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W4. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT
(KUL-code: I793)
Lecturer: RAMMELOO R.
Contact hours: 30 hrs. of practical
Prerequisites: none
Time and place: 1st semester, 5 sessions of 3 hours each, K.U.Leuven
Course syllabus: Lecture notes
Evaluation: Personal work: environmental screening of a project proposal from a developing
country (or from another country with comparable climatological and environmental
conditions), scoping of the same project, analysis and evaluation of an existing EIA
Comparable handbook: none (course aimed at the specificities of EIA’s in the third world)
Additional information: -
Learning objectives:
At the end of the workshop the students should be able
- to do an environmental screening (first elementary environmental analysis) of a project proposal, in order to
determine if a more complete environmental evaluation (EIA or other) is needed
- if a more complete evaluation is needed, to determine the scope and contents of it (scoping) in order to give
precise instructions to the specialists going to make the final EIA
- to evaluate the general value, the correctness end the completeness of an EIA that has been made
- to integrate the conclusions of an EIA in the final decisions about a project proposal
Course description:
The aim of the workshop is to provide information on procedures, which have to be followed to assess the
environmental impacts of water engineering works. Its final aim is that the students should be able to do
themselves the environmental screening and scoping of a project proposal, to propose mitigating measures for it
and to determine the contents of a complete EIA, using internationally accepted procedures.
1. History and development of EIA procedures and regulations in different parts of the world: Western
Europe, USA, non-industrialized countries, and international organizations;
2. Principles, structure and contents of EIA studies: general principles, comparison of the different kinds of
procedures;
3. Environmental screening of projects: aim, typology of screening procedures (lists of project types, manual
check-lists, computer assisted screening), examples, documentation (procedures of several organizations:
BADC, EU);
4. Scoping of projects: identification of data, analysis of the proposed action, search for possible alternatives,
techniques to identify the relations between the proposed action and the expected environmental impacts
(check-lists, matrices, networks), identification of the significant impacts (use of criteria and standards),
determination of the contents (items to analyse and techniques to use) of the complete EIA; and
5. Prediction techniques for the complete EIA: in the fields of noise, use of land and soil, landscapes,
ecosystems, water (underground and surface).
The practical work consists of:
Exercises on the screening and scoping of projects from countries of participating students and on the analysis
of existing EIA’s.
Complementary studies in Water Resources Engineering / 20