Spatial Ecology and Landuse Unit, Department of Biological and Medical Sciences, Faculty of Health & Life Sciences, Oxford Brookes University, Gipsy Lane, Oxford OX3 0BP, United Kingdom.
Department of Planning, Faculty of Technology, Design and Environment, Oxford Brookes University, Gipsy Lane, Oxford OX3 0BP, United Kingdom.
J Environ Manage. 2015 Sep 1;160:241-53. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2015.06.022. Epub 2015 Jun 25.
Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is a key tool to help ensure sustainable built development in more than 200 countries worldwide. Ecology is frequently a component of EIA and early reviews of Ecological Impact Assessment (EcIA) chapters identified scope for improvement at almost every stage of the EcIA process, regardless of country. However, there have been no reviews of UK EcIA chapters since 2000, despite important changes in biodiversity and planning legislation, policy and guidance. In addition, no UK EcIA chapter reviews have attempted to assign a grade or score to EcIA chapters (as has been done for reviews of US, Finnish and Indian EcIA chapters). Furthermore, no EcIA chapter reviews have attempted to use a scoring system to identify which variables determine EcIA chapter information content, beyond straightforward comparisons of EcIA chapters before and after the introduction of guidelines. A variant of the Biodiversity Assessment Index (BAI) was used to assign scores between zero and one to EcIA chapters based on a series of 47 questions drawn from EU legislation and professional guidance. 112 EcIA chapters for proposed developments that were subsequently granted planning permission in England were assessed. The mean BAI score was less than 0.5, indicating the presence of considerable information gaps in the majority of EcIA chapters. Of 13 predictor variables identified as having the potential to affect EcIA chapter quality, 10 were identified as significantly related to the BAI scores. A backward stepwise Generalized Linear Model identified the use of professional guidance, the ecological consultancy type and the length of the EcIA chapter as having the greatest combined explanatory power. As a result, several recommendations are made to help improve future EcIA chapter content, including formal EcIA chapter review, publicising the professional guidance to consultants, the provision of training and the introduction of an accreditation scheme for consultants involved in EcIA This approach could be replicated in other countries that conduct EIA. Context-dependent EcIA chapter review criteria (as in this paper) would help to identify targeted recommendations for improvement. Alternatively, a global set of review criteria could highlight areas of best practice that could then be exported to other countries.
环境影响评估（EIA）是帮助确保全球 200 多个国家可持续建筑发展的关键工具。生态学通常是 EIA 的一个组成部分，早期对生态影响评估（EcIA）章节的审查发现，无论在哪个国家，EcIA 过程的几乎每个阶段都有改进的空间。然而，自 2000 年以来，英国的 EcIA 章节还没有进行过审查，尽管生物多样性和规划立法、政策和指导发生了重要变化。此外，没有英国的 EcIA 章节审查试图给 EcIA 章节打分或评分（就像对美国、芬兰和印度的 EcIA 章节审查所做的那样）。此外，没有 EcIA 章节审查试图使用评分系统来确定哪些变量决定了 EcIA 章节的信息含量，除了在指南出台前后对 EcIA 章节进行简单的比较之外。根据欧盟立法和专业指导，使用生物多样性评估指数（BAI）的变体，根据从欧盟立法和专业指导中提取的 47 个问题，给 EcIA 章节分配 0 到 1 的分数。对在英格兰随后获得规划许可的拟议开发项目的 112 个 EcIA 章节进行了评估。BAI 的平均得分为低于 0.5，表明大多数 EcIA 章节存在相当大的信息差距。在确定有潜力影响 EcIA 章节质量的 13 个预测变量中，有 10 个被确定与 BAI 得分显著相关。一个向后逐步广义线性模型确定了使用专业指导、生态咨询类型和 EcIA 章节的长度作为具有最大综合解释力的变量。因此，提出了一些建议，以帮助改善未来的 EcIA 章节内容，包括正式的 EcIA 章节审查、向顾问宣传专业指导、提供培训和为参与 EcIA 的顾问引入认证计划。这种方法可以在其他进行 EIA 的国家复制。具有上下文依赖性的 EcIA 章节审查标准（如本文所述）将有助于确定有针对性的改进建议。或者，一套全球性的审查标准可以突出最佳实践领域，然后可以将其输出到其他国家。
