Summary of Working Paper No. 31-1996
II.5.6: The Adaptive Environmental Assessment and Management AEAM in INSROP -
Impact Assessment Design.
By Jørn Thomassen, Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, Stig Magnar Løvås
and Sylvi Vefsnmo, SINTEF NHL, Trondheim Norway
An important part of the INSROP Sub-Programme II, Environmental Factors, is to
work out an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for an extended use of the
Northern Sea Route. The goal for an EIA is to form a basis for decision makers
concerning the NSR. An approach of the Adaptive Environmental Assessment and
Management (AEAM) methodological concept (Holling 1978) is chosen for this
purpose. One of the strengths of the AEAM concept is that it facilitates an
interdisciplinary evaluation of multi-disciplinary information, which should be necessary
in an EIA.
In the EIA concept for the NSR, it is of critical value to define and describe
the various NSR scenarios in time and space, identify their corresponding
impact factors on the environment in particular and on the community in general,
and make an evaluation of the impact significance. So far only rough outlines of
the NSR scenarios
have been available in the EIA work, and in phase II of INSROP emphasis will
be placed on a critical evaluation and final decision of the NSR activities in
time and space as a basis for the final EIA analysis.
Experience tells us that the greatest contribution of an EIA to environmental
management is the adjusting of plans to mitigate negative impacts at an early
stage in the process. The importance in the EIA process of focusing on a limited
number of priority issues should therefore be obvious. In this scoping process
of the EIA, based on the best available scenario outlines (see Thomassen et al
1994), we have focused on selected issues, so called valued ecosystem
components (VECs), which are thought to be important for decision making.
A VEC is defined as a resource or environmental feature that is important (not
only economically) to a local human population, or has a national or
international profile, or if altered from its existing status, will be important for the
evaluation of environmental impacts of industrial developments, and the
focusing of administrative efforts (Hansson et al. 1990). The selection of VECs is
probably the most important and at the same time the most difficult step in the
process of selection and focusing in the EIA. The critical point is to focus on
decision making, which in turn calls for a strong critical sense in the
selection process as there is room only for a limited number of VECs.
The VECs selected and later on evaluated consist of single species, groups of
species as well as habitats:
The various NSR-activities and their corresponding impact factors on these
VECs have been evaluated through testing of a number of impact hypotheses. The
significance of the VECs in an INSROP context can thereby be obtained. The
detailed results of this work are found in Larsen et al. (1995), Wiig et al. (1996)
and Bakken et al. (1996).
In the INSROP scoping process in Sub-Programme II, the social and political
factors were for different reasons not given priority, which is a weakness in the
process so far. However, in the final EIA, designed to be completed in phase
II, necessary efforts will be made to include these factors in the total
analysis, which in turn calls for an interdisciplinary approach and cooperation
between all INSROP Sub-Programmes.
The main purpose of the risk assessment in the EIA will be to consider
appropriate mitigable measures and to evaluate possible consequences of accidents on
the environment. On the one hand, the risk assessment will be focused on the
environment, and addressed through the selection of VECs and their corresponding
IHs. The vulnerability of each VEC in time and space is of major importance when
considering the possible negative impacts of the NSR activities. These
environmental factors combined with the probability in time and space of various
accidents will give necessary input to the EIA.
The GIS will be a valuable tool in the analysis as well as in communicating
the results and the conclusions, including recommendations for mitigating
measures, monitoring programmes and further investigations to the decision makers.
VEC Benthic invertebrates
VEC Marine estuaries and anadromous fish
VEC Plant and animal life in polynyas
VEC Seabirds
VEC Sea ducks and geese
VEC Waders in feeding and resting areas
VEC Beluga
VEC Bowhead whale
VEC Grey whale
VEC Ringed seal
VEC Bearded seal
VEC Walrus
VEC Polar bear
VEC Water/land border zone
VEC Human settlement