11. Cumulative Effects Assessment
- Overview
- Description
- Trainer Info
The two day Cumulative Effects Assessment and Management (CEAM) course aims to teach participants what cumulative effects are, how to identify and predict them, and how to mitigate them. CEA considers effects on receptors rather than the effects of a plan/project, and so requires a different mindset from 'normal' impact assessment. The course discusses how to identify affected receptors, techniques for assessing and evaluating cumulative effects, and what 'other plans and projects' should be considered in CEA. Cumulative effects usually require 'cumulative mitigation', which in turn requires the collaboration of multiple institutions: the course will address some of the issues surrounding this, and how to overcome institutional constraints. It will examine several successful CEA analyses and mitigation measures, and include a range of workshops. Participants are encouraged to bring 'cumulative effect problems' with them, for discussion during the course.
| Level: | Intermediate/Advanced |
Prerequisites: |
Foundation training on EIA (environmental impact assessment), strategic environmental assessment (SEA) or cumulative effects assessment and management (CEAM) (professional-level short course or University-level specific course or program); and/or minimum of 2 years in professional experience in planning and conducting EIA, SEA or CEAM. These prerequisites do not apply to student participants. |
Language: |
English |
Duration: |
2 days (18-19 April) |
Min/Max: |
15-35 |
Instructors: |
Riki Therivel, Ph.D., Partner, Levett-Therivel Sustainability Consultants (UK) |
Special Note: |
Each participant is required to bring a laptop. |
Course description
The two day Cumulative Effects Assessment and Management (CEAM) course aims to teach participants what cumulative effects are, how to identify and predict them, and how to mitigate them. CEA considers effects on receptors rather than the effects of a plan/project, and so requires a different mindset from 'normal' impact assessment. The course discusses how to identify affected receptors, techniques for assessing and evaluating cumulative effects, and what 'other plans and projects' should be considered in CEA. Cumulative effects usually require 'cumulative mitigation', which in turn requires the collaboration of multiple institutions: the course will address some of the issues surrounding this, and how to overcome institutional constraints. It will examine several successful CEA analyses and mitigation measures, and include a range of workshops. Participants are encouraged to bring 'cumulative effect problems' with them, for discussion during the course.
Summary
The premise of this course is that CEAM should be an integral part of, and not separate from other EIA/SEA processes. The course presents stepwise procedures associated with international best practice CEAM principles: identifying key environmental receivers / valued ecosystem components (VECs) and their spatial and temporal boundaries; describing historical baseline conditions and trends; identifying cause-effect linkages between past, present, and future actions and environmental receivers; predicting and evaluating the significance of cumulative effects; and developing follow-up adaptive management/mitigation.
This intermediate/advanced level course aims to:
- summarize the state of professional practice regarding CEAM
- discuss the steps of CEAM, including potential problems faced and real-life case studies
- apply CEAM procedures to two case studies
- consider approaches to cumulative effects mitigation and management
The course focus will be on practical approaches for management of cumulative effects, including the use of emissions trading, biodiversity or other offsets, and collaborative/strategic planning. Interchange of information and experiences among the participants will be encouraged. The anticipated learning outcomes are achieving a better understanding of the principles and practices of CEAM, and the ability to effectively apply them in study planning and implementation.
Course outline
Homework: Participants will be asked to bring (or pref. to send in advance) examples of cumulative effects, how they have dealt with them, problems they have faced
Day 1
9:00 – 10:30 Introduction
- Introductions and structure of the day
- Definitions + examples of legislation requiring CEAM (RT)
- Brief examples of cumulative impacts, positive and negative (RT)
- Critical importance of CEAM and challenges in conducting CEAM studies (BR)
- Key steps in CEAM (BR)
10:30 – 10:50 Break
10:50 – 11:40 Examples of cumulative effects and CEAM (participants, RT, BR)
11:40 - 12:30 Scoping
- CEAM as a focus on receptor/VEC (BR)
- Understanding how the system works – e.g. additive, synergistic, nonlinear etc. (BR)
- Identifying 'red flag' issues (BR)
- Impact of plan/project as a whole ('total effects') v. cumulative impacts with other plans/projects (RT)
- Role of baseline data (past trends, likely future baseline without the plan/project) (RT)
- Techniques for cumulative effects scoping: scenarios, workshops etc., with real-life examples of each
- Examples of good(ish) CEAM scoping (BR/RT)
12:30 – 13:30 Lunch
13:30 - 14:50 Workshop 1: scoping
- Introduction to case studies, ideally one related to Florence; plus poss. oil exploration plan and climate change/equity; onshore windfarm project and visual/biodiversity impacts
- Ask groups to discuss:
- What cumulative impacts might arise?
- How could they be identified?
- What are 'red flag' issues and how do you know?
- Plenary
14:50 - 15:10 Break
15:10 - 16:30 Other plans and projects
- What other plans/projects/human actions to consider (BR)
- Workshop 2: What other plans/projects/human actions should be considered? Who needs to be involved in the CEAM? (BR)
- Plenary
16:30 Conclude
Day 2
9:00 – 10:00 Cumulative impact prediction
- Techniques for impact prediction (modelling, GIS etc., with real-life examples of each) (RT)
- Scale issues, assumptions and uncertainty in CEAM (BR)
- Examples of good(ish) CEAM impact prediction (BR/RT)
10:00-11:20 Workshop 3: Predicting cumulative impacts
- Impact predictions based on case studies from Day 1
- Plenary: predicting cumulative impacts
- Tea/coffee taken during workshop
11:20 – 12:30 Mitigating cumulative impacts
- 'cumulative mitigation for cumulative impacts' (RT)
- types of mitigation, e.g. thresholds/standards, compensation (>1:1 etc.), provision of alternative 'attractors', etc.) (RT)
- strategic level v. project level mitigation (RT)
- issues in agreeing and implementing mitigation, esp. involvement of multiple parties (BR)
- examples of good(ish) cumulative effects mitigation (BR/RT)
12:30 – 13:30 Lunch
13:30 - 15:00 Workshop 4: Mitigating cumulative impacts
- Using previous case studies, ask groups to
- suggest possible mitigation measures for cumulative impacts
- identify the level at which they would best be mitigated, and who would be the lead authority and other relevant bodies
- identify hurdles to implementing 'cumulative mitigation', and possible solutions to the hurdles
- Plenary
15:00 – 15:20 Break
15:20 – 16:30 Issues in cumulative impacts
- Comprehensive assessment v. focus on key issues (RT)
- CEA in times of austerity (RT)
- Monitoring cumulative effects (RT)
- Resilience and CEAM (RT)
- Biodiversity, ecosystem services and climate change and CEAM (BR)
- Revisit of Canter and Ross's "The good, the bad and the ugly": Have things changed? how can problems be overcome? (BR)
Materials participants will receive prior to or during the course.
Each participant will be provided a course manual containing copies of PowerPoint slides, information on case studies, related workshop materials, and references.Qualifications of the trainers
Bill Ross
Dr. Ross is a Professor Emeritus of Environmental Design in the University of Calgary (January, 2009). He has a BSc degree from the University of Manitoba, and a PhD degree in physics from Stanford University. His main academic interests are in EIA and CEAM. He has been a member of eight Canadian Environmental Assessment panels spanning five decades, and he has been a member and chair of the Independent Environmental Monitoring Agency for Ekati Diamond Mine, Northwest Territories. The recent EA panels on which Bill has served have addressed both project impacts and cumulative effects, as required by Canadian law.
Dr. Ross is the author or co-author of numerous peer-reviewed articles, including several related to CEAM. Further, he was a co-author of the highly respected “Cumulative Effects Assessment Practitioners Guide” (Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency, 1999). He was the Founding President of the Western and Northern Canada Affiliate of IAIA. Dr. Ross also received IAIA’s Rose-Hulman Award at the 2009 annual conference held in Accra.
Riki Therivel
Dr. Therivel is a partner of Levett-Therivel sustainability consultants and a visiting professor at Oxford Brookes University's Department of Planning. She specialises in environmental and social impact assessment of policies, plans and projects, and in resilience thinking. Riki teaches EIA and SEA on Oxford Brookes University's MSc courses in Environmental Assessment and Management. She is the new (Sep. 2014) editor of Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal.