Journal of Environmental Assessment Policy and Management

The purpose of the paper is to investigate how local level flood policies consider Natural Flood Management (NFM) as a risk reduction mechanism in England. Methods used include a review of European and English national legislative and other flood management policy instruments as well as a case study of Cumbria County’s local flood management policies. The legislative and other policy instruments at both European and English national level demonstrated increasing level of NFM consideration for local flood risk management. In Cumbrian context, flood management policies are mostly aligned to the traditional structural defence-based approach; however, emergence and importance of non-structural measures including NFM are clearly evident, are visibly influenced by the European and national policies. The numbers of potential NFM actions in local flood policies are nonetheless insignificant compared to the NFM potentials, but these can be worked in as a starting point for wider scale consideration and implementation.

Several major environmental programmes require regulated entities to measure and self-report pollutant levels to state regulatory agencies. This data is used to assess compliance, but critics suggest that it could be used more effectively to detect fraud in self-reports, a criminal offense. Efforts to develop and implement fraud detection tools are restricted by a lack of knowledge regarding how regulatory and enforcement systems operate in regulatory agencies and whether/how data is used, particularly for fraud detection. To address this gap in knowledge, we conducted a case study of these issues in one state environmental agency. We triangulate interview, focus group and observational data to describe the current system and assess points in the system in which data is being used. We draw upon organisational learning theory to suggest the ways to use data more effectively in the future, particularly to improve fraud detection.

A scoping review of the literature was conducted to identify the most pressing issues pertaining to the application of Health Impact Assessment (HIA) and the integration of health concerns into the Environmental Assessment (EA) process in Canada and internationally. The issues identified include the need for government intervention, gaps in methodology and tools, limitations of capacity and expertise, poor intersectoral, disciplinary and public collaboration/participation, challenges of data quantification and analytic complexity, and the need for process efficiency. The issues presented were also contextualised to the status quo practice of EA in Canada and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act (CEAA 2012). Recommendations were proposed as a starting point for improved integration. First, a commitment by the actors involved to the protection of human health — aligned with the core mandate of the CEAA. Second, the achievement of intersectoral, disciplinary and public collaboration, led by government, ideally the health sector. The case is made for a new era of Canadian leadership and innovation at the interface of health and EA.

There is a growing interest in the potential of strategic environmental assessment (SEA) to mainstream ecosystem services (ES) concerns in decision-making. Experiences in this field have begun to emerge, showing the need for comprehensive guidance. This paper addresses this need by proposing a conceptual approach to integrate ES effectively in SEA. The approach is structured in the following four stages, each comprising specific tasks: establish the ES context; determine and assess priority ES; identify alternatives and assess impacts on ES; follow up on ES. The first stage includes the identification and mapping of ES and beneficiaries for the region affected by the strategic action and the identification of links with other strategic actions. The second stage aims at generating detailed information on a limited set of priority ES, which are considered relevant for shaping and informing the development of the strategic action. This requires determining the priority ES, reviewing existing regulations concerning these services and assessing their baseline conditions and trends. In the third stage, possible alternatives to enhance ES, or at least to minimise negative effects on them, are identified and their impacts assessed. Finally, during the fourth stage, the effects on ES are monitored and managed and the overall quality of the SEA process is tested. The paper concludes by discussing how the stages and their tasks require feedback and interactions and how they can contribute to achieve a better inclusion of concerns about ES (and their beneficiaries) into strategic decisions.

Quarry lakes resulting from alluvium extraction have excavation depths that can reach the shallow aquifer and extend beyond the piezometric surface. Similar to natural lakes, pit lakes are subject to eutrophication process, both during and after quarrying activity; during mining activity, the eutrophic level is strongly controlled by the excavation method. The present study describes the trophic status of several quarry lakes in the Piedmont plain (north-western Italy) that were evaluated by applying classifications from scientific literature. Most of the studied quarry lakes were mesotrophic or eutrophic, and a slight worsening of water quality was observed over time. In addition, the paper focuses on the pit lake water quality and pit dimension; it was shown that lakes with a larger depth and volume generally had a lower tendency towards eutrophication. At last some management strategies were suggested to achieve environmental sustainability.

Economic valuation of marine ecosystem services is strongly anchored within the logic of Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). An inventory and critical assessment of marine valuation studies was conducted within the European Union funded Policy-oriented marine Environmental Research for the Southern European Seas (PERSEUS) research project (http://www.perseus-net.eu/) and this information was fed into a suitable, spatially explicit valuation database, namely Valuation database for Marine Ecosystem Services of Southern European Seas (V-MESSES), with the objective of providing monetary values for Southern European Seas (SES) to be used in cost–benefit and cost-effectiveness applications. At present, the database contains 93 studies offering over 110 value estimates for four categories and 20 subcategories of marine ecosystem services covering all regions of Mediterranean and Black Sea. The database enables so far the estimation of the aggregated value of all ecosystem services. However, the selection of appropriate, policy relevant value estimates is not a simple and straightforward task, since several conditions should be met in order to conduct effective and efficient value transfers. Bearing in mind the above limitations, tentative reference value estimates are compiled from the V-MESSES database for a number of coastal and marine ecosystem services, although not all service categories are covered sufficiently.

Social impact assessment (SIA) is applied worldwide to assess social impacts of plans and projects. In Europe, directives on environmental assessment (EA) require attention to social impacts, however, there is a need to investigate the implementation in practise. To this end, we study three Danish cases, which are characterised by debates and conflicts on social issues. Analysis of the EA statements shows inclusion of a broad range of social impacts. However, the EAs do not fully match the concerns of the public, and social impacts are not always analysed in depth, mitigation measures are not suggested or are postponed and the geographical distribution of impacts assessed is biased towards including negative local impacts. We discuss the scope and handling of social impacts, and possible implications. Based on this, we conclude with the view that EA might do the job of handling social impacts in Europe, if practise is improved.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are significant regional development agents. Therefore, if SMEs adopt sustainability and regional economic strategies at the same time, it enables local communities to benefit from sustainable development, innovation and economic development in their regions. In the SME literature, there is a lack of appreciation of the sustainability issue and its connection with its local community. Bringing together the relevant literature, this paper develops a sustainability assessment framework for SMEs by providing the internal and external drivers and inhibitors affecting the adoption of social and environmental friendly practices in SMEs within the regional context. This framework can be used as a basis for application in regional development. It will also be a valuable tool for evaluation and monitoring of strategies for sustainability adoption.