Course info

EnvStud 780 – Assessment of information related to waste and material flows

Content:

Integrated environmental assessment(IEA) is increasingly recognised as an important technique for managing the environmental impacts of human actions. It may be defined as the interdisciplinary process of identification, analysis and appraisal of all the relevant natural and human processes, which affect the quality of the environment and environmental resources. The objective of IEA is to facilitate the framing and implementation of optimal policies and strategies, accounting for both environmental effects and other priorities (e.g. cost constraints).

Course Lecturer: Gerhard Berchtold, PhD

ECTS credits: 6

Coursebook:

Assessment of information related to waste and material flows

A catalogue of methods and tools

Prepared by:

Despo Fatta and Stephan Moll

European Topic Centre on Waste and Material Flows

Project manager:

Dimitrios Tsotsos

European Environment Agency

A great deal of additional information on the European Union is available on the Internet.

It can be accessed through the Europa server (http://europa.eu.int)

©EEA, Copenhagen, 2003

Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged.

ISBN: 92-9167-577-6

European Environment

Integrated environmental assessment (IEA) is increasingly recognised as an important technique for managing the environmental impacts of human actions. It may be defined as the interdisciplinary process of identification, analysis and appraisal of all the relevant natural and human processes, which affect the quality of the environment and environmental resources. The objective of IEA is to facilitate the framing and implementation of optimal policies and strategies, accounting for both environmental effects and other priorities (e.g. cost constraints). Two points worth emphasising about IEA are that it is:

• practical — the purpose is to facilitate making decisions;

• comprehensive — all relevant aspects, which might affect the decision, should be incorporated.

IEA can help managers and decision makers to:

• solve environmental planning and management problems;

• improve their understanding of environmental conditions;

• design protective or remedial strategies (EEA, 1998).

Integrated assessment tools are needed to assess policy-making.