Paper presented at the 15th IUGSA Conference, 12-14 November 2012, Bloemfontein

This thesis is comparing impacts defined by Regulatory impact assessment (RIA) with real impacts discovered with online survey related to the specific Czech environmental legislative act. There is described RIA, experience with RIA in Czech and comparison of development and experience of RIA in EU and USA. As a result, comparison of the impacts within RIA and the ones identified by the survey is that real impacts are different from the predicted ones within RIA. The summary of this thesis is that process RIA is alright but accuracy of predicted impacts is dependent on RIA processor, rigorousness and complexity of RIA.

The subject of this dissertation is the process of the Environmental Impact Assessment in relation to the respective European legislation. The dissertation aims at providing a comprehensive analysis of the current Environmental Impact Assessment legislation, including its historical, international and European contexts. The dissertation proceeds in five chapters. Chapter One outlines the general characteristics of the Environmental Impact Assessment procedure and the principles that govern it. Chapter Two examines the development of the Environmental Impact Assessment process in international law, with emphasis on the Aarhus Convention. Chapter Three focuses on the anchoring of the procedure in European law. The core part, then, is Chapter Four, which delineates the separate phases of the Environmental Impact Assessment process as defined in Czech legislation. In the last chapter, the expected changes in the concept of the Environmental Impact Assessment are sketched.

Viešosios politikos vertinimas neseniai pradėtas taikyti Lietuvoje ir tam tikra šio įrankio įtaka jau pastebima administruojant ES Struktūrinių ir Sanglaudos fondų paramą. Tačiau informacija apie vertinimą kol kas nėra tobula. Vertinimas institucionalizuojasi Lietuvos administracinėje sistemoje. Vertintojas – naujas socialinis vaidmuo, o kaip žinome iš antropologijios ir sociologijos, bet kokiam vaidmeniui būdingos teisės, pareigos, lūkesčiai ir kt. Be to, vertintojo vaidmuo susijęs su kitais vaidmenimis – politikais, administratoriais, piliečiais. Kiekvienai duotai santykių porai egzistuoja elgesio taisyklės, arba normos, ir atitinkamos galios konfigūracijos, tad reikia ne vien laiko, bet ir valios, vertinimui į darbotvarkę įtraukti. Vertinimo įtvirtinimo procese vertintojui suteikiama teisė užduoti specifinius klausimus, reikalauti tam tikros informacijos ir įpareigoti žmones naudoti vertinimo rezultatus. Analizuojant vertinimo funkcijos raidą, svarbu žinoti, kaip atsiranda vertinimo įtaka, tarpininkauja, yra blokuojama ir plėtojasi, arba, kalbant instrumentiškai, – kaip gali būti padidinta bet kokio vertinimo įtaka. Politikos vertinimo tyrinėjimas, kaip ir daugelis kitų retrospektyvinių viešosios politikos instrumentų, susiduria su duomenų trūkumu. / Evaluation of public policy has been applied in Lithuania only recently, and a certain impact of this tool is noted while administering the support of the EU Structural and Cohesion Funds. However, the information about evaluation has not been perfect yet. Evaluation is institutionalized in the Lithuanian administration system. An evaluator is a new social role, and, as we know from anthropology and sociology, rights, duties, expectations, etc. are typical for any role. In addition, the role of an evaluator is related to other roles, i.e. politicians, administrators or citizens. Rules of behaviour exist for any given pair of relationship or the norms and corresponding configurations of power; thus not only time, but also will is necessary to include evaluation into the agenda. In the process of evaluation consolidation, the evaluator has the right to ask specific questions and demand for certain information and charge the people to use evaluation results. While analyzing the development of the evaluation function, it is important to know how evaluation influence appears, mediates, is blocked or develops or, speaking instrumentally, how the influence of any evaluation may be increased. The research on policy evaluation, as well as many other retrospective instruments of public policy, faces the lack of data.

Les déplacements de personnes et de marchandises sont responsables d’une part importante des impacts environnementaux à l’échelle de la ville. Cette thèse part des hypothèses que, les impacts environnementaux des phases situées en amont ou en aval de la phase d’usage ne sont pas négligeables et que l’étude différenciée des besoins de mobilité peut apporter un éclairage nouveau aux méthodes traditionnelles d’évaluation. La façon de répondre à chaque besoin induit, a priori, des impacts environnementaux différents. Ces derniers sont calculés à l’aide de la méthode d’Analyse de Cycle de Vie. La méthodologie a été développée sur un cas d’application : les émissions de GES de l’Agglomération de Saint-Etienne afin de se confronter à la réalité du terrain et de se procurer des données spécifiques. Ce cas d’application a donné une première série de résultats, confirmant à la fois la part non négligeable d’impacts hors phase d’usage et la disparité des émissions pour une personne.kilomètre selon le besoin de déplacement. Ensuite, une proposition de typologies urbaines a été faite en réalisant une Analyse en Composantes Principales, couplée à une Classification Ascendante Hiérarchique, sur les grandes aires urbaines de France, sur des variables influentes pour la mobilité. Trois classes d’aires urbaines ont été étudiées. La méthodologie a été appliquée aux données des Enquêtes Ménages Déplacements de Bordeaux, Toulon et Valenciennes. Des disparités sont observées pour certains motifs et il est possible de calculer des marges de progression pour chaque agglomération. Enfin, l’utilisation de l’ACV, multicritère a également révélé la nécessité de travailler avec plusieurs indicateurs. / Transportation of goods and people is known as a key environmental impact contributor in a city. However, traditional impact assessment methodologies don’t consider environmental issues all over the life cycle. The cause of a trip is also rarely taken into account in an environmental assessment. This thesis aims at proposing a new impact assessment methodology that considers the influence of indirect emissions (using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology) and causes of trips on the environmental footprint. Two main hypotheses are settled at the beginning: the environmental impacts of mobility do not only occur during the use phase (the trip by itself) but all over its life cycle. Also the trip purposes may change the choice of way to travel and consequently affect environmental impacts. The global Functional Unit (FU) is “transport people and good in a French urban area during a year” and is divided in intermediate FU referring to each trip purposes, such as “allow commuter trips in a French urban area during a year”. The methodology was developed, tested and validated through a real case: the agglomeration of Saint-Etienne (France). During this phase, mobility territorial actors were met and real data provided that allows facing methodology to possible field limitations. This application case shows first results. First, it confirms importance to consider impacts all over the life cycle (17% of GHG emissions occur out of the use phase). Second, it shows significant differences of emissions by person.kilometer between trip purposes categories. Then a typology of urban area was proposed based on literature about travel determinants. Principal Component Analysis used on French big urban areas (more than 250 000 inhabitants) identified 5 classes. The methodology was applied to three of them (Bordeaux, Toulon and Valenciennes) using data from a standardized survey on households and mobility in order to compare them. It shows disparities on global results partly due to total annual travel distances. The trip purposes differentiation also shows important differences between urban areas. For each cause trip category and emission reduction potentials were calculated for each urban area by extrapolating differences for a pkm to the total annual distance for the trip. This can provide helpful information to deciders. Finally, the need to provide a multicriteria evaluation that is provided by LCA was committed. However methodological improvement would be necessary to better reflect local and regional impacts in LCA.

The thesis evaluates the impact of the Grundtvig programme on Czech further education institutions in the medium term. The first part presents the concept of further education as a soft factor of regional development and also the applied research methods. The next section presents the Czech and European lifelong learning strategies and the programme is shown as a part of the Lifelong Learning Programme and as one of the financial instruments of the EU. The main part of the paper presents the analysis of the use of the Grundtvig programme by the Czech institutions and the impacts on them assessed by a questionnaire survey among supported institutions. The work identified a major impact on the organizations in the area of know-how transfer from abroad, while in the area of networking or creation of innovative outputs identified impacts were minimal.

Miljöbedömning med dess tillhörande dokument, miljökonsekvensbeskrivning (MKB), genomförs för att minska negativ miljöpåverkan från projekt och används som beslutsunderlag. Trafikverket som statlig myndighet gör MKB:er för många av sina projekt. Om utfallet blir så som det står i MKB:erna eller inte, vad det beror på, samt hur avvikelser påverkar miljön har undersökts i det här examensarbetet. Undersökningen har skett genom fallstudier av fyra olika Trafikverksprojekt. Dessa har varit vägprojekten Västra länken; bro över Umeälven, Östra länken; E4 syd – Östteg och Puckdalen; riskobjekt. Det fjärde fallet är ett järnvägsprojekt, Åmsele station; ny mötesdriftplats. För att kunna besvara frågeställningarna har intervjuer, dokumentgranskning, platsbesök och litteraturstudier genomförts. För varje fall har ett antal påverkanskategorier med betydelse för projektet valts ut för fördjupad granskning. Resultatet visar att avvikelser har förekommit mellan det som stått i MKB:erna och faktiskt resultat i alla fyra fallen, men inte i något fall har avvikelserna varit fler än överensstämmelserna. De flesta kontrollpunkter från MKB:erna har därmed stämt med faktiskt resultat, sammanlagt har 76 % stämt. I ett av fallen, Östra länken, har större andel avvikelser upptäckts än i övriga. Här blev resultatet 63 % överensstämmelse, i jämförelse med Västra länkens 77 %, Puckdalen 88 % och Åmsele stations 73 %. Avvikelserna som har upptäckts har gett både positiv, negativ och insignifikant miljöpåverkan, men majoriteten har varit negativ. Orsakerna till avvikelserna har varierat stort för de olika granskade kontrollpunkterna, men för vissa är otillräcklig uppföljning en möjlig orsak. Som resultat av detta arbete föreslås mer uppföljningsarbete med hjälp av Trafikverkets redan befintliga metoder, för att minska avvikelser mellan MKB och verklighet i framtiden. / Environmental impact assessment, with the document environmental impact statement (EIS), are produced to limit the negative environmental impact of projects, and as a base for decision-making. Trafikverket (Swedish Transport Administration) is a public authority that produce EIS for many of their projects. This study has examined if the statements made in the EIS are actually done in practise or not, why eventual deviations may occur and what effects these deviations gives to the environment. The method used have been case studies of four projects performed by Trafikverket. Those are three road projects, The Western link; bridge over Umeälven, The Eastern Link; E4 south – Östteg and Puckdalen; risk object. The fourth project is a railroad project named Åmsele station, new passing place and service site. To answer the research questions also interviews, document studies, field trips and literature studies have been performed. For each of the cases a number of important categories for the project have been selected for further investigations. The result show that in all cases there have been deviations. In summary of the four cases 76 % of the checkpoints have been congruent. In all cases the congruence has been greater than the deviations. In one case, The Eastern Link, more deviations than in the other projects have been noted. In this case the result showed 63 % congruence, compared to 77 % at The Western Link, 88 % at Puckdalen and 73 % at Åmsele station. The deviations found have both given positive, negative, or insignificant environmental impacts, but the majority have been negative. The causes of the deviations have varied between the different checkpoints examined. One reason that is possible for some of the deviations are lack in follow-up. As a result of this study more extensive follow-up in the future, with use of already existing tools in the organisation of Swedish Transport Administration, are suggested to reduce the deviations between EIS and reality.

LLM / Department of Mercantile Law