As usinas hidrelétricas são fundamentais na produção energética brasileira, sendo também responsáveis pela geração de importantes impactos ambientais negativos na escala local, os quais acabam tendo efeito no próprio desempenho dos municípios afetados. Com o objetivo de equacionar estes impactos de natureza física, biótica e socioeconômica, instituiu-se a Avaliação de Impacto Ambiental (AIA) por meio da Política Nacional de Meio Ambiente em 1981. A partir de então, este instrumento tem passado por alterações temporais no campo político, legal, institucional e técnico, as quais podem refletir-se na forma como o instrumento equaciona os impactos ambientais e, neste caso, nos próprios desempenhos de desenvolvimento dos locais afetados por hidrelétricas. O presente trabalho teve como objetivo analisar a relação entre o desempenho de desenvolvimento nos municípios brasileiros afetados por hidrelétricas e a trajetória da Avaliação de Impacto Ambiental. Nesse sentido, o resultado obtido neste trabalho, é um indicativo de que a AIA quando bem executada pode ser um meio eficaz para gestão de impactos e planejamento ambiental. / Brazilian hydropower plants are fundamental in Brazil\'s energy production, although they are also responsible for generating significant environmental impacts at the local scale, which having an effect on their own municipal development performances. Aiming to solve these physical, biotic and socio-economic impacts, was created the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) by the National Environmental Policy in 1981. Since then, this instrument was temporal changed by political, legal, institutional and technical contexts, which may be reflected in how the instrument solves environmental impacts and, in this case, the municipal development performances affected by hydropower plants. This project aimed to analysis the relationships between municipal development performances and the temporal course of Environmental Impact Assessment. In this sense, the result obtained in this project is an indication that the EIA when well executed can be an effective means for impact management and environmental planning.

Avaliação de Impacto Ambiental AIA é um instrumento de gestão ambiental que tem como objetivo identificar, prever e interpretar as conseqüências sobre o meio ambiente de uma dada ação humana. Se bem conduzida pode auxiliar o processo de tomada de decisão, incrementar a viabilidade ambiental de projetos e propostas de desenvolvimento, e constituir em instrumento de gestão ambiental. Apesar de existirem exemplos de aplicação bem sucedida, verifica-se que em muitos casos os resultados esperados não têm sido satisfatórios para o que se pretende com ela. Falhas, tanto na elaboração dos Estudos de Impacto Ambiental, como na condução das demais fases e, conseqüentemente, prejudicando a eficácia da AIA e naquilo que se pretende com esse instrumento de política pública, que é a proteção e a melhoria da qualidade ambiental, têm sido verificadas. Trabalhos recentes, têm enfatizado as variáveis de ordem gerencial do processo de AIA como determinantes do seu sucesso, muito mais do que a qualidade técnica ou o conteúdo científico de um EIA. Um bom sistema de gerenciamento da implantação e operação de um empreendimento pode corrigir imperfeições resultantes das etapas prévias do processo de AIA. A fase de acompanhamento do processo de AIA pode ser considerada como etapa crítica para seu sucesso. Impactos que não são corretamente identificados ou previstos pelo EIA, podem ser corrigidos por meio de medidas mitigadoras desenvolvidas depois da aprovação do projeto. Nesse contexto, o presente trabalho buscou analisar a estrutura de gestão ambiental adotada para o cumprimento da fase pós-aprovação do processo de AIA desenvolvido para o Trecho Sul do Rodoanel, com base em documentos disponíveis no órgão ambiental estadual responsável pelo licenciamento, informações obtidas com o empreendedor, visitas técnicas e entrevistas. Os resultados permitem observar que, apesar da existência de deficiências, o desempenho ambiental alcançado pode ser considerado satisfatório, ainda mais considerando o porte do empreendimento e a complexidade ambiental da região de inserção. As principais falhas que podem ser apontadas referem-se ao subdimensionamento de determinadas medidas preventivas, prevalecendo assim uma atuação mais corretiva. Se por um lado, não-conformidades ambientais observadas podem ser atribuídas, em alguns casos, à falta de equipes e de equipamentos suficientes, e em outros, à falta de capacitação ou de interesse quanto ao trato das questões ambientais, mesmo considerando a padronização de procedimentos, a incorporação de medidas ambientais nos editais de contratação e a execução de programas de treinamentos ambientais; por outro, avanços tecnológicos e investimentos garantiram bom desempenho ambiental de algumas medidas mitigadoras implementadas. Conclui-se que apesar das etapas iniciais (avaliação preliminar e análise detalhada) da AIA contituirem em excelentes ferramentas de planejamento e otimização de esforços e recursos, a etapa pós-aprovação, que compreende a gestão ambiental da implantação dos empreendimentos, a partir da efetivação das medidas preventivas e mitigadoras propostas anteriormente, constitui etapa crucial no sentido de alcançar os seus objetivos, que é a busca pela sustentabilidade ambiental do desenvolvimento. Se não for bem executada, pode colocar todo o esforço e recursos conferidos às etapas anteriores a perder. Em caso contrário, pode suprir eventuais deficiências. / The Environmental Impact Assessment - EIA is an environmental management tool that aims to identify, predict and interpret the consequences on the environment of a particular human action. If well managed can help the process of decision making, enhance the environmental sustainability of projects and development proposals, and constitute an instrument of environmental management. Although there are examples of successful implementation, it appears that in many cases the expected results have not been satisfactory for what we expect from it. Failures both in the preparation of environmental studies, as in the conduct of other phases and, consequently, undermining the effectiveness of EIA and what is meant by this instrument of public policy, which is the protection and improvement of environmental quality, have been verified. Recent studies have emphasized the variables of management of the EIA process as critical to their success, much more than the technical quality and scientific content of an environmental study. A good management system implementation and operation of an enterprise can correct imperfections resulting from previous stages of the EIA process. The follow-up phase of the EIA process can be regarded as critical step for its success. Impacts that are not properly identified or anticipated by the environmental study, can be addressed by mitigation measures developed after the approval of the project. In this context, the present work was developed to sought, based on documents available at the state environmental agency, responsible for the licensing process, information obtained from the entrepreneurial, technical visits and interview, to review the environmental management structure adopted for the implementation of follow-up phase of the EIA process developed for the Southern Section of Rodoanel. The results allow us to observe that despite the deficiencies, the environmental performance achieved can be considered satisfactory, especially considering the size of the enterprise and the environmental complexity of the region of insertion. The main flaws that can be highlighted refer to the undersizing of certain preventive measures and, therefore, there was a further corrective action. On the one hand, environmental non-compliances observed can be attributed in some cases, to the lack of sufficient staff and equipment, and in other, the lack of training or interest in the treatment of environmental issues, even considering the standardization of procedures, the incorporation of environmental measures in the contracts and implementation of environmental training programs. On the other hand, technological advances and investments assure good environmental performance of some mitigation measures implemented. We conclude that despite the initial stages of EIA (preliminary assessment and detailed analysis) form it into an excellent tool for planning and optimization of efforts and resources, the post-approval stage, which includes the environmental management of the implementation of projects, from the accomplishment of preventive and mitigating measures proposed earlier, it is a crucial step towards achieving its goals, which is the quest for environmental sustainability of development. If not well implemented, it can put all the effort and resources given to the previous steps to lose. Otherwise, it can overcome any shortcomings from previous steps.

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a widely recognized tool usedto evaluate environmental impacts of a product or process, based on environmental inventory database, and supply chain information. Although significant progress has been made on the development of LCA methodology and growth of LCA applications, there areissues to be addressed. As the number of LCA related publication increases rapidly it becomes challenging to gain a comprehensive understanding on the state-of-the-art: only a small number of review papers have been published and they tend to narrowly focus on a particular field or application while literature search is largely done manually. In addition, almost all LCA software tools are still using the legacy desktop application which have steep learning curve, unfriendly user interface, and complicated installation and maintenance requirements. Moreover, life cycle inventory databases, which serve as the data foundation of LCA, are designed and managed as a centralized structure with slow updates and low spatial and temporal resolution i.e., not supply chain specific. The development of informatics techniques opens up numerous opportunities to address these issues. This dissertation reports one of the first effort on applying informatics techniques i.e., automatic content analysis (ACA), web-based application, and blockchain to modernize LCA. <div><br></div><div>For the first time, ACA is applied on LCA related research to comprehend the big picture and get a better overview regarding the focus and evolution of LCA related research. The results show that while the field changed overtime, the most interested environmental category remained to be carbon emissions. However, the result also shows that whilecomputer science has evolved considerably, modern informatic techniques have only had a scattered impact on LCA. To overcome the limitation of current LCA software, an idea of developing a web-based application to benefit LCA implementation is proposed, especially for a certain type of industry with complex and hierarchical bills of materials. In cooperation with International Electronics Manufacturing Initiative (iNEMI), a web-based application is developed named Eco-impact Estimator (EiE). EiE is capable of performing quick and straightforward eco-impact estimation, especially for information and communication technology (ICT)products, with more than 50 users currently. To further optimize LCA, decentralized structure might be necessary. A new method is needed that can automatically back track supply chain along with material flow, with robust data availability and privacy. A blockchain-based LCA (BC-LCA) is proposed to solve this problem, with a framework built up, a detailed mechanism discussed, and a case study provided based on a practical industrial supply chain. Result shows that BC-LCA could improve data availability by providing increased data privacy and timeliness with the application of blockchain. Furthermore, the more nodes from a supply chain that join in BC-LCA, the better it could get.<br></div><div><br></div><div>With the help of informatic techniques, LCA can be improved significantly, including generating a more quantitative research overview, developing a more user-friendly LCA web-based application for ICT product manufacturing, and providing a LCA framework with more data availability, data privacy and data timeliness. Though it is still necessary to estimate the budget for such implication, which e is left as future work, trialing on interdisciplinary solutions may bring a new possibility to classic LCA.<br></div>

Le droit applicable aux études d’impact environnemental a considérablement évolué depuis sa création par la loi sur la protection de la nature du 10 juillet 1976. D’un droit fondé sur une nature cloisonnée, on se retrouve en 2017 avec un droit souple et négocié, fondé sur une approche systémique et dynamique des interrelations entre l’homme et son environnement. Les échanges de connaissances par le biais de l’expertise offrent progressivement un espace de négociation où les intérêts économiques et la réalité scientifique en viennent à fusionner, donnant naissance à une conception modernisée de la nature : celle de l’évaluation de la biodiversité par les services qu’elle rend à l’homme. Pourtant, la complexité de la nature dépasse l’appréhension que l’homme peut en avoir. Dès lors, bien que les procédures juridiques applicables aux études d’impact environnemental reflètent encore les limites imposées par le pouvoir de l’économie sur la nature, le droit ouvre néanmoins une brèche grâce aux développements d’outils numériques qui pourrait permettre de rééquilibrer les forces en présence. La naissance d’une négociation écologique où les expertises scientifiques profanes, la participation du public et la création d’une connaissance commune de la nature influenceraient également la décision publique est alors peut-être en pleine émergence. / The law applicable to environmental impact assessments has evolved considerably since its creation by the Nature Protection Act of 10 July 1976. From a right based on a segregated nature to a right based on a systemic and dynamic approach of the interrelations between man and his environment, we work in 2017 with a flexible and negotiated right. Knowledge exchange through expertise gradually opens up a space for negotiation where economic interests and scientific reality merge, giving rise to a modernized conception of nature: the assessment of biodiversity by Services it renders to man. However, the complexity of nature surpasses the apprehension that man can have. Therefore, although the legal procedures applicable to environmental impact assessments still reflect the limits imposed by the economic power over nature, the law nevertheless opens up a breach through the development of digital tools that could equilibrate forces. The emergence of an ecological negotiation in which secular scientific expertise, public participation and the creation of a common knowledge of biodiversity would also influence public decision-making may well be emerging.

The global understanding that natural resources and non renewable energy sources are not inexhaustible has been growing lately together with the increase of conscientiousness on the consequences that our demanding way of life has on the environment. Global warming, ozone layer depletion, the greenhouse effect or the acid rain, are some of these consequences, which may reach catastrophic levels if nothing is done to emend the actual situation. Lately, society is beginning to see sustainability not only as a needed requirement but as a distinctive value which has to be pursued by the different areas of society involved and responsible for a sustainable development such as public administration and companies, engineers and researchers. As a fundamental part of society, infrastructures have utmost importance in sustainable development. Even more when it comes to rail transport infrastructure, given the important role of rail transport in the development of a sustainable society. That is why engineers should make an effort to use all the tools available to choose the best structural design, which not only meets structural requirements, but has also a good performance for the environment. To do so, engineers must focus on using renewable sources or energy and materials, increasing the life of the existing infrastructures, making them more durable. When it comes to railway bridges, it is preferable to reuse and adapt existing structures than tear them down to build new ones. In this line, environmental assessment methodologies provide an incredibly valuable tool for help decision-makers and engineers to identify and select the best alternative design regarding environmental issues. Therefore, it is important to count on a common basis and established criteria together with a systematic methodology in order to obtain reliable results to compare alternatives and make the right decisions. However, nowadays, there exists very little guidance to perform this kind of analysis, and an extensive variety of databases and methodologies non standardized, which leads to uncertainties when it comes to evaluate and compare the obtained results. This thesis means to be a good guide for engineers, when performing a Life Cycle Assessment of a railway bridge, and to become a useful tool to compare several alternatives to identify the best option relating the environmental burdens involved. With this purpose, in order to know the state of the art of LCA methodology, it has been studied a wide range of existing literature and previous studies performed to analyze bridges and building materials. Finally, it has been developed an own methodology based on all the research done before, and implemented in an Excel application program based on Visual Basic macros, which means to be easy to use with a simple user interface, and to provide reliable results. The application is useful for assessing, repair or improving existing bridges, where the amounts of materials and energy are known, but can also be helpful in the design phase to compare different alternatives. It also allows using different weighting methodologies according to several reference sources depending on the case of study. The application is tested by carrying out a Life Cycle Assessment of a Spanish railway bridge located in the city center of Vitoria-Gasteiz, evaluating the different structures that conform the bridge system thorough all the stages of its life cycle identifying the most contributive parameters to the environmental impacts. The study was carried out over a 100 year time horizon. In the case of performing the LCA of this particular bridge, the contribution of the whole bridge is taken into consideration. When comparing two different bridges, the application has the option to compare them in the same basis, dividing by length and width of the bridge, which is a helpful tool if both bridges are not the same size. All stages of the life cycle were considered: the material stage, construction, the use and maintenance stage, and the end of life. The material stage includes the raw material extraction, production and distribution. The construction stage accounts the diesel, electricity and water consumption during construction activities. The use and maintenance stage covers the reparation and replacing operations. And the end of life covers several scenarios. In this case of study, in order not to interrupt the rail traffic, the bridge was constructed parallel to its final location, and then moved into the right place with hydraulic jacks. This leads to an important auxiliary structure with its own foundations, which has a significant contribution to the overall environmental impact. The scenario chosen for the end of life was based on similar actuation in other constructions in the proximities of the bridge, as the bridge is already in use. These assumptions were to recycle 70 % of the concrete and 90 % of the steel; all the wood used for formwork was disposed as landfill. The results obtained, weighted according to the US Environmental Protection Agency, shows that the main contributor to the environmental impacts is the material phase, with the 64 % of the total weighted results with concrete and steel production as principal factors, followed by timber production. These processes account great amounts of CO 2emissions, which makes essential to focus on reducing the impact of the material processes by optimizing the processes but mainly by reusing materials from other constructions as much as it may be possible. The maintenance activities have some importance due to the frequency of the track replacement, assumed to be once every 25 years. While construction does not imply great burdens for the environment, the end of life causes the 33 % of the overall bridge impact. This is due to the timber formwork disposal as landfill and to a lesser extent because of the recycling of the steel. The timber disposal increases widely the eutrophication effect, and will be easy to be reused in further constructions. Regarding the different parts of the bridge structure, the auxiliary structure has an important contribution with the 61 % of the overall weighted impact. As it is a concrete bridge, both the substructure and superstructure has similar contribution. The substructure has a slightly higher impact with the 21 % and the superstructure the 15 %. Rail structure and transport have very little contribution.

Thesis (LLM. (Development and Management Law)) -- University of Limpopo, 2021 / An Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is an environmental tool used to assess possible and expected adverse impact that might occur as a result of a proposed developmental project, in a vulnerable area and environment. All project developments must be socially, environmentally and economically sustainable. For any such projects to be sustainable, Environmental Impact Assessment must be conducted as a prerequisite for the development of the projects. This must be done in compliance with environmental legislation, to ensure that proposed developments benefit current and future generations, while at the same time protecting the environment. Environmental degradation must be minimized, where possible prevented for environmental protection, and sustainability

Magister Legum - LLM / An environment, which is not dangerous to the health or well-being of individuals, is every South African's basic Human right.1 In addition.it is every South African's basic human right to have the environment protected for the · "benefit of present and future generations, through reasonable legislative and other measures".2 These measures must aim at preventing pollution and ecological degradation. The measures must further advance. conservation, and guarantee ecologically sustainable development and use of natural .· resources. 3 Stakeholders, such as, non-governmental, organizations (henceforth NGOs), and the community as a whole have important roles to play.4

The construction sector has been greatly responsible for environmental pollution and problems related to sustainability. Hence, there is a crucial need to improve the sector’s environmental performance. In terms of assessing the environmental impacts of the construction sector at project and strategic level, policy instruments such as project-based environmental impact assessment (EIA) and strategic environmental assessment (SEA) play an important role. Another policy instrument, namely, green procurement has started to gain attention in the construction sector. Green procurement is a process that involves the incorporation of environmental requirements during the procurement of services and products. However, discussions on green procurement are rarely seen during the impact assessment (EIA and SEA) phase. Moreover, the construction process is usually multi-tiered, involving several stakeholders with varied objectives, which often leads to challenges concerning the translation of information produced in the impact assessment phase into action (during the construction phase). Therefore, this thesis aimed at analysing the way through which EIA as well as green procurement can improve the coordination between planning and construction phases. The thesis is based on literature review and interviews. This study envisaged an inter-connected process for EIA and green procurement, and reviewed the state of the art to motivate the postulation of such an inter-connected process. In addition, this study also reviewed recent development within procurement contracts, and focused on partnering in the construction industry. The results indicated that it would be appropriate to introduce green procurement during the pre-decision phase of an EIA. Further, the thesis chose renewable energy as a parameter for green procurement, and explored the perspectives of various categories of stakeholders in the Swedish construction on the inter-link between impact assessment and green procurement. The perspectives of the interviewed stakeholders indicate that the inter-link is required. However, the interview results show that there is a tendency in the Swedish construction sector to adopt various commercially available environmental assessment and certification tools. Furthermore, the thesis has mapped directions for future research. Future study should focus on the establishment of mechanisms for inter-connecting impact assessment and green procurement. It should investigate how the inter-link could be facilitated by certification tools being adopted. The future research should also examine how the inter-link can be developed together with concerned stakeholders through partnering. / QC 20111207 / Improving the environmental performance of the construction sector through linking environmental impact assessment and green procurement

The growing demand for urban areas has been a driving force for extensive changes to landscape. Thisrequires more focus on finding a balance between promoting urban development, and conservingbiodiversity in urban areas. The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity andEcosystem Services (“IPBES”) suggests encouraging sustainable urban planning, as well as“maintaining, and designing for, ecological connectivity in urban spaces”. Ecological connectivity canbe modelled based on circuit theory. Landscape can be depicted as a conductive surface and resistancecan be attributed to landscape types according to its permeability to the movement of a species.Frösön is a district in the growing municipality of Östersund, Sweden, where several developmentplans are intended. This study aimed to identify where structural ecological connectivity existed inFrösön. It also aimed to determine where connectivity was disturbed by urban development, andexplore the options available to strengthen connectivity through establishing new ecological corridors.Land cover data was analysed to identify the forest patches that were larger than 50 000m2, andresistance values were attributed per land cover type. Circuitscape was used to model the connectivitybetween the forest patches, revealing the connectivity across Frösön. The development plans wereassessed to determine where the developments overlapped existing corridors with high connectivityvalues between forest patches. New corridors (pathways connecting high connectivity valuesbetween forest patches) that could compensate for the impact by development plans on connectivityas well as strengthen connectivity throughout Frösön were proposed. The findings in this reportconcur with the IPBES that urban development can be sustainable while preserving biodiversity.Additionally, the inclusion of connectivity models in the environmental impact assessment (“EIA”)process for developments, enables proactive decision-making on the design and location ofdevelopments. Moreover, it encourages urban development and the preservation of landscapeconnectivity. This study will be valuable to environmentalists carrying out EIAs and specialists thatopine on environmental policy and/or legislation. / <p>2022-0604</p>

A global proliferation of large dam construction since the 1950s has been accompanied by scientific research challenging the benefit of these projects while drawing attention to their numerous negative environmental and social impacts. The institutions that assess the costs and benefits associated with large dam proposals, creating policies either approving, altering, or disapproving them, collectively form what is known as a policymaking framework. Examining these frameworks allows observers to trace policies through outlined decision-making processes and can help to reveal inherent biases within those systems that may impact policy outcomes. Often, divergent policy outcomes, like the those observed in the cases of the Belo Monte dam in Brazil and HidroAysén dam in Chile, are a result of variations in the environmental policymaking frameworks of the deviating cases. The subjects of this study present similar arrangements of costs and benefits but resulted incongruous policy outcomes, specifically that the HidroAysén dam was not built while the Belo Monte dam is currently under construction. Existing bodies of literature outlining the environmental policymaking frameworks of Chile and Brazil fail to fully address the influence of external variables, including presidential influence, corruption, and electoral politics, on these cases. This project synthesizes an outline of the environmental policymaking frameworks of Chile and Brazil from existing literature and uses the divergent cases of the Belo Monte and HidroAysén dams to provide evidence for the incorporation of these external variables to better understand the incongruous policy outcomes these frameworks produce.