Environmental impact assessment, a bibliography with abstracts

Environmental impact assessment, a bibliography with abstracts

91 ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT Environmental Impact Assessment, a Bibliography With Abstracts. B.D. Clark, R. Bisset and P. Wathern. Mansell, L...

159KB Sizes 1 Downloads 140 Views

91

ENVIRONMENTAL

IMPACT ASSESSMENT

Environmental Impact Assessment, a Bibliography With Abstracts. B.D. Clark, R. Bisset and P. Wathern. Mansell, London, Bowker, New York, 1980. There is a considerable body of research and critical analysis now available on the various aspects of environmental impact assessment (E.I.A.). The authors of this bibliography have done a very useful piece of work in locating and categorising the information available from all over the world. The bibliography includes information on more than a thousand articles and books and contains abstracts on the majority of them. It is divided into five main ‘subject’ sections, each of which is introduced by a useful guide to the information contained in it. Much of the information in the book is inevitably based on work done in the U.S.A., but a considerable effort has been made to gather written material from other countries. The first section of the book is concerned with the aids available to those carrying out environmental impact assessment, i.e. the methods and the related manuals on which much work in the field has been based. The authors identify six major types of method and give some guidance as to where examples of each type can be found. Of these types, it appears that checklists and matrices have been the most commonly used. Checklists have acted merely as guides to deliberations, whereas matrices have been used to identify which environmental, economic and social factors are likely to be affected by the actions that will result from the development. Two other types of method that have been used, although much less frequently, are overlays and networks, examples of which are also included. Quantitative assessment methods are identified and some of the problems associated with them highlighted. The authors point out that much work is at present being done on the use of models to predict impacts and they expect that these will produce interesting results. In addition to these methods, the bibliography lists a series of ad hoc studies which evolved methods to meet particular problems and which act as an interesting comparison to the more formal methods, The second section of the bibliography deals with the critiques and reviews of the E.I.A. system. The studies listed include those which question the whole purpose and utility of the system within the broad process of environmental planning. They also include work which deals with the cost of the process as well as the problems of delaying the actions that are economically or socially advisable. The third section relates environmental impact assessment to the other aspects of the planning system in various countries. It covers public participation, the decision-making process and the links between impact assessment and planning. The references to the nature of the decision-making process are most interesting. The problem of assessing social impacts is also covered in this section, with the authors indicating how the social aspects were

92

neglected in the early environmental impact statements. Attention is also drawn to the lack of valid techniques for predicting social impacts. The fourth section is the largest in the book, and deals with the different ways in which E.I.A. has developed in Canada, Great Britain, Australia, western Europe and other areas, in particular the United States. The U.S. federal and state systems for E.I.A. are covered in detail as well as the legal problems associated with federal and state laws on environmental impact. The book concludes with a list of information sources which can act as a back up to this excellent summary of the literature available on E.I.A. This is an invaluable book for all those involved in environmental planning issues whether as laymen, decision makers, technical officers or academics. The numerous case studies listed give a wealth of basic data for future investigation and the critical assessments of the work must act as a basis for future developments in the field of environmental impact assessment. A.R. BEER (Sheffield, Great Britain)

MAN AND ENVIRONMENTAL

PROCESSES

Man and Environmental Processes: A Physical Geography Perspective. Gregory and D.E. Walling (Editors), Dawson-Westview Press, 1979, 91 figs. 19 tabs., $10.00. ISBN 0-7129-0834-x.

K.J. 27 pp.,

This book, edited by Gregory and Walling, consists of 14 chapters contributed by 13 scientists highlighting the significance of human impact on a variety of physical landscape processes. It must be recognized that the writers have been primarily concerned with processes which have traditionally attracted the interest of physical geographers. Within a broader environmental context it would be necessary to embrace such topics as air and water pollution, the fate of pesticides and other contaminants and changes in global biogeochemical cycles. Under four major headings, the Atmosphere, Hydrosphere, Pedosphere and Biosphere, the authors demonstrate how man has modified physical landscape processes. The contributors have drawn widely from their own and others’ research over the last decade, and present a wealth of examples from various countries. The large number of tables and figures help to reinforce the impressions of human impact on environmental processes described in the text. The volume is an excellent survey of recent developments in applied geomorphology, and of those physical processes which have a marked significance for the human environment. The book exemplifies the doctrine of G.P. Marsh (1864) that, “. . . man is in both kind and degree, a power of a higher order than any of the other