Detailed description of the chains of causalities of environmental impacts Robert Joumard, Gerassimos Arapis & Tomasz Zacharz 1. Existing lists of impacts 2. Detailed impacts and tentative aggregation

 What are the impacts on environment?  What are their characteristics or typical features?  Answer to these questions (description of the chain of causalities) allows us  to define what we want to measure with indicators of environmental impacts  to define quite precisely the term 'environment’  Description the chain of causalities for each impact allows to express clearly  what each potential indicator measures and does not measure  on which scientific mechanisms an indicator should be based Objectives RJ07-130

1. Climate change 2. Land take, landuse (to be merged with habitat fragmentation?) 3. Hydraulic risk / hydrological changes 4. Visual qualities of landscape/townscape, light pollution 5. Habitat fragmentation (biota and humans) 6. Air pollution (primary and secondary) 7. Soil and water pollution 8. Noise: short-term noise emission, vibration, quiet areas 9. Non-renewable resource use 10. Waste 11. Perceived pollution: Odour, soiling, visibility 12. Ecotoxicity 13. Human health 14. Traffic safety List of the initial impacts from the action RJ07-131

 Global warming  Ozone depletion  Photochemical pollution  Acidification  Eutrophication  Direct restricted health effects  Direct ecotoxicity  Sensitive pollution  Degradation of common man-made heritage  Degradation of historic man-made heritage More detailed and non redondant impact categories due to pollutant emissions (Goger, 2006) RJ07-132

Climate Climate change Transport System Infrastructure Vehicles Propellants Atmosphere Traffic safety Lithosphere: Soil and Water Acoustics Congestion Waste System Energy System Material System Impact Ecosystems Humanity Health Well being Humans Air pollution Odour Hazardous matterial spills Fires Accidents (roadkill) Landtake and Landuse Visual Landscape Habitat fragmentation Soil and water pollution Wastes Noise Vibration CMG KOMAG - proposal

 Criteria used to define each impact not clear / defined  Transport system well defined  Missing target: man-made heritage  Some redundancies  Too simple chains of causalities: type of effect is missing, no successive impacts  Proposal  In-depth analysis of all known impacts on the environment  Tentative of classifying all the impacts Review of the previous types RJ07-133

Main characteristics of the impacts: sources and targets RJ07-134

 Sources  Targets  Reversibility  Distance scale from the source  Time scale  Main scientific disciplines involved in the chain of impact = physical, chemical, biological or psychological / sociological phenomena Main characteristics of the impacts RJ07-135

 Habitat fragmentation for biota  source: infrastructure; target: ecosystems; practically irreversible, local scale, biology/ecology  Greenhouse  all sources (mainly traffic), all targets, scales century and earth, successive chains of impacts  High spots of noise  source traffic, restricted health and well-being, local and short term scales, physical, biological and psycho-physical phenomena Examples of impact categories RJ07-136

 38 different impact categories  Heterogeneous typology  Sometimes defined by the source (waste), sometimes by the final impact (biodiversity), sometimes by the mid-chain impact (ozone depletion)  Tentative of aggregation because  Difficult to list always 38 impacts  Similarities between some of the 38 impacts  Base for a common indicator?  Result: 15 large types described by  common characteristic(s)  common indicator Impact categories RJ07-137

 Noise and vibration Noise: high spots Noise: scarcity of quiet areas Vibration  same source: traffic, first causality: emission of noise/vibrations  km, hour  acoustics (physics) and annoyance (psycho-physics)  targets: health and well-being  no common indicator Aggregation of 38 types of impacts (1/9) RJ07-138

 Local air quality Direct ecotoxicity Direct restricted health effects of air pollution Odour (sensitive pollution) Soiling (sensitive pollution) Visibility (sensitive pollution)  km, all time scale  first causality: emission of atmospheric pollutants  without physico-chemical transformation  no common indicator Aggregation of 38 types of impacts (2/9) RJ07-139

 Regional air quality Acidification Eutrophication Photochemical pollution: ecotoxicity Photochemical pollution: indirect restricted health effects  1000 km, all time scale  first causality: emission of atmospheric pollutants  with physico-chemical transformations  no common indicator : acidification, eutrophication, ozone potentials Aggregation of 38 types of impacts (3/9) RJ07-140

 Quality, usages and regimes of water Hydraulic changes Hydraulic risk Soil and water pollution: agriculture Soil and water pollution: drinking water (water quality, uses and régime) Soil and water pollution: ecosystems Soil and water pollution: outdoor recreation  same final or medium target: water/soil  no common indicator Aggregation of 38 types of impacts (4/9) RJ07-141

 Protected areas Habitat fragmentation for biota Natural protected areas Wild life protected area  source: infrastructure  target: mainly ecosystems  phenomena: modification of fauna habitat  common indicator?  Waste  first phenomena: production of waste  large diversity of chains of impacts, including some among the 37 others  common indicator: waste production, weighted by a impact factor?  Loss of biodiversity  Final phenomena: disappearance of fauna and flora species  large diversity of chains of impacts, including some among the 37 others  common indicator: risk of disappearance of species? Aggregation of 38 types of impacts (5/9) RJ07-142

 Light pollution  first phenomena: emission of light during the night  large diversity of chains of impacts, including some among the 37 others  common indicator: light power, weighted by the visibility?  Technological hazards  first phenomena: accidents  large diversity of chains of impacts, including some among the 37 others  indicator? Aggregation of 38 types of impacts (6/9) RJ07-143

 Landscape, cultural and built heritage Degradation of common man-made heritage Degradation of historic man-made heritage Destruction of common man-made heritage Destruction of historic man-made heritage Habitat fragmentation for humans Visual qualities of landscape/townscape  main source: infrastructure  targets: well-being and man-made heritage  psycho-sociology  no common indicator Aggregation of 38 types of impacts (7/9) RJ07-144

 Landuse  targets: ecosystems and resources (?)  common indicator: infrastructure area?  Non-renewable resource use  target: resources  no common indicator: specific to each resource  Ozone depletion Ozone depletion: ecotoxicity Ozone depletion: indirect restricted health effects  mid-chain target: tropospheric ozone  common indicator: ozone depletion potential based on emissions? Aggregation of 38 types of impacts (8/9) RJ07-145

 Climate change Greenhouse effect Dimming  mid-chain target: climate change  large diversity of chains of impacts, including some among the 37 others  no common indicator: GWP based on emissions, dimming potential based on air quality  Safety of transport users and residents  specific chain of causalities  common indicators: mortality rate (number of deaths), number of injuries (serious or not) / number of impairments, lost life years Aggregation of 38 types of impacts (9/9) RJ07-146

 Necessity to describe in detail what are the impacts to be able to “measure” them by using indicators  What do we want to measure?  In order not to forget some impacts  Quite exhaustive description by 38 impact categories  Most of the 38 impacts are end-point ones  Some are mid/end point ones: ozone depletion, climate change  Some are initial impacts: waste, light pollution, technological hazards  Tentative of aggregation into 15 large impacts  Similarity criteria non homogeneous  Rarely base for a common indicator  More a didactic than a scientific figure Conclusion RJ07-147