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GIS in Screening, Scoping, Baseline Studies, Impact Prediction, Mitigation and Monitoring

GIS can be used throughout the environmental impact assessment process, including screening projects, scoping assessments, developing baseline studies, predicting impacts, identifying mitigation measures, and monitoring projects. Specifically, GIS allows for calculating project areas, overlaying maps to identify sensitive areas, displaying and analyzing spatial trend data, quantifying impacts like land use changes, modeling spatial processes, evaluating alternative project locations, and informing mitigation requirements and monitoring needs. GIS provides an integrated tool for the entire EIA process.

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Vikaas Sager
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262 views22 pages

GIS in Screening, Scoping, Baseline Studies, Impact Prediction, Mitigation and Monitoring

GIS can be used throughout the environmental impact assessment process, including screening projects, scoping assessments, developing baseline studies, predicting impacts, identifying mitigation measures, and monitoring projects. Specifically, GIS allows for calculating project areas, overlaying maps to identify sensitive areas, displaying and analyzing spatial trend data, quantifying impacts like land use changes, modeling spatial processes, evaluating alternative project locations, and informing mitigation requirements and monitoring needs. GIS provides an integrated tool for the entire EIA process.

Uploaded by

Vikaas Sager
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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GIS in screening, scoping, baseline

studies, impact prediction,


mitigation and monitoring
Lecture 20
GIS in screening
• Screening (deciding whether a project requires EIA) is usually
based on:
• (a) characteristics of the project itself
• (b) the project’s location and the sensitivity of this and the
area nearby
Examples of how GIS can facilitate
screening
• Certain types of projects will require an impact assessment if they
reach or exceed a certain area, and a GIS will be able to calculate this
automatically from a map of the project simple visual inspection of a
map will often suffice, using
• GIS to overlay a map of the project
• map of the relevant sensitive areas
• In some cases an EIA will be required if a project is within a certain
distance from a certain type of feature such as a road or a residential
area
Scoping and GIS
• The types of considerations involved in scoping are quite
similar to those affecting screening
• characteristics of the project
• setting of the project
Examples of GIS use in scoping
• Placing a development proposal within its geographical context will
help inform the scoping process through defining the
• project location
• describing its environmental setting
• helping identify potential conflicts or impacts
• which will require detailed assessment in an EIA; and GIS can be used
for this in ways not too different from those applicable to screening
Baseline studies
• Once the data have been collected and input, GIS can be a
powerful tool for displaying and visualizing trends and
patterns in spatial data sets
Point-type data
• That relate to a specific sampling location (e.g. a pollution
monitoring station) can be displayed in the form of a
proportional-symbol map or, where time series data are
available, perhaps as a series of maps at various intervals to
reflect the dynamic nature of the environmental baseline
Proportional-symbol map
Spatially continuous data
• (e.g. noise, rainfall, topography, groundwater, air pollution) can be
used (given a sufficient spatial sample) to produce a contour (isoline)
map or, in the case of topography, as a digital terrain models (DTM) to
describe the baseline terrain
Contour (isoline) map
Linear data
• Linear data describing features such as rivers or roads can be
represented using colour-coding, or perhaps with variations
of line width in proportion to the data values e.g. to
illustrate traffic-flow data along roads
Area data
• Which relate to discrete spatial units (e.g. census data,
designated sites and habitat patches) can be displayed as
choropleth maps, where the intensity of shading is used to
reflect the data values
Choropleth maps
GIS in impact prediction
• Impact prediction lies at the core of EIA and is intended to
identify the magnitude and other dimensions of likely
changes to the environment which can be attributed to a
development proposal (Glasson et al. 2005)
Quantitative estimation using GIS
• GIS is obviously most suited to dealing with the spatial dimension of
impacts, and at the simplest level of analysis they can be used to
make quantitative estimates of aspects such as:
• the “land take” caused by development (e.g. the total area of
agricultural land, grassland or wetland habitat which may be lost)
• the length of road or pipeline which passes through a designated
landscape area
• the number/importance of features such as archaeological finds or
ancient monuments that would be lost to the development
Modelling using GIS
• The entire process of developing and implementing a model takes
place within the GIS software, i.e. GIS is used for data input and
preparation, modelling, and finally for the display and spatial analysis
of model output
• While GIS may be used in data preparation, the actual modelling is
undertaken outside the GIS software using an independent
computer model, the output from which is imported back into the
GIS for purposes of display and further spatial analysis
GIS in mitigation
• One of the most effective uses of GIS technology in terms of
mitigation in the broadest sense relates to the identification
and evaluation of alternative locations for a development
project
• Given a comprehensive spatial database and a series of
clearly defined constraints or preferences, GIS overlay
analysis can be used to good effect to identify and compare
potential sites (or route alignments for linear developments)
GIS overlay map
GIS in mitigation
• In other situations, mitigation requirements may draw upon GIS analysis
already conducted at an earlier stage in the EIA
• For example, the maps produced for the baseline and impact assessment
stages in an ecological assessment could be used to investigate:
• the potential for minimising impacts on nature conservation sites or habitat
patches by project design modifications such as minor road realignments
• the suitability of options in particular localities, e.g. of new woodland
planting in relation to existing woodland cover (Purdy and Ferris 1999);
• the optimum locations and dimensions of buffer zones to protect sensitive
habitats
GIS in monitoring
• For large-scale development projects where a GIS system
has been developed for use in EIA, it makes sense for the
system to be used in the post-development phase as an
integrative tool to store, analyse and display monitoring
data
• In this way the GIS becomes a tool for use in the actual
operational environmental management, perhaps as part of
an Environmental Management Plan
Conclusion
• It should be clear from the previous discussion that the technical
potential of GIS for EIA is enormous:
• GIS is able to combine individual maps and databases and perform
spatial analysis (overlay, buffering, viewshed analysis etc.) which
would be difficult and time consuming to achieve by hand, and
which are not part of the armoury of standard mapping packages
• In addition, all this can be achieved with maximum accuracy, and
with the flexibility to combine data collected from a variety of
sources and at a variety of scales

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