A Preliminary Study On The Indicator System For Marine Environmental Impact Assessment Audits In China

Along with the rapid development of marine economy in China, the propotion of marin economy in the National Economy Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is increasing. Since China is gradually becoming a ocean strong power from a ocean country, utilization of marine resources has been a new growth point of national economy. However, rapid economic development not only depends on science and technology, but also requires more space and resources. Although the vast territory and abundant resources in our country, central and western regions are mountains and desert which are sparsely populated. On the contrary, the eastern part has good industrial base, social and natural conditions, thus many large projects set up in the coastal zone for the reason of rich resources, for example, convenience port, good economic environment and more easily draining sewage. However, during construction process in most marine engineerings, the natural properties of the sea are damaged accompanying by increased water exchange cycle, deteriorated water quality and decay of animals and plants and so on. Although the ocean occupy 71% of the Earth surface area, and the carrying capacity of the marine environment seems unlimited, however, the sea area which is closely related to the human life are extremely limited, just shallow waters and estuarine areas. The limited carrying capacity of the environment are greatly influenced by human activities, for exampel, Reclamation, channel dredging, the industrial and agricultural waste, so that the environmental carrying capacity of coastal zones are facing more and more challenges, the deterioration of the environment is an undisputed fact. According to the marine environment communique released by State Oceanic Administration People's Republic Of China, the area of sea water which does not meet standards water quality is increaseing, the total amount of pollutants keeps growing, and the abnormal phenomenons, such as eutrophication, imbalance between nitrogen and phosphorus, environmental pollution, habitat loss or change, degradation of spawning grounds in the estuary and biological community structure, can be found in most area. Most bays, estuaries, coastal wetland are in the sub-health status, or unhealthy.Thus we can find that the growth of marine economy has the expense of environment in China. The degenerated costal zone which has become a bottleneck for further economic development, can affect the healthy and sustainable development of marin economy in China. On the current situation, the actual marine environmental impacts caused by marine engineering often break the value predicted before (mainly are the negative impact on the marine environment). With the concept of sustainable development gradually accepted by the general public, it's time to carry out the marine environmental impact assessment audits in China. At present, the marine environmental impact assessment audits in our country has not been conducted, although it has become mature in foreign countries where the important and typical projects must carry out marine environmental impact assessment audits.The marine environmental impact assessment audits aims to evaluate the method and parameters in the prediction of marine environmental impacts by testing the the accuracy of value predicted before the project conducted, and further supply experiences and lessons for future similar projects in ocean engineering by finding the omitting problems in the prediction. This work is conducted by the filed survey on current environment around the marine engineering and comparing the predicted value in the report of marine environmental impacts. In addition, the implementation of marine environmental impact assessment audits can improve the decision-making, implementation and management level, and can also provide scientific support for management improving and policies establishing. The marine environmental impact assessment audits continues the work of marine environmental impacts prediction. They are contextual in order to monitor marine environment during the whole process of marine engineering. Furthermore, the "Management regulation of prevention marine engineering pollution and harm to marine environtmen" carried out on 1 November,2006 has also clearly pointed out the importance of marine environmental impact assessment audits.This paper first described the concept of marine environmental impact assessment audits, and further analysis its emergence, purpose, effect, method and principle, and the relation of marine environmental impact assessment audits and environment. Since the marine environmental impacts before the project conducted lack of feedback information, to evaluate the change of hydrodynamic environment, chemistry and sediment erosion and depostion predicted before and further test the accuracy of marine environmental impacts, an indicator system of marine environmental impact assessment audits was established in this paper. Both quantitatively and quantitative methodswere used in this study. The indicatior system can be devided into several parts, such as hydrodynamic, water quality, erosion and depostion and ecological evaluation. Each part included several evaluation factors which were marked by scores according to the method described in this paper. The conclusion used to evaluate the early marine environmental impacts can be got by analysising the score quantitatively and assessing qualitatively. This indicatior system has been applied to the environmental impact assessment audits work on marine environmental impact of LingNi northern dyke, a Peninsula Project in Wenzhou, to evaluate the actual effect of project on the marine environment and test the early predicted marine environmental impacts. On the one hand, the actual operational steps and work flow were introduced by this application. On the other hand, the indicatior system can be verified and improved. We can conclude that the indicatior system for marine environmental impact assessment audits we established in this paper is reasonable and operational. However, we also find some problems and difficulties in the practice, for example, the data collection and custody, the source of funding and work mechanism. All of these need a future study. And this paper also tried to give some suggestion.