Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is recognised worldwide as a tool for identifying the potential adverse effects of a proposed development on the environment. Very little attention has been given to determining the actual environmental effects resulting from a development. The need for EIA follow–up (i.e. monitoring, auditing, evaluation, management and communication) was identified and would form the building blocks within the EIA process. Follow–up provides information about the consequences of an activity and presents opportunities to implement adequate mitigation measures. EIA follow–up is not developed to its full potential even though the need for it is acknowledged and supported in legislation, scientific journals and scientific books. EIA follow–up necessitates feedback in the EIA process to ensure lessons learnt and outcomes from past experiences can be applied in future actions. Follow–up is only a legal requirement if conditions are specified in the environmental authorisation (EA). Of particular concern to follow–up is the accuracy of prediction and secondly, the level of compliance to conditions set out in the authorization and management plans. This study will focus primarily on critically analysing predictions and compliance from the construction phase of a high profile mega shopping mall project, namely the Mooi River Mall (MRM), with an analysis to gauge the actual effect and contribution of the EIA process to decision making and implementation practices. Multiple data sources were used to determine the accuracy of predictions and legal compliance level of the Mooi River Mall. The Mooi River Mall's accuracy of predictions (66%) and legal compliance (83%) suggest that some of the impacts were unavoidable; that mitigation measures were either not implemented or identified or that EIA follow–up served its purpose in the form of implementing effective auditing programmes to monitor legal compliance. / Thesis (M.Sc (Environmental Science))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

Performance measurement and management have been evolving at state Departments of Transportation (DOTs) in recent years, and a variety of performance data is being utilized in different ways to guide decision-making processes. However, health considerations beyond air quality and safety are not yet being incorporated into performance management programs at state DOTs. Concurrently, Health Impact Assessments (HIAs) and other public health tools have seen increasing use among Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) and their stakeholders through collaboration with public health professionals. With the 2012 reauthorization of the surface transportation bill - Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21) - state DOTs and MPOs have the opportunity to consider health proactively in transportation decision making to address the environmental sustainability requirements of MAP-21. This study investigates the possibility for integration between transportation performance measurement and management and the HIA approach, identifying and explaining the linkages between the two previously isolated processes. The study draws from best practices in performance measurement/management at state DOTs and various examples of health-related activities among MPOs and other planning to inform a suggested approach for incorporating health considerations and metrics in transportation decision making. The suggested approach recognizes common goals of health and transportation agencies, which are well-aligned with national objectives, and emphasizes the role of multidisciplinary interagency collaboration and partnership. This approach is intended to be a resource for state DOTs and MPOs that are interested in extending their performance measurement/management activities to formally include health considerations, as it can ease many of the implementation issues currently faced when considering broader health impacts of transportation.

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is recognised worldwide as a tool for identifying the potential adverse effects of a proposed development on the environment. Very little attention has been given to determining the actual environmental effects resulting from a development. The need for EIA follow–up (i.e. monitoring, auditing, evaluation, management and communication) was identified and would form the building blocks within the EIA process. Follow–up provides information about the consequences of an activity and presents opportunities to implement adequate mitigation measures. EIA follow–up is not developed to its full potential even though the need for it is acknowledged and supported in legislation, scientific journals and scientific books. EIA follow–up necessitates feedback in the EIA process to ensure lessons learnt and outcomes from past experiences can be applied in future actions. Follow–up is only a legal requirement if conditions are specified in the environmental authorisation (EA). Of particular concern to follow–up is the accuracy of prediction and secondly, the level of compliance to conditions set out in the authorization and management plans. This study will focus primarily on critically analysing predictions and compliance from the construction phase of a high profile mega shopping mall project, namely the Mooi River Mall (MRM), with an analysis to gauge the actual effect and contribution of the EIA process to decision making and implementation practices. Multiple data sources were used to determine the accuracy of predictions and legal compliance level of the Mooi River Mall. The Mooi River Mall's accuracy of predictions (66%) and legal compliance (83%) suggest that some of the impacts were unavoidable; that mitigation measures were either not implemented or identified or that EIA follow–up served its purpose in the form of implementing effective auditing programmes to monitor legal compliance. / Thesis (M.Sc (Environmental Science))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

Growing concerns regarding sustainability have led the construction sector to adopt various policy instruments for reducing the impacts caused by construction activities. One such policy instrument includes impact assessment, which enables the construction sector to evaluate the environmental consequences of proposed developments at project (environmental impact assessment) and strategic (strategic environmental assessment) level. In recent years, the construction sector has also adopted green public procurement, which is a process whereby contracting authorities aim to procure services and products that meet environmental requirements. In certain contexts, green public procurement has extended to sustainable public procurement, which involves the incorporation of both environmental and social considerations in the procurement of services and products. Promoting sustainability in the constructor sector is a significant challenge. This challenge is primarily due to the requirement of high levels of cooperation among project stakeholders, on the one hand, and a lack of coordination between project planning and implementation on the other hand. Therefore, procurement plays a significant role as it establishes the tone for the interaction between contracting authorities and contractors. The overall aim of this thesis is to bolster the knowledge of promoting sustainability in the construction sector, with the specific aim of analysing the ways in which policy instruments such as environmental impact assessment and green public procurement can be reinforced to improve the coordination between planning and the implementation of sustainability considerations. This thesis conceptualises an inter-link between impact assessment and green public procurement, and identifies the opportunities to develop the inter-link. It is appropriate to plan for green public procurement at the pre-decision phase of an environmental impact assessment. The inter-link can be strengthened by involving contractors in planning for green and sustainable public procurement. One way to involve contractors is with the aid of competitive dialogue procedure, which is a procurement procedure that allows contracting authorities to hold discussions with contractors regarding the authority’s requirements. This study strengthens the conceptualisation that competitive dialogue procedure can facilitate green and sustainable public procurement. The various elements in a competitive dialogue procedure can enable the contracting authorities to ensure the consistency between the weight for environmental considerations in contract award criteria and the relevant preferences. This thesis also discusses key concerns for progress towards sustainable public procurement, which includes among others the incorporation of sustainability values in procurement decisions. In addition, this study identified certain discourses on future trends for green and sustainable public procurement. The discourses provide an opportunity for reflection, and thereby indicate that analytical support is required to develop criteria in a way that enables the evaluation of sustainable public procurement against the background of sustainability and justice regarding natural capital. Innovation must be promoted with a focus on sustainability values. Moreover, green or sustainable public procurement must be discussed between contracting authorities and contractors in light of its contribution to sustainability. / <p>QC 20140509</p>

It has been well established in previous research that driving during rainfall is associated with increased risk of traffic collision involvement. Of particular concern are heavy rain events, which result in elevated risks up to three times higher than those for light rainfalls. As the global climate changes in the coming century, altered precipitation patterns are likely. The primary objective of this thesis is to estimate the potential impacts of climate change on traffic safety in two large Canadian urban regions: the Greater Toronto Area and Greater Vancouver. A secondary objective is to provide a framework or methodology for exploring this question. In accomplishing the primary objective, daily collision and climate records are utilized to establish an empirical estimate of present-day rainfall-related crash risk. This estimate is combined with results of a climate modelling exercise to arrive at a possible traffic safety future for urban Canada over the next 40 years. For the second objective, several important decisions related to data acquisition, compatibility, and completeness are considered, and the tradeoffs are mapped out and discussed, in order to provide guidance for future studies. Results indicate that over the next 40 years, Toronto is likely to see a mean annual increase in rain days of all intensities, resulting in marginally more collisions and casualties each year. Substantially more rainfall days are projected for Vancouver by mid-century, resulting in a small increase in annual incident counts. In both study regions, the greatest adverse safety impact is likely to be associated with moderate to heavy rainfall days (≥ 10 mm); this estimate is consistent with the greater risk increases associated with these conditions today, and suggests that attention should be paid to future changes in the frequency and intensity of extreme rainfall events. Indeed, heavy rain days are likely to account for approximately half of all additional collision and casualty incidents.

Accuracy of measurements is one of the most vital issues for industry and society as a whole. In this context, medical devices create a significant impact on the costs of health care services, such as additional medicine treatments, longer hospital stays, etc. The main aim of this thesis is to analyze and explain the use of metrology services and the socio-economic impact of medical metrology on consumers in Turkey. A framework for economic impact assessment of the calibration services for three specific medical devices, namely patient bedside monitors, ventilators and pacemakers &ndash / both of which are required for use especially after open-heart surgeries, has been developed and a cost-benefit analysis has been performed. The Benefit-to-Cost ratios of the calibration activity on patient bedside monitors, ventilators and pacemakers were calculated as 36.74, 2.22 and 1.79, respectively. Calibration services seem to have a very favorable Benefit-to-Cost ratio even based on the lower-bound estimations.

Environmental management in modern industry entails much more than simply measuring the level of contaminants at the discharge point of a chimney stack or pipeline and operating within defined licence limits. It involves: 1) Understanding the environmental risks associated with the industrial operation; 2) Quantifying the environmental assets at risk; 3) Evaluating the environmental challenge from the industry (determining the likely effect of particular emission levels on different environments); 4) Monitoring the condition of environmental assets in response to this challenge; 5) Devising appropriate remedial action where necessary. This study aimed to provide a rigorous and effective framework for decision making concerning vegetated landscapes surrounding industrial premises, particularly those associated with emissions of pollutants to air. Three Alcoa of Australia managed facilities in Victoria were used to develop and test the procedures, namely a coastal site at Point Henry, Geelong, a hinterland forest and heath site at Anglesea and a coastal heath site at Portland. The three facilities were involved in the aluminium smelting industry and the major atmospheric emissions were gaseous and particulate fluorides and sulfur dioxide. Analyses of vegetation distribution and condition were undertaken in order to establish whether the industrial activities at the three sites could be identified as the causes of changes in vegetation. A geographic information system (GIS) was implemented at each facility, to contain cadastral information as well as records of the physical environment and plant and animal species occurrences and condition, where appropriate. The GIS was used to create a surface of vegetation condition over the area of interest at the time of assessment and then over time to evaluate vegetation change and relationship to meteorological and production data. Baseline vegetation condition was established for each facility using large-scale high quality aerial photography and multi-spectral imagery. The photography for each site contained large amounts of latent information on vegetation distribution and condition. When properly rectified and geo-referenced, the images became accessible and open to manipulation within the GIS. At each of the three sites investigated, image classes were selected that provided appropriate detail for the vegetation type. In effect the image became a surrogate of the vegetation frozen in time and space. The ability to extract information on past vegetation condition was shown to be a very valuable asset providing the opportunity to generate new contemporaneous data to augment poor or lost historical data. The process was illustrated by developing vegetation change maps and trend information using past and current photography and limited historical field data. A verified emission model was applied to two of the facilities (Anglesea and Portland) to predict emission effects over the vegetated areas. These were used to evaluate current vegetation condition and change in terms of industrial challenge and other change agencies known or suspected. In each case, further developments of the model were required in order to achieve acceptable predictions of known atmospheric and air pollutant conditions. The investigations at Anglesea demonstrated the importance of fine-scale topographic description and meteorological modelling in order to reconcile modelled and observed environmental conditions in hilly coastal terrain. At Portland, the study revealed the importance of marine aerosols in the distribution and deposition of fluoride in the vicinity of the source. Within the broad framework of vegetation type and general condition at Anglesea and Portland, differences at the micro-scale of individual plants and clumps of plants were examined using multi-spectral imagery. Here differences in image characteristics that related to increased pigmentation and loss of chlorophyll in leaves and increased amounts of dead tissue on plants were evaluated. The change agents for the detected differences within sets and between sets of imagery were analysed and again shown to be mainly non-industrial. Only at Portland did atmospheric emissions from the aluminium smelter play a role at some locations, and then only because the effect was being reinforced by other factors (lack of burning and drought). At Portland, population data for associated fauna and an orchid were examined in relation to the baseline vegetation condition, vegetation change and industrial impact. The distribution and welfare of these species were shown to be generally dependent on vegetation condition and other non-industrial factors. If the vegetation overall was maintained in a condition of vigorous growth and structural diversity, it could be expected that specific dependant flora and fauna would thrive within it. The exception was the orchid, which was shown to be sensitive to emissions and could only thrive in its natural habitat in the vicinity of the smelter if protected by screening vegetation or nurtured by an intensive set of cultural practices that were developed as a result of this study.

Environmental management in modern industry entails much more than simply measuring the level of contaminants at the discharge point of a chimney stack or pipeline and operating within defined licence limits. It involves: 1) Understanding the environmental risks associated with the industrial operation; 2) Quantifying the environmental assets at risk; 3) Evaluating the environmental challenge from the industry (determining the likely effect of particular emission levels on different environments); 4) Monitoring the condition of environmental assets in response to this challenge; 5) Devising appropriate remedial action where necessary. This study aimed to provide a rigorous and effective framework for decision making concerning vegetated landscapes surrounding industrial premises, particularly those associated with emissions of pollutants to air. Three Alcoa of Australia managed facilities in Victoria were used to develop and test the procedures, namely a coastal site at Point Henry, Geelong, a hinterland forest and heath site at Anglesea and a coastal heath site at Portland. The three facilities were involved in the aluminium smelting industry and the major atmospheric emissions were gaseous and particulate fluorides and sulfur dioxide. Analyses of vegetation distribution and condition were undertaken in order to establish whether the industrial activities at the three sites could be identified as the causes of changes in vegetation. A geographic information system (GIS) was implemented at each facility, to contain cadastral information as well as records of the physical environment and plant and animal species occurrences and condition, where appropriate. The GIS was used to create a surface of vegetation condition over the area of interest at the time of assessment and then over time to evaluate vegetation change and relationship to meteorological and production data. Baseline vegetation condition was established for each facility using large-scale high quality aerial photography and multi-spectral imagery. The photography for each site contained large amounts of latent information on vegetation distribution and condition. When properly rectified and geo-referenced, the images became accessible and open to manipulation within the GIS. At each of the three sites investigated, image classes were selected that provided appropriate detail for the vegetation type. In effect the image became a surrogate of the vegetation frozen in time and space. The ability to extract information on past vegetation condition was shown to be a very valuable asset providing the opportunity to generate new contemporaneous data to augment poor or lost historical data. The process was illustrated by developing vegetation change maps and trend information using past and current photography and limited historical field data. A verified emission model was applied to two of the facilities (Anglesea and Portland) to predict emission effects over the vegetated areas. These were used to evaluate current vegetation condition and change in terms of industrial challenge and other change agencies known or suspected. In each case, further developments of the model were required in order to achieve acceptable predictions of known atmospheric and air pollutant conditions. The investigations at Anglesea demonstrated the importance of fine-scale topographic description and meteorological modelling in order to reconcile modelled and observed environmental conditions in hilly coastal terrain. At Portland, the study revealed the importance of marine aerosols in the distribution and deposition of fluoride in the vicinity of the source. Within the broad framework of vegetation type and general condition at Anglesea and Portland, differences at the micro-scale of individual plants and clumps of plants were examined using multi-spectral imagery. Here differences in image characteristics that related to increased pigmentation and loss of chlorophyll in leaves and increased amounts of dead tissue on plants were evaluated. The change agents for the detected differences within sets and between sets of imagery were analysed and again shown to be mainly non-industrial. Only at Portland did atmospheric emissions from the aluminium smelter play a role at some locations, and then only because the effect was being reinforced by other factors (lack of burning and drought). At Portland, population data for associated fauna and an orchid were examined in relation to the baseline vegetation condition, vegetation change and industrial impact. The distribution and welfare of these species were shown to be generally dependent on vegetation condition and other non-industrial factors. If the vegetation overall was maintained in a condition of vigorous growth and structural diversity, it could be expected that specific dependant flora and fauna would thrive within it. The exception was the orchid, which was shown to be sensitive to emissions and could only thrive in its natural habitat in the vicinity of the smelter if protected by screening vegetation or nurtured by an intensive set of cultural practices that were developed as a result of this study.

Environmental management in modern industry entails much more than simply measuring the level of contaminants at the discharge point of a chimney stack or pipeline and operating within defined licence limits. It involves: 1) Understanding the environmental risks associated with the industrial operation; 2) Quantifying the environmental assets at risk; 3) Evaluating the environmental challenge from the industry (determining the likely effect of particular emission levels on different environments); 4) Monitoring the condition of environmental assets in response to this challenge; 5) Devising appropriate remedial action where necessary. This study aimed to provide a rigorous and effective framework for decision making concerning vegetated landscapes surrounding industrial premises, particularly those associated with emissions of pollutants to air. Three Alcoa of Australia managed facilities in Victoria were used to develop and test the procedures, namely a coastal site at Point Henry, Geelong, a hinterland forest and heath site at Anglesea and a coastal heath site at Portland. The three facilities were involved in the aluminium smelting industry and the major atmospheric emissions were gaseous and particulate fluorides and sulfur dioxide. Analyses of vegetation distribution and condition were undertaken in order to establish whether the industrial activities at the three sites could be identified as the causes of changes in vegetation. A geographic information system (GIS) was implemented at each facility, to contain cadastral information as well as records of the physical environment and plant and animal species occurrences and condition, where appropriate. The GIS was used to create a surface of vegetation condition over the area of interest at the time of assessment and then over time to evaluate vegetation change and relationship to meteorological and production data. Baseline vegetation condition was established for each facility using large-scale high quality aerial photography and multi-spectral imagery. The photography for each site contained large amounts of latent information on vegetation distribution and condition. When properly rectified and geo-referenced, the images became accessible and open to manipulation within the GIS. At each of the three sites investigated, image classes were selected that provided appropriate detail for the vegetation type. In effect the image became a surrogate of the vegetation frozen in time and space. The ability to extract information on past vegetation condition was shown to be a very valuable asset providing the opportunity to generate new contemporaneous data to augment poor or lost historical data. The process was illustrated by developing vegetation change maps and trend information using past and current photography and limited historical field data. A verified emission model was applied to two of the facilities (Anglesea and Portland) to predict emission effects over the vegetated areas. These were used to evaluate current vegetation condition and change in terms of industrial challenge and other change agencies known or suspected. In each case, further developments of the model were required in order to achieve acceptable predictions of known atmospheric and air pollutant conditions. The investigations at Anglesea demonstrated the importance of fine-scale topographic description and meteorological modelling in order to reconcile modelled and observed environmental conditions in hilly coastal terrain. At Portland, the study revealed the importance of marine aerosols in the distribution and deposition of fluoride in the vicinity of the source. Within the broad framework of vegetation type and general condition at Anglesea and Portland, differences at the micro-scale of individual plants and clumps of plants were examined using multi-spectral imagery. Here differences in image characteristics that related to increased pigmentation and loss of chlorophyll in leaves and increased amounts of dead tissue on plants were evaluated. The change agents for the detected differences within sets and between sets of imagery were analysed and again shown to be mainly non-industrial. Only at Portland did atmospheric emissions from the aluminium smelter play a role at some locations, and then only because the effect was being reinforced by other factors (lack of burning and drought). At Portland, population data for associated fauna and an orchid were examined in relation to the baseline vegetation condition, vegetation change and industrial impact. The distribution and welfare of these species were shown to be generally dependent on vegetation condition and other non-industrial factors. If the vegetation overall was maintained in a condition of vigorous growth and structural diversity, it could be expected that specific dependant flora and fauna would thrive within it. The exception was the orchid, which was shown to be sensitive to emissions and could only thrive in its natural habitat in the vicinity of the smelter if protected by screening vegetation or nurtured by an intensive set of cultural practices that were developed as a result of this study.

Environmental management in modern industry entails much more than simply measuring the level of contaminants at the discharge point of a chimney stack or pipeline and operating within defined licence limits. It involves: 1) Understanding the environmental risks associated with the industrial operation; 2) Quantifying the environmental assets at risk; 3) Evaluating the environmental challenge from the industry (determining the likely effect of particular emission levels on different environments); 4) Monitoring the condition of environmental assets in response to this challenge; 5) Devising appropriate remedial action where necessary. This study aimed to provide a rigorous and effective framework for decision making concerning vegetated landscapes surrounding industrial premises, particularly those associated with emissions of pollutants to air. Three Alcoa of Australia managed facilities in Victoria were used to develop and test the procedures, namely a coastal site at Point Henry, Geelong, a hinterland forest and heath site at Anglesea and a coastal heath site at Portland. The three facilities were involved in the aluminium smelting industry and the major atmospheric emissions were gaseous and particulate fluorides and sulfur dioxide. Analyses of vegetation distribution and condition were undertaken in order to establish whether the industrial activities at the three sites could be identified as the causes of changes in vegetation. A geographic information system (GIS) was implemented at each facility, to contain cadastral information as well as records of the physical environment and plant and animal species occurrences and condition, where appropriate. The GIS was used to create a surface of vegetation condition over the area of interest at the time of assessment and then over time to evaluate vegetation change and relationship to meteorological and production data. Baseline vegetation condition was established for each facility using large-scale high quality aerial photography and multi-spectral imagery. The photography for each site contained large amounts of latent information on vegetation distribution and condition. When properly rectified and geo-referenced, the images became accessible and open to manipulation within the GIS. At each of the three sites investigated, image classes were selected that provided appropriate detail for the vegetation type. In effect the image became a surrogate of the vegetation frozen in time and space. The ability to extract information on past vegetation condition was shown to be a very valuable asset providing the opportunity to generate new contemporaneous data to augment poor or lost historical data. The process was illustrated by developing vegetation change maps and trend information using past and current photography and limited historical field data. A verified emission model was applied to two of the facilities (Anglesea and Portland) to predict emission effects over the vegetated areas. These were used to evaluate current vegetation condition and change in terms of industrial challenge and other change agencies known or suspected. In each case, further developments of the model were required in order to achieve acceptable predictions of known atmospheric and air pollutant conditions. The investigations at Anglesea demonstrated the importance of fine-scale topographic description and meteorological modelling in order to reconcile modelled and observed environmental conditions in hilly coastal terrain. At Portland, the study revealed the importance of marine aerosols in the distribution and deposition of fluoride in the vicinity of the source. Within the broad framework of vegetation type and general condition at Anglesea and Portland, differences at the micro-scale of individual plants and clumps of plants were examined using multi-spectral imagery. Here differences in image characteristics that related to increased pigmentation and loss of chlorophyll in leaves and increased amounts of dead tissue on plants were evaluated. The change agents for the detected differences within sets and between sets of imagery were analysed and again shown to be mainly non-industrial. Only at Portland did atmospheric emissions from the aluminium smelter play a role at some locations, and then only because the effect was being reinforced by other factors (lack of burning and drought). At Portland, population data for associated fauna and an orchid were examined in relation to the baseline vegetation condition, vegetation change and industrial impact. The distribution and welfare of these species were shown to be generally dependent on vegetation condition and other non-industrial factors. If the vegetation overall was maintained in a condition of vigorous growth and structural diversity, it could be expected that specific dependant flora and fauna would thrive within it. The exception was the orchid, which was shown to be sensitive to emissions and could only thrive in its natural habitat in the vicinity of the smelter if protected by screening vegetation or nurtured by an intensive set of cultural practices that were developed as a result of this study.