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Detailed description of the chains of causalities of environmental impacts Robert Joumard, Gerassimos Arapis & Tomasz Zacharz 1. 2. Existing lists of impacts Detailed impacts and tentative aggregation Objectives What are the impacts on environment? What are their characteristics or typical features? Answer to these questions (description of the chain of causalities) allows us to define what we want to measure with indicators of environmental impacts to define quite precisely the term 'environment’ Description the chain of causalities for each impact allows to express clearly each potential indicator measures and does not measure on which scientific mechanisms an indicator should be based RJ07-130 what 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. Climate change Land take, landuse (to be merged with habitat fragmentation?) Hydraulic risk / hydrological changes Visual qualities of landscape/townscape, light pollution Habitat fragmentation (biota and humans) Air pollution (primary and secondary) Soil and water pollution Noise: short-term noise emission, vibration, quiet areas Non-renewable resource use Waste Perceived pollution: Odour, soiling, visibility Ecotoxicity Human health Traffic safety RJ07-131 List of the initial impacts from the action More detailed and non redondant impact categories due to pollutant emissions (Goger, 2006) RJ07-132 Global warming Ozone depletion Photochemical pollution Acidification Eutrophication Direct restricted health effects Direct ecotoxicity Sensitive pollution Degradation of common man-made heritage Degradation of historic man-made heritage CMG KOMAG proposal Climate Climate change Impact Atmosphere Air pollution Transport System Infrastructure Vehicles Propellants Odour Ecosystems Traffic safety Hazardous matterial spills Fires Accidents (roadkill) Lithosphere: Soil and Water Humans Humanity Landtake and Landuse Material System Visual Landscape Health Habitat fragmentation Energy System Soil and water pollution Wastes Waste System Acoustics Noise Vibration Congestion Well being Review of the previous types Criteria used to define each impact not clear / defined Transport system well defined Missing target: man-made heritage Some redundancies Too simple chains of causalities: type of effect is missing, no successive impacts Proposal In-depth RJ07-133 analysis of all known impacts on the environment Tentative of classifying all the impacts Main characteristics of the impacts: sources and targets IB Sources infrastructure buil ding VP vehicle production T VID energy production and distribution traffi c Targets vehicle and infrastructure destruction Pseudo-target Resources Nature Humans: health as defined by the WHO Ecosystems: nature understoo d as ecosystems, i.e. the association between a physicochemi cal and abiotic (the bioto pe) environment and a living comm unity characteristic of the latter (the biocenosis) Human health: In a restricted meaning Human well-being Man-made heritage: with a distinction is made between comm on buil dings and historic ones Earth: covers all the targets: the three previous targets (ecosystems, humans and man made heritage) and physical environments such as the atmosphere and the oceans RJ07-134 EPD Main characteristics of the impacts Sources Targets Reversibility Distance scale from the source Time scale Main scientific disciplines involved in the chain of RJ07-135 impact = physical, chemical, biological or psychological / sociological phenomena Examples of impact categories Habitat fragmentation for biota source: infrastructure; target: ecosystems; practically irreversible, local scale, biology/ecology Greenhouse all sources (mainly traffic), all targets, scales century and earth, successive chains of impacts RJ07-136 High spots of noise source traffic, restricted health and well-being, local and short term scales, physical, biological and psycho-physical phenomena Impact categories 38 different impact categories Heterogeneous typology Sometimes defined by the source (waste), sometimes by the final impact (biodiversity), sometimes by the mid-chain impact (ozone depletion) Tentative of aggregation because Difficult to list always 38 impacts Similarities between some of the 38 impacts Base for a common indicator? Result: 15 large types described by common characteristic(s) common indicator RJ07-137 Aggregation of 38 types of impacts (1/9) Noise and vibration • Noise: high spots • Noise: scarcity of quiet areas • Vibration same source: traffic, first causality: emission of noise/vibrations km, hour acoustics (physics) and annoyance (psycho-physics) targets: health and well-being common indicator RJ07-138 no Aggregation of 38 types of impacts (2/9) Local air quality • • • • • Direct ecotoxicity Direct restricted health effects of air pollution Odour (sensitive pollution) Soiling (sensitive pollution) Visibility (sensitive pollution) km, all time scale first causality: emission of atmospheric pollutants without physico-chemical transformation common indicator RJ07-139 no Aggregation of 38 types of impacts (3/9) Regional air quality • • • • Acidification Eutrophication Photochemical pollution: ecotoxicity Photochemical pollution: indirect restricted health effects 1000 km, all time scale first causality: emission of atmospheric pollutants with physico-chemical transformations no common indicator: acidification, eutrophication, ozone potentials RJ07-140 Aggregation of 38 types of impacts (4/9) Quality, usages and regimes of water • • • • • • same final or medium target: water/soil common indicator RJ07-141 no Hydraulic changes Hydraulic risk Soil and water pollution: agriculture Soil and water pollution: drinking water (water quality, uses and régime) Soil and water pollution: ecosystems Soil and water pollution: outdoor recreation Aggregation of 38 types of impacts (5/9) Protected areas • Habitat fragmentation for biota • Natural protected areas • Wild life protected area source: infrastructure target: mainly ecosystems phenomena: modification of fauna habitat common indicator? Waste first phenomena: production of waste large diversity of chains of impacts, including some among the 37 others common indicator: waste production, weighted by a impact factor? Loss of biodiversity Final phenomena: disappearance of fauna and flora species large diversity of chains of impacts, including some among the 37 others common indicator: risk of disappearance of species? RJ07-142 Aggregation of 38 types of impacts (6/9) Light pollution first phenomena: emission of light during the night large diversity of chains of impacts, including some among the 37 others common indicator: light power, weighted by the visibility? Technological hazards first phenomena: accidents large diversity of chains of impacts, including some among the 37 others RJ07-143 indicator? Aggregation of 38 types of impacts (7/9) Landscape, cultural and built heritage • • • • • • Degradation of common man-made heritage Degradation of historic man-made heritage Destruction of common man-made heritage Destruction of historic man-made heritage Habitat fragmentation for humans Visual qualities of landscape/townscape main source: infrastructure targets: well-being and man-made heritage psycho-sociology common indicator RJ07-144 no Aggregation of 38 types of impacts (8/9) Landuse targets: ecosystems and resources (?) common indicator: infrastructure area? Non-renewable resource use no target: resources common indicator: specific to each resource Ozone depletion • Ozone depletion: ecotoxicity • Ozone depletion: indirect restricted health effects mid-chain target: tropospheric ozone common indicator: ozone depletion potential based on emissions? RJ07-145 Aggregation of 38 types of impacts (9/9) Climate change • Greenhouse effect • Dimming mid-chain target: climate change large diversity of chains of impacts, including some among the 37 others no common indicator: GWP based on emissions, dimming potential based on air quality Safety of transport users and residents specific chain of causalities common RJ07-146 indicators: mortality rate (number of deaths), number of injuries (serious or not) / number of impairments, lost life years Conclusion Necessity to describe in detail what are the impacts to be able to “measure” them by using indicators What do we want to measure? In order not to forget some impacts RJ07-147 Quite exhaustive description by 38 impact categories Most of the 38 impacts are end-point ones Some are mid/end point ones: ozone depletion, climate change Some are initial impacts: waste, light pollution, technological hazards Tentative of aggregation into 15 large impacts Similarity criteria non homogeneous Rarely base for a common indicator More a didactic than a scientific figure