Environmental Impact Assessment

This course is part of the programme
Master’s study programme Environment (second cycle)

Objectives and competences

The objective of this course is to provide students with skills to recognise and analyse environmental problems and assess the alternatives for their solutions. The emphasis will be on different uses of assessments, methods and tools of interdisciplinary impact assessment and ways of presenting results. Presentation and interpretation of results will include viewpoints of numerous users of EIA, from administrative organs to financial institutions and the public. These integrative skills are crucial for successful work in the area of environmental protection. The combination of lectures and tutorials and field excursions will enable the students a direct overview of real problems in the local and global environment.

Prerequisites

Knowledge aquired in the compusory course Optimization procedures in environmental protection and knowledge of mass balance modelling.

Content

General
• Introduction (basic concepts, aims and history of EIA, procedures, applications and limits of EIA, legislative framework)
• EIA as a mechanism of environment protection (principles and aims of environment protection, role of EIA in administrative procedures, examples of good and bad practices)
• EIA reporting (format and content of the report, presentation of results, validity and applicability of reports)
• EIA and planning (strategic environmental assessment, spatial – protective planning, role of EIA in economic planning)
EIA – indicators
• Indicators of changes in the environment (definitions, changes in physical aspects of environment, social changes, economic aspects, monitoring of changes)
• Indicators of impacts (definitions; distinction between changes in the environment and environmental impacts; assessment procedures; protection measures: anthropocentric, holistic, fundamentalism; ethical aspects in EIA; monitoring)
• Standards (norms, suitability principles, acceptability principles, tolerability)
Components and methods of assessment
• Components of the environment (method: dendrogram of the environment)
• Biological aspects
• Social aspects
• Emissions and immissions (method: mass balance, technology assessment, modelling)
• Positioning of activities in spatial planning (method: vulnerability studies, spatial modelling, GIS)
• Psychological aspects
• Policies, plans, programmes (method: strategic assessment)
• Hazards (methods: HAZOP, HAZID, LOPA, control list, modelling and hazard assessment)
• Health (method: epidemiological studies)

Intended learning outcomes

Knowledge and understanding:

• ability to critically evaluate environmental issues
• knowledge of the administrative aspects and intended use of EIA
• knowledge of procedures of EIA
• understanding the methods and tools for EIA
• skills to present and interpret the results

Readings

  • John Glasson, Riki Therivel, Andrew Chadwick. 2007. Introduction to environmental impact assessment. Routledge, 423 str. Catalogue E-version
  • Examples of reports on partial, comprehensive and strategic environmental impact assessments

Assessment

Attendance & Participation (20 %), group project work (40 %), written examination (40 %)

Lecturer's references

Assist. Prof. Dr. Suzana Žižek holds a habilitation in the field of Nature and Environmental Protection.

Žižek, S., Gombač, M., Švara, T., Pogačnik, M. 2014. Monensin – a review of factors influencing its
presence in the environment and recommendations for safe storage and use of monensin-contaminated manure. Slovenian Veterinary Research 51 (2): 53-63

Koroša, A., Žižek, S., Mali, N. 2014. Možnosti pojavljanja kokcidiostatikov v okolju. Geologija 57 (1): 39-52. doi:10.5474/geologija.2014.005

Žižek, S., Zidar, P. Toxicity of the ionophore antibiotic lasalocid to soil-dwelling invertebrates: Avoidance tests in comparison to classic sublethal tests. 2013. Chemosphere 92(5), 570-575. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2013.04.007.

Žižek, S., Hrženjak, R., Tavčar-Kalcher, G., Šrimpf, K., Šemrov, N., Zidar, P. 2011. Does monensin in chicken manure from poultry farms pose a threat to soil in vertebrates? Chemosphere 83(4), 517-523, doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2010.12.058.

Žižek, S., Milačič, R., Kovač, N., Jaćimović, R., Toman, M. J., Horvat, M. 2011. Periphyton as a bioindicator of mercury pollution in a temperate torrential river ecosystem. Chemosphere, 85(5), 883-891, doi: doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2011.06.110.