Anastássios Perdicoúlis

Territorial Impact Assessment of European Draft Directives—The Emergence of a New Policy Assessment Instrument

Abstract European Union directives, along with their transposing arrangements in EU member states, can have unanticipated and sometimes undesirable impacts on certain regions and places. These include impacts on the use of space (e.g. new infrastructure or sprawl), governance, and on wider social, economic or environmental dimensions. Although ex-ante assessment of the potential impacts of EU initiatives has been carried out since 2002 through the European Commissions Impact Assessment procedure and also through national equivalents in some member states, important impacts are still overlooked, frequently because of their territorially heterogeneous nature within and between EU member states. This paper presents the results of the ESPON EATIA research project, in which a new territorial impact assessment methodology was developed for national and regional administrations in EU member states in order to inform their national positions during the negotiation of European draft directives and potentially other policy proposals.

The Use of Indicators in Planning: Effectiveness and Risks

Abstract Indicators are often used to facilitate planning or governance functions such as policy and decision-making. However, simplifications associated with the creation and use of indicators are capable of undermining the proper conduct of particular tasks. This article analyses the use of indicators in key planning tasks in relation to potential effectiveness and risks, and reflects on the use and creation of indicators.

Systems Thinking and Decision Making in Urban and Environmental Planning

In this path-breaking book, Anastassios Perdicoulis progresses the conception and expression of the planning problem as an ‘extended mental model’. In doing so he concisely expresses the essential elements of strategic planning (conditions, objectives, action) in a visual form which both stimulates and clearly communicates reasoning. As a result, concerns, defined objectives, and corresponding actions are uniquely linked. He goes on to illustrate how the structural and functional organization of the target system extends naturally into the planning process, and how decision-making therefore becomes based on systems learning.

AN ALTERNATING-SEQUENCE CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR EIA-EMS INTEGRATION

The integration of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Environmental Management Systems (EMS) has been approached several times in recent years. This article reviews existing conceptual frameworks and specific issues regarding the EIA-EMS integration, and recommends a new conceptual framework which is based on an alternating sequence of EMS and EIA. It also proposes adaptations in key documents of both processes. The recommendations are adaptable to the varied practice of EIA across the globe, and conform to the ISO14001-compliant EMS protocol.

The causality premise of EIA in practice

This article is concerned with issues regarding the rigour of the expression of causality in EIA and the alternative means of communicating that, such as causal diagrams, text, and impact matrices. The intention is to promote discussion and experimentation about thinking and expressing causality clearly in EIA, which can hopefully make a contribution to better practice.

HOW CLEARLY IS CAUSALITY COMMUNICATED IN EIA

Causality, or the relation of cause and effect, is a fundamental notion in impact assessment, indicating how impacts arise from development actions. In the context of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), recent research in the UK has indicated that impact statements typically do not contain graphic expressions of causality. This article explores the extent to which causality about environmental impacts is described in the text of the Environmental Impact Statements (EIS). The analysis methodology employs two techniques, semantics analysis and transcription of the text into causal digraphs, while the case study material is sampled from ten recent UK and US impact statements. The research indicates in many cases that the communication of causality has faults such as uncertainty or absence of important information, and we highlight the implications for the practice of EIA.

Widening the Scope — Sustainability Indicators, Legal Thresholds and Standards in Portugal

This chapter widens the scope of legal thresholds and standards from EIA to sustainability, and illustrates this with the case of Portugal.

Systems thinking and SEA

Abstract Systems thinking seeks ‘how things work’ in an explicit way, considering not only the elements of systems (or processes) but most importantly the relationships between them. Its suggested contribution to SEA is that practitioners and researchers who are either (a) not entirely satisfied by reductionistic approaches based on behaviour or statistics (e.g. ‘black boxes’ or ‘composite points’), or (b) pro-active enough to seek understanding about the SEA process, SEA systems (e.g. per country), as well as the ‘object systems’ of SEA (physical and social structures) will be able to fulfil their curiosity or need for unequivocal and transparent documentation in what respects structure and function.