EIA

EIA is the assessment of the beneficial and adverse changes in environmental resources resulting
from the proposed project. The EIA process comprises of three sequential elements.

1. Identification of all possible positive and negative impacts on the natural and human
environment resulting from a proposed project.
2. Evaluation or assessment which includes quantification of the identified impacts with
respect to a common base and with respect to impacts from other project actions.
3. Preparation of a mitigation plan, by implementation the plan, will reduce the potentially
significant negative impacts of a project to acceptable levels.

METHODOLOGIES

There are about 100 methods for carrying out EIA but most of these can be divided into only a
few classes. The eight important techniques and methodologies considered suitable for assessing
environmental impact of development activities in the developing countries are:-

1. Checklists
2. Matrices
3. Overlays
4. Networks
5. Environmental indices
6. Cost-benefit analysis
7. Simulation modeling workshops
8. Environmental evaluation system

All the methods are neither suitable for every type of project nor adaptable in all developing
countries without modification. It is important to understand the strength and weakness of
projects in the context of technical and economical situation prevailing in a country.

The Objectives of EIA

The EIA process may also include a monitoring plan.

 To observe performance of the mitigation plan

 For protection of the environment from degradation and
 To review the environmental changes during mitigation plan implementation and
 Operation of the project closely

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The Procedural Steps of an EIA Report

A three approach is to be followed:

1) SCREENING
The first and the simplest tier of project evaluation will be from the environmental
point of view. The screening is based on several criteria such as a) type of project b) its
size & c) location. As per environmental Regulation 1997, screening procedure is to be
followed according to which, industries have been divided into four categories viz;
 Green
 Orange A
 Orange B
 Red
2) INITIAL ENVIRONMENTAL EXAMINATION (IEE)
All industries and project in Orange B and Red categories have to be conduct IEE
which helps in 1) Understanding the potential extent of environmental changes and 2) in
finding ways to mitigate by considering the available information, past experiences or
standard operating practices.

The steps for conducting IEE are:

I. Collection of base line information in respect of

a. The project
b. Environmental setting of the project
c. The site of the project
II. Setting of boundaries of an IEE
III. Impact assessment
IV. Mitigation measures
V. Environmental management plan (EMP)
VI. In the event IEE of the project or industry reveals that further investigation is to be
carried out then the sponsors will have to carry out a detailed EIA.

3) DETAILED ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT (EIA)

The detailed EIA study should be focused on addressing issues which remained unresolved in the
IEE, the steps involved in an EIA are as follow:

1) Base line Studies: This is usually divided into two sections.

a) Studies related to project:

The major following factors are to be taken into consideration:
 Studies related to project: respect to local environment and its effect on the
setting up the project.

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  Raw materials, fuels, chemicals: including information of storage facilities.
 Product & byproduct: storage & transport.
 Manufacturing flow diagram: including process parameters like temperature,
pressure.
 List of machineries & equipments
 Quantities & characteristics of effluents
 Methods of effluent treatment & disposal
 Details in vent & stacks
 Requirement utilities

b) Impact identification:
 List of impacts on environment from the projects
 Sources of impacts such as –
I. Emissions
II. Water consumption
III. Waste water generated
IV. Noise generated

2) Evaluation: This will be determined whether mitigation of pollution of the proposed

project will be required. It will be based on one or more of the following consideration:
 Conformity with laws, regulation or accepted standard
 Site selection with respect to protected sites
 Acceptability to the local community
 Severity of impact
 Duration & frequency of the adverse effect
 Mitigation

3) Mitigating measures:
 Changing project site
 Changes process
 Changes raw materials
 Changes operating system (manufacture method)
 Changes disposal routes or location
 Changes engineering design & method of construction
 Inclusion of ETP

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STRUCTURE OF EIA REPORT

1) Environmental base map (covering 10 km radius)

2) Description of the following features:

a) Land use
b) Physical resources (air, water, soil)
c) Biological resources (including forest)
d) Economic development
e) Socio-economic status
f) Quality of life
g) Environmentally sensitive area

3) Environmental impacts & Mitigation:

a) Critical issues (unresolved in IEE)
b) Issues related to public perceptions
c) Project location
d) Design criteria
e) Construction stage
f) Operation stage
g) Environmental laws & regulations
h) Mitigating measures
i) Benefit-cost ratio
j) Public opinion
k) Residual impacts

4) Environmental management plan (EMP):

a) Final design
b) Equipments
c) Method of construction
d) Contract document
e) Population control measures
f) Reuse / recycling of wastes
g) Schedule of implementation
h) Estimate of capital & operational costs

5) Management organization:
a) Personnel
b) Resources (equipments, lab etc)

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 6) Environmental monitoring programs:
a) Environmental quality monitoring
− Location
− Parameters
− Frequency
b) Effluent & emission monitoring
− Air emissions
− Effluent emission
− Solid wastes emission
c) Fuels & raw materials monitoring
− S & ash content in fuels
− Metal contents in ores

7) Data presentation and submission of reports

8) Estimate of annual cost

9) Summery, Conclusion, Recommendation

Environmental Management System

An Environmental Management System is a series of management processes that focus on
identifying, managing and reporting environmental issues to do with our operations.

THE NECESSITES AND PRINCIPLES OF EMS

EMS means environment management system. EMS is necessary-

1) To the environmental issues.

2) To mitigate the problems arising from industries day by day.
3) An EMS is applicable to any organization.
4) Assure compliance/ permission with a stated environmental policy.
5) Demonstrate the compliance to the outside world.

Industries willing to design an EMS should permit the following three principles:

1) Compliance
2) Pollution prevention
3) Continuous improvement
4) Continuous improvement

To keep the effectiveness of environmental activities of an industry, the EMS must be

continuously monitored and renewed.

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 The result of establishing EMS-

Improve the financial and environmental performance.

THE ELEMENTS OF EMS

1) PREPARATORY REVIEW: In the establishment of an EMS, the industry should make

a preparatory review to identify strengths, weaknesses, risks, and opportunities.

2) ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY: The top management should develop a policy to give a

commitment:-

i. To meet regulatory and legislative requirements.

ii. To prevent pollution and
iii. To improve environmental management

3) ORGANIZATION AND PERSONNEL: The workers of the EMS implementation

should coordinate and exercise the responsibilities of the management, pollution
prevention and continuous improvement.

4) ENVIRONMENTAL ASPECTS AND ASSOCIATED IMPACTS: The industry shall

establish and maintain procedures- for identifying, examining and evaluating the
environmental aspects and associated impacts.

5) ENVIRONMENT MANAGEMENT MANUAL AND DOCUMENTATION:

i. To maintain an EMS system.

ii. To serve as a permanent reference and
iii. To describe of EMS- the environment management manule and
documentation is needed.

6) ENVIRONMENTAL OBJECTIVES AND TARGETS: Environmental objectives and

targets shoulds be set. Targets derive from objectives. Targets should be demanding,
quantitive and achievable.

7) OPERATIONAL CONTROL: The functions, process andactivities shouls be

controlled; otherwise it will show effective on environment.

8) RECORDS OF EMS: To keep the evidence of EMS and to set a design format, the
records are essential.

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Sustainable Environmental Management
Environment: sum total of all external conditions and influences that affect the living
organisms.
Biosphere or life zone of the earth : it includes lower part of the atmosphere, entire
hydrosphere and soil and lithosphere to a depth where evidence of existence of living organism
has been found.
Anthroposphere : It includes besides natural environment, complex of social, cultural and
technological world that influence individual, community and ecosystem.
Cause of environmental problems

Rapid depletion of natural resources is the major cause of environmental problems .

Major global environmental problems
Unsustainable use of natural resources by human activities e.g., Population growth, Agriculture,
Industrialization, Urbanization etc., were mainly responsible for environmental problems.

Major environmental problems

 Tropical forest destruction (Biodiversity loss, fuel wood crisis, damaged watersheds)
 Desertification
 Acid precipitation
 Urban air pollution
 Green house effect
 Ozone depletion
 Toxic and hazardous wastes

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Factors responsible for the creation of environmental problems
 Major environmental problems are related to rapid depletion of natural resources due to
accelerated rate of movement of matter and energy through human society and
inequitable utilization of natural
 Rapidly growing human population, especially in the developing countries, with
increasing demand of natural resources is another major cause of deterioration of
environmental quality
 Several economic myths (tradition) pervade in our society such as environmental
protection is bad for economy, it is luxury of lesser value than economic growth,
environmental quality is non-economic and economic growth is good, indeed essential.
These prevent progress towards safe and healthy environment and sustainable future.
Many believe that breakthrough in technology can solve our resources and environmental
problems as have happened in the past. Availability of cheap energy may solve many problems
such as pollution, food, clothing shelter etc.

Sustainable development
A sustainable society is one that meets its needs without preventing future generations and other
species from meeting their needs.
Sustainability is based on a simple principle: Everything that we need for our survival and well-
being depends, either directly or indirectly, on our natural environment. Sustainability creates
and maintains the conditions under which humans and nature can exist in productive harmony,
that permit fulfilling the social, economic and other requirements of present and future
generations.

Principles of sustainable natural resource use:

 Harvest rates for renewable resources should not exceed their regeneration rates.
 Waste emissions should not exceed the ability of nature to assimilate/recycle it.
 Non-renewable resources may be exploited only at rates equal to the creation of
renewable substitutes.

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Goals of sustainable development:
 Every person should get the benefits of a healthy environment.
 Healthy sustainable economy that affords the opportunity for a high quality of
life.
 Equity and opportunity for economic, social and environmental well being.
 Protection and restoration of natural resources for current and future generations.
Environmental sustainability
• Environmental sustainability is the process of making sure current processes of
interaction with the environment are pursued with the idea of keeping the environment as
pristine as naturally possible based on ideal-seeking behavior. Thus, environmental
sustainability demands that society designs activities to meet human needs while
indefinitely preserving the life support systems of the planet. This, for example, entails
using water sustainably, only utilizing renewable energy, and sustainable material
supplies (e.g. harvesting wood from forests at a rate that maintains the biomass and
biodiversity).
An "unsustainable situation" occurs when natural capital (the sum total of nature's resources) is
used up faster than it can be replenished. Sustainability requires that human activity only uses
nature's resources at a rate at which they can be replenished naturally.

Natural resources
The environment is the source of all the resources that fuel the economy and make our lives
possible, and acts a sink for all of our wastes.
The resources that can be renewed by natural processes such as soils, forests, grassland,
agriculture, fish, wildlife, air, and water are called Renewable Resources.
Although these resources can be regenerated, humans can deplete them as a result of overuse to
an extent that their renewal becomes exceedingly difficult and time consuming. Some resources
may be renewed much more rapidly (animals, crops, grassland) than others (soil and forest).
Those resources, which cannot be renewed by natural processes at all or not rapidly enough to
be usable by current human society are Nonrewnable resources. They include fossil fuels (oil,
coal, natural gas) and nonmetallic minerals (phosphates, magnesium), and metallic minerals
(copper, aluminum).

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Global resource use pattern
All people need resources, but we live in a world of haves and have-nots.
The world’s resources are shared in highly disproportionate manner. The most noticeable
demand comes from the developed nations.
The US ranks first in per capita consumption. With less than 5 percent of total population, it
consumes about one-quarter to half of most commercially traded communities and produces a
quarter to half of most industrial wastes of the world.
The resource demands are extraordinary in the heavily populated nations. The natural
environments and resources bases of India, China, and Bangladesh are suffering enormously
under the strain of large and rapidly growing populations.
According to the world bank estimates more than 1.3 billion people (0ne-fifth of the world) live
in acute poverty in which they lack access to an adequate diet, decent housing, basic sanitation,
clean water, education, medical care, and other essentials for a humane existence. These people
have become both the victims and agents of environmental degradation.
The world’s affluent (rich) nations are major consumers of the world’ resources and are the
worst pollutants of the environment.

Four conditions for sustainability

 Substances from the earth's crust--fossil fuels and mined minerals--must not
systematically increase in nature.
 Substances produced by society must not systematically increase in nature.
 The physical basis for the productivity and diversity of nature must not be systematically
deteriorated.
 Human society must be fair and efficient in meeting basic human needs.

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Current situation and the goal of sustainability

Sustainable use of resources

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Sustainable and non-sustainable activities
Activities are sustainable when they:
• Use materials in continuing cycles
• Use continuously reliable sources of energy
• Come mainly from the potentials of being human, i.e., communication, creativity,
coordination, appreciation, and spiritual and intellectual development,
Activities are non-sustainable when they:
• Require continual inputs of non-renewable resources,
• Use renewable resources faster than their rate of renewal
• Cause cumulative degradation of the environment’ require resources in quantities that
could never be sustainable for people,
• Lead to the extinction of life forms

Sustainability and environmental management

 sustainability and environmental management involves managing the oceans, freshwater
systems, land and atmosphere.
 Management of the global atmosphere now involves assessment of all aspects of the
carbon cycle to identify opportunities to address human-induced climate change and this
has become a major focus of scientific research because of the potential catastrophic
effects on biodiversity and human communities. Other human impacts on the atmosphere
include the air pollution in cities, the pollutants including toxic chemicals like nitrogen
oxides, sulphur oxides, volatile organic compounds and airborne particulate matter that
produce photochemical smog and acid rain, and the chlorofluorocarbons that degrade the
ozone layer. Anthropogenic particulates such as sulfate aerosols in the atmosphere reduce
the direct irradiance and reflectance (albedo) of the Earth's surface.
 Particular attention is given to four programme areas. These are
 improving the scientific basis for addressing uncertainties;
 preventing stratospheric ozone depletion;
 mitigating trans-boundary atmospheric pollution; and
 promoting sustainable development with particular reference to
– energy development, efficiency and consumption;

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 – transportation;
– industrial development; and
– terrestrial and marine resource development and land use.

Land management
 In order to have a sustainable environment, understanding and using appropriate
management strategies is important. some important points of land management:
 Comprehending the processes of nature including ecosystem, water, soils and forest.
 Using appropriate and adapting management systems in local situations
 Cooperation between scientists who have knowledge and resources and local people who
have knowledge and skills
 Dale et al. (2000) study has shown that there are five fundamental and helpful ecological
principles for the land manager and people who need them. The ecological principles
relate to time, place, species, disturbance and the landscape and they interact in many
ways.
 Examine impacts of local decisions in a regional context, and the effects on natural
resources.
 Plan for long-term change and unexpected events.
 Preserve rare landscape elements and associated species.
 Avoid land uses that deplete natural resources.
 Retain large contiguous or connected areas that contain critical habitats.
 Minimize the introduction and spread of non-native species.
 Avoid or compensate for the effects of development on ecological processes.
 Implement land-use and land-management practices that are compatible with the natural
potential of the area.

Sustainable forest management (SFM)

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  Sustainable forest management (SFM) refers to the management of our private and public
forests to ensure they continue to provide not only a sound supply of renewable timber
for present and future generations, but also maintain their environmental values and
social services.
 conservation of biological diversity.
 maintenance of productive capacity of forest ecosystems and their health and vitality.
 conservation and maintenance of soil and water resources.
 maintenance of forest contribution to global carbon cycles.
 maintenance and enhancement of long term multiple socio-economic benefits to meet
needs of societies.
 in relation to native forests, sustainable yield is a technical term which relates to
harvesting timber where the volume of wood removed from a forest each year must at
least be equalled by the forest’s renewal of itself through natural regeneration and growth
of trees in unharvested areas.

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