Monitoring is an important tool for gaining insight into an organisation’s environmental performance and for learning about the environmental condition and the effectiveness of environmental management measures. Development of environmental monitoring has generally relied on research aiming at improving monitoring methodology, technique or practice within a particular management tool. Little empirical research has taken into account the organisation’s reality where several management tools are used in parallel. This thesis analyses the practice of environmental monitoring in public authorities with the aim of identifying barriers and possibilities for environmental monitoring as an instrument for improving environmental performance, using the Swedish Rail Administration as a case organisation. The study identified two different types of environmental monitoring: environmental performance measurement (EPM) and activity monitoring, both important for achieving environmental improvements. EPM involves gathering and evaluating data to determine whether the organisation is meeting the criteria for environmental performance set by the management of the organisation. EPM can further be used for judging the success and failure of environmental objectives and strategies. Activity monitoring provides each project of the organisation with information to minimise the negative effects on the natural environment or human health and to ensure that the organisation’s operations conform with regulations. Problems encountered comprised a variety of little co-ordinated monitoring activities, poor utilization of the monitoring results as well as limited internal feedback on monitoring results. Some of the problems identified seem to be an effect of the management transition from a traditional ‘command and control’ system to a self-administered organisation managed by economic incentives and voluntary management systems. This thesis suggests several improvements to make monitoring more efficient. Primarily, the monitoring systems must have a clear structure and be adapted to its specific function. The EPE system would benefit from being integrated with the organisation’s central performance measurement, presenting progress towards organisational strategic objectives as well as operational objectives. The system for activity monitoring must not only focus on inputs and outputs to the system but must also include the environmental condition of the system. In order to improve communication and learning, monitoring data within both EPE and activity monitoring must be better transmitted and utilised within the structure of the permanent organisation. Experience from all monitoring activities that now is scattered and inaccessible to the individuals of the organisation could beneficially be stored within a well-structured organisational ‘memory‘. Such a system would facilitate an iterative management process where the monitoring results and the knowledge gained are used for making future plans and projects more adaptive, thereby improving the environmental performance of the organisation. / QC 20100729

When the local authorities establish a plan for land use planning, they have to judge if the influence on the environment could be of such a grade that they have to make a special Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), following national laws and EU-directives. The laws for the process in Sweden is set by the Swedish Parliament, with advisory given by the central government authority, the National Board of Housing, Building and Planning, Boverket. For EU, the laws is set by the European Parliament and the Council. The laws and directions for this process have been changed for Sweden in recent years, and the aim of this study was to compare the contents of three different Environmental Impact Assess¬ments to see if there has been any change in appearances and content in later years, as well as to see if different municipalities and authors have effect on the EIAs. According to different studies some of the EIA done are without insufficient focus on main environmental issues in the EIA, or even that some information is missing. In some studies there are arguments that the EIA should be a document that should be possible to read alone. These aspects has also been studied in the material. The result is partly described in a matrix where different criteria is compared between the three EIAs to spot differences easily. There is also a part where the content and structure of the three EIAs is compared in text. The result of the study was that there are big differences in structure, while their content has more in common. In one of the three Environ¬mental Impact Assessments much facts are only put in other documents. The conclusion of the study is that there is a need for implementing a common way of presenting the content of an EIA. There is a risk that facts are overlooked that are not presented in the EIA document. There is also a risk that the local authorities has too big interest in implementing the plan and that they make the EIA with a biased look. As a case study an EIA was done. In the case study, the experience of the study is used to make this EIA as complete as possible, with regards to the criteria from the analysis matrix. Also, it was written in a report structure to test this model. The case study is added as Appendix 4.

Darbe yra analizuojama poveikio aplinkai vertinimo procesą reglamentuojančios teisės aktų metodiniai aspektai, t.y. ar poįstatyminiai poveikio aplinkai vertinimo procesą reglamentuojantys dokumentai išsamiai numato visus poveikio aplinkai vertinimo proceso aspektus, ar gali būti vienareikšmiškai interpretuojami, yra aiškūs ir tikslūs. Problema - siekiant išvengti aplinkos apsaugos požiūriu nepalankių sprendimų, poveikio aplinkai vertinimo procesas turi būti tinkamai reglamentuotas bei turi būti parengti atitinkami metodiškai pagrįsti poveikio aplinkai vertinimo proceso dokumentai. Tyrimo objektas – Lietuvos Respublikos poveikio aplinkai vertinimo procesą reglamentuojančios teisinės bazės metodinė būklė. Tyrimo tikslas - nustatyti ir įvertinti ar pakankamai efektyviai yra parengta planuojamos ūkinės veiklos poveikio aplinkai vertinimo metodinę bazę. Iškeltam darbo tikslui ir uždaviniams įgyvendinti buvo naudojami anketavimo ir lyginamosios analizės metodai. / This work concentrates on the analysis of the methodical aspects of the legislation regulating the EIA process, i.e. whether the subordinate legislation regulating the EIA process comprehensively cover all the EIA process aspects, whether they can be unambiguously interpreted, whether they are clear and precise.

On 18 June 2010 new NEMA 2010 EIA Regulations were promulgated and came into effect on 2 August 2010 in order to improve the effectiveness of EIA. The question of effectiveness, therefore still remains. The quality of EIRs under the 1997 regulations in South Africa has been researched, although not as extensively as in other parts of the world. It was concluded that the quality of EIRs in South Africa are generally satisfactory, although a number of problems were identified, e.g. timing of the EIA, the identification of activities which require authorization or not, the consideration of alternatives, the absence of any time limits, the absence of requirements for monitoring and enforcing compliance, and objectivity. The National Environmental Management Act (NEMA), (Act no 107, 1998) was amended and new regulations promulgated in 2006. No research has been published regarding the quality of EIRs produced in South Africa under the 2006 regulations. Since it was the intent of the new regulations to improve EIA effectiveness, it is necessary that the quality of EIRs produced under the new EIA system be investigated. As in the other studies in South Africa, the Lee and Colley review model was used as basis for the comparative analysis of the EIRs before and after 2006. A sample of 26 EIRs, 11 under the 1997 EIA system and 15 under the 2006 EIA system, obtained from the then Impact Assessment Directorate of the National Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT) archives in Pretoria were reviewed. The main conclusions were that the majority of the EIRs under the 1997 system were of an acceptable standard and that the overall quality of the EIRs did not improve after the promulgation of the 2006 regulations. The descriptive and presentational parts of the EIRs were more satisfactorily addressed, while the analytical parts such as impact significance were addressed less satisfactorily. EIR quality appears to be on par with international standards, but there are areas of distinct weaknesses. As the 2006 EIRs included some of the first EIRs conducted under the new regulations, there is potential for the quality to improve over time. However, the areas that still need attention are the identification and evaluation of impacts, impact magnitude and monitoring programmes. / Thesis (M.Sc. (Geography and Environmental Management))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

In order to make decisions to approve filling stations, an environmental impact assessment (EIA) needs to be conducted and evaluated by the competent authority. Although numerous filling stations have been authorised for operation, the quality of the EIA reports that form the basis for decision making has never been evaluated. The evaluation of the quality of EIA reports on filling station developments by means of an adapted Lee–Colley review package formed the basis of this research. The main conclusion was that the quality of the EIA reports for filling station developments, as reviewed by the adapted review package, is generally of a poor standard. This means that a decision to approve a new filling station is generally based on just enough information to the competent authority. The main deficiencies in the EIA reports related to site description, cumulative impacts and mitigation measures, while the environment description, identification of impacts, scoping of impacts, assessment of impact significance and emphasis (impacts) in the reports were of good quality. The results from the reviewed EIA’s correspond mostly with the literature on the review of EIA reports. / Thesis (M. Environmental Management)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.

On 18 June 2010 new NEMA 2010 EIA Regulations were promulgated and came into effect on 2 August 2010 in order to improve the effectiveness of EIA. The question of effectiveness, therefore still remains. The quality of EIRs under the 1997 regulations in South Africa has been researched, although not as extensively as in other parts of the world. It was concluded that the quality of EIRs in South Africa are generally satisfactory, although a number of problems were identified, e.g. timing of the EIA, the identification of activities which require authorization or not, the consideration of alternatives, the absence of any time limits, the absence of requirements for monitoring and enforcing compliance, and objectivity. The National Environmental Management Act (NEMA), (Act no 107, 1998) was amended and new regulations promulgated in 2006. No research has been published regarding the quality of EIRs produced in South Africa under the 2006 regulations. Since it was the intent of the new regulations to improve EIA effectiveness, it is necessary that the quality of EIRs produced under the new EIA system be investigated. As in the other studies in South Africa, the Lee and Colley review model was used as basis for the comparative analysis of the EIRs before and after 2006. A sample of 26 EIRs, 11 under the 1997 EIA system and 15 under the 2006 EIA system, obtained from the then Impact Assessment Directorate of the National Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT) archives in Pretoria were reviewed. The main conclusions were that the majority of the EIRs under the 1997 system were of an acceptable standard and that the overall quality of the EIRs did not improve after the promulgation of the 2006 regulations. The descriptive and presentational parts of the EIRs were more satisfactorily addressed, while the analytical parts such as impact significance were addressed less satisfactorily. EIR quality appears to be on par with international standards, but there are areas of distinct weaknesses. As the 2006 EIRs included some of the first EIRs conducted under the new regulations, there is potential for the quality to improve over time. However, the areas that still need attention are the identification and evaluation of impacts, impact magnitude and monitoring programmes. / Thesis (M.Sc. (Geography and Environmental Management))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

In order to make decisions to approve filling stations, an environmental impact assessment (EIA) needs to be conducted and evaluated by the competent authority. Although numerous filling stations have been authorised for operation, the quality of the EIA reports that form the basis for decision making has never been evaluated. The evaluation of the quality of EIA reports on filling station developments by means of an adapted Lee–Colley review package formed the basis of this research. The main conclusion was that the quality of the EIA reports for filling station developments, as reviewed by the adapted review package, is generally of a poor standard. This means that a decision to approve a new filling station is generally based on just enough information to the competent authority. The main deficiencies in the EIA reports related to site description, cumulative impacts and mitigation measures, while the environment description, identification of impacts, scoping of impacts, assessment of impact significance and emphasis (impacts) in the reports were of good quality. The results from the reviewed EIA’s correspond mostly with the literature on the review of EIA reports. / Thesis (M. Environmental Management)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:26:10Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2008-07-18Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:14:49Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 sandoval_ms_me_rcla.pdf: 689985 bytes, checksum: f333029b423c9df4992d4070398b119c (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / A avaliação da significância dos impactos ambientais continua a ser um importante componente crítico ainda mal compreendido da prática da avaliação de impactos ambientais. Este trabalho é um estudo sobre as conclusões de uma revisão bibliográfica sobre a avaliação e comunicação de avaliação do impacto ambiental praticada no Brasil. É dada especial atenção para a importância da utilização de critérios, padrões e métodos de avaliação de impactos ambientais que pretendendo incorporar mais eficiência nos estudos de impacto ambiental. Assim, o objetivo desta pesquisa foi a realização de uma proposta, incluindo o desenvolvimento de procedimentos e aplicar na avaliação de impactos ambientais situações relativas à sua formulação, aplicação e interpretação da significância dos critérios, conclusões e recomendações pertinentes para respeitar o objetivo da avaliação de impacto ambiental que é garantir a viabilidade ambiental das atividades humanas. / The evaluation of the significance of environmental impacts remains an important critical yet poorly understood component of environmental impact assessment practice. This work is a study upon the findings of a bibliographic review about the evaluation and communication of environmental impact assessment in Brazil practice. Particular attention is given to the use of significance criteria, thresholds and EIA methodologies intending to incorporate more efficiency of environmental impact statement. Thus, the aim of this research was the accomplishment of a proposal including the development of procedures to apply in EIA issues surrounding the formulation, application and interpretation of significance criteria, conclusions and recommendations relevant to respect the aim of EIA that in provide environmental viability of men activities.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T20:01:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DissCMM.pdf: 1152867 bytes, checksum: 285bcaac4403e13affd7a9ae146f523c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2005-10-26 / This work intented to realize a study about the situation of process of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) in São Paulo State, with emphasis in the monitoring pos-EIS (Environmental Impact Statment) phase, that it is essencial for the efficiency and efficacy of EIA. The purpose was to evaluate the frequency that the monitoring is realized, which are the methods used, what the efficiency, the negative points and the difficults to execution of this system. For that, it was realized a bibliography revision about national and internacional practices of EIA, with research at libraries of Secretaria de Meio Ambiente do Estado de São Paulo (SMA), Companhia Estadual de Saneamento Ambiental (CETESB), Departamento de Avaliação de Impacto Ambiental (DAIA) and USP, and researches on data base. It were made interviews with technicals directors of DAIA/SMA and was also elaborated a questioner, that approach some points of EIA practices in São Paulo State. This questioner was sent to professionals of area. The results evidenced that despite of monitoring pos-EIS is very impotant in the context of EIA, it is not executed in the most of the cases. Many failures are pointed out in the process, which results in the non aplication of monitoring pos-EIS. The lack of engagement with the environmental quality and the sustainability, the lack of structure in the environmental agencies, the bureaucratic and consequent slowness of the process, the little participation of community, the difficulty in getting material about the topic, and others are some of factors mentioned. If the procedure were not improved, for assure the accomplishment of terms and commitments defined, as well as the learning with mistakes and the rights of each case, a powerfull instrument of Environmental Policy would be discredited and turn on in one of numerous bureaucratic obstacles that difficult the access on natural resourses of the country, but are not efficient to assure that the improvement happens in benefit of society. / Este trabalho teve como objetivo realizar um estudo da situação do processo de Avaliação de Impacto Ambiental (AIA) no estado de São Paulo, enfatizando a fase de monitoramento pós-Estudo de Impacto Ambiental (EIA), que é essencial para a eficiência e eficácia da AIA. Pretendeu-se avaliar com que freqüência o monitoramento é realizado, quais os métodos utilizados para sua realização, qual sua eficiência, seus pontos falhos e quais as dificuldades de operacionalização deste sistema. Para tanto, foi realizada uma revisão bibliográfica sobre práticas nacionais e internacionais de AIA, com consultas às bibliotecas da Secretaria de Meio Ambiente (SMA), Companhia Estadual de Tecnologia de Saneamento Ambiental (CETESB), Departamento de Avaliação de Impacto Ambiental (DAIA) e da USP e pesquisas em banco de dados. Foram feitas entrevistas com diretores técnicos do DAIA/SMA e também foi elaborado um questionário, que aborda alguns pontos de práticas de AIA no Estado de São Paulo. Este questionário foi enviado para profissionais da área. Como resultado, foi constatado que, apesar de muito importante no contexto da AIA, o monitoramento pós-EIA não é praticado na maioria dos casos. Muitas são as falhas apontadas no processo, que acabam culminando na não aplicação do monitoramento pós-EIA. A falta de comprometimento com a qualidade ambiental e a sustentabilidade, a falta de estrutura dos órgãos ambientais, a burocratização e conseqüente lentidão do processo, a baixa participação da sociedade, a dificuldade em se conseguir material sobre o assunto, entre outros, são alguns dos fatores mencionados. Se os procedimentos não forem aperfeiçoados, de modo a garantir o cumprimento dos termos e compromissos definidos, bem como o aprendizado com os erros e acertos de cada caso, um poderoso instrumento de política ambiental poderá ficar desacreditado e converter-se em apenas mais um dos já numerosos entraves burocráticos que dificultam o acesso aos recursos naturais do país, mas não são eficazes para assegurar que seu aproveitamento se dê em benefício da sociedade.

The aim of this thesis is to explore the adaptability of the Evidential Reasoning (ER) Rule as a method to provide a useful supporting tool for helping investors make decisions on financial investments. Decision making in financial investment often involves conflicting information and subjective judgment of the investors. Accordingly, the ER Rule, extended from the original popular Evidential Reasoning algorithm and developed for MCDM (Multiple Criteria Decision Making), is particularly suited for handling conflicts in information and to allow for judgmental weighting on the sources of evidence. In order to do so, a specific EIA (Efficient Information Assessment) process modeled by the mass function of Dempster-Shafer Theory has been constructed such that the underlying architecture of the model satisfies the requirement of the ER rule. The fundamental concern is to define and assess “efficient information”. For this purpose, a process denoted the Efficient Information Assessment (EIA) is defined which applies the mass function of Dempster-Shafer theory. Any relevant information selected from an expert’s knowledge database is “efficient” if the data is fully in compliance with the requirement of the ER rule. The logical process of the EIA model proceeds with a set of portfolio strategies from the information recommended by top financial analysts. Then, as a result, the model enables the ER rule to make an evaluation of all strategies for helping investors make decisions. Experiments were carried out to back-test the investment strategy using data from the China Stock Market & Accounting Research (CSMAR) Database for the four-year period between 2009 and 2012. The data contained more than 270,000 reports from more than 4,600 financial analysts. The risk-adjusted average annual return of the strategy outperformed that of the CSI300 index by as much as 10.69% for an investment horizon of six months, with the p value from Student’s t-test as low as 0.02%. The EIA model serves as the first successful application adapting the ER Rule for a new and effective decision-making process in financial investment, and this work is the only empirical study applying the ER Rule to the opinions of financial analysts, to the best of my knowledge.