Environmental performance value of projects: An environmental impact assessment tool

Abstract

The aim of this research is to provide a common methodology for setting environmental performance (EP) values in various projects/activities and involve public in the decision-making process. To hierarchically evaluate the contribution of every environmental component to the environment of the study area, the assessor evaluates the existing as well as the potential situation of the environment by providing different weights to a set of environmental components. Various features of project's impact on each environmental component are assessed both in the construction and the operational phase. A final environmental evaluation grade for every project evokes for every assessor by the use of a series of simple formulae. To illustrate the use of the proposed tool, the results of its application to 14 cases are presented. The proposed tool uses common criteria and scales to all environmental impact assessment judgments, integrates public participation in the process and concludes, through a uniform methodology, with EP values that should lead either to the acceptance or rejection of a project execution.