huxley College of the Environment
Western Washington University
PO Box 4056
Bellingham, WA 98227-4056 USA
+1 360 676 9892 Fax: +1 360 715 0985
burdge@cc.wwu.edu This poster illustrates the use of social impact assessment to help
planners, change agents, elected officials and concerned citizens
understand future opportunities and consequences in their community as a
result of project implementation or policy change. After a definition of social impact assessment and a history of its use in
the planning process, the basic Social Impact Assessment Model is laid out.
I provide visual examples of how an SIA matrix can be used in a variety of
project and policy settings. Next the SIA scoping process is outlined as a
way to identify likely social impacts (issues) based on past research and
social assessments of similar developments and policy changes. The content of the social impact assessment is made up of 28 social impact
assessment variables, which have been found to explain change in a variety
of project and policy settings. My measures of social impacts have been
extracted from completed environmental and social impact assessments
(including my own) and ex-post facto social science research on the
response of rural and urban communities to external change. Next is a
definition and ways of measuring and analyzing selected SIA variables,
followed by demonstrations of significance and procedures for reducing the
number of SIA variables. The use of different data sources for social
assessments is also illustrated. I illustrate a ranking procedure for the selection of significant SIA
variables. Once identified, these SIA variables become the basis for
mitigation, enhancement and management of the change process. Examples of
mitigation and enhancement alternatives are displayed for a representative
project. The poster concludes with the SIA key citation index.
EIA AND GEOTHERMAL ENERGY IN ICELAND (paper and poster) Sigurðardóttir, Hólmfríður; Gunnarsson, Jakob
Planning Agency
Laugavegur 166, 150 Reykjavík, Iceland
frida@skipulag.is
jakob@skipulag.is Geothermal resources in Iceland are closely associated with the country's
volcanism and location on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Geothermal energy plays
an important role in the energy supply providing about 50% of the total
primary energy supply while hydropower provides 18%, oil 30% and coal 2%. The principal use of geothermal energy in Iceland is for space heating but
expansion in the energy intensive industry has been partly met by increased
geothermally produced electricity. A state institution, the Planning Agency, oversees the EIA process in
Iceland. The chief environmental factors under consideration in the process
regarding developments in geothermal areas are water resources and
disposal, geologic factors, landscape and visual effects, tourism and
recreation, vegetation, hot spring microflora and fauna, noise pollution,
and air quality. These factors are scale and location dependent but the
geothermal regions in many cases enjoy some form of a protected status and
are sensitive and pristine areas. A clear governmental policy on protection
and utilisation of high enthalpy geothermal regions in Iceland is not
available but clearly essential in light of the increasing interest in
their exploration and possible utilisation. There are advantages in geothermal energy in comparison to fossil fuels,
nuclear energy and hydro-electric power. However, question marks regarding
the renewability of geothermal reservoirs linger as well as a tendency to
underestimate other environmental effects pertaining to geothermal energy
utilisation. The paper will address the following points in view of the EIA experience
on geothermal energy plans in Iceland: . Geothermal energy utilisation, statutory environment in Iceland
. Location dependent environmental factors: Small scale projects-
irreversible effects
. EIA as a basis for sound decisions: The importance of comprehensive
assessment at an early stage
. Case studies
Key words: geothermal energy utilisation, geothermal resource management,
EIA, location dependent assessment
CUMULATIVE SOCIAL EFFECTS IN THE ATHABASCA OIL SANDS: SOCIAL IMPACT
ASSESSMENT IN A MODERN-DAY BOOM TOWN (POSTER) EARLEY, ROBERT J.
School of Planning, University of Waterloo
200 University Ave. W.
Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1 Canada
rjearley@fes.uwaterloo.ca This research explores the relationship between social impact assessment
(SIA) and social services planning and delivery in the oil sands mining
city of Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada. These oil sands have been described
as one of the world's most valuable resource bodies. Indeed, over 177
billion barrels of oil make it one of the largest known proven oil
reserves. The infrastructure required to harvest this resource, however, is
both capital and labour intensive, and has tremendous impacts on both the
environment and the human communities that are in the area. While
development has occurred in a boom and bust cycle since 1964, the most
recent wave of development has been the most intense. More than $60 billion
in capital investment will occur over the next ten years. As a result,
there have been significant cumulative social and economic impacts on Fort
McMurray, and it is expected they will continue into the future. Studied
here will be the continuous stream of SIA reports that have been produced
since oil sands development started in the area, the data that has been
collected, the mitigation measures recommended, and how these aspects of
SIA have contributed to the social planning and delivery process in Fort
McMurray. The input of representatives from the oil sands industry, local
and provincial governments and NGOs, and SIA practitioners will be used to
describe the current situation and to offer insight into the future roles
of SIA in planning in both Fort McMurray, and other single-industry
communities. Key words: social impact assessment, cumulative social effects, Athabasca
oil sands, social planning, social services delivery
ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT CAPACITY BUILDING THROUGH REGIONAL NETWORKING AND
EXCHANGE IN EASTERN AFRICA (poster) ISSA, ABDULRAHMAN SALIM
Eastern Africa Association fo