4.4 Article

Perspectives from landscape ecology can improve environmental impact assessment

期刊

FACETS
卷 6, 期 -, 页码 358-378

出版社

CANADIAN SCIENCE PUBLISHING
DOI: 10.1139/facets-2020-0049

关键词

cumulative effects assessment; habitat connectivity; aerial photography; historical remote sensing; multiple stressors; open data

资金

  1. NSERC CGS-Master's scholarship
  2. UBC Forestry's Strategic Recruitment Fund
  3. NSERC Canadian Network of Aquatic Ecosystem Services
  4. NSERC Discovery Grant
  5. World Wildlife Fund (WWF)Canada

向作者/读者索取更多资源

The outcomes of environmental impact assessment (EIA) are significant and can be contentious, with the consideration of cumulative effects being crucial. By incorporating core scientific principles of landscape ecology, the rigor and usefulness of EIA and cumulative effects assessment can be enhanced.
The outcomes of environmental impact assessment (EIA) influence millions of hectares of land and can be a contentious process. A vital aspect of an EIA process is consideration of the accumulation of impacts from multiple activities and stressors through a cumulative effects assessment (CEA). An opportunity exists to improve the rigor and utility of CEA and EIA by incorporating core scientific principles of landscape ecology into EIA. With examples from a Canadian context, we explore realistic hypothetical situations demonstrating how integration of core scientific principles could impact EIA outcomes. First, we demonstrate how changing the spatial extent of EIA boundaries can misrepresent cumulative impacts via the exclusion or inclusion of surrounding natural resource development projects. Second, we use network analysis to show how even a seemingly small, localized development project can disrupt regional habitat connectivity. Lastly, we explore the benefits of using long-term historical remote sensing products. Because these approaches are straightforward to implement using publicly available data, they provide sensible opportunities to improve EIA and enhance the monitoring of natural resource development activities in Canada and elsewhere.

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