Theoretical And Practical Study On The Regional Environmental Assessment

Due to only focusing on development projects and lacking strategic vision, the traditional EIA has shown great limitations. Since the middle of 1970s, some developed countries in Europe and the United States had acknowledged the inadequacy of the EIA of projects and they had done a lot of research in the next twenty years. When the strategy of sustainable development was proposed, the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) was also suggested.Compared to ordinary projects Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), the superiorities of Regional Environmental Assessment (REA) are its early implementation during the decision-making process and its inclusion of all the projects of a particular type or in a particular region. Therefore REA can ensure the adequate assessment of substitute program, the consideration of cumulative effects, the comprehensive public consultation and making plans related to a particular project before the implementation rather than after it.In our country, the Regional Environmental Assessment is on the lowest level of Strategic Environmental Assessment. The Regional Environmental Assessment is to comprehensively consider what the impacts that will be caused to the society, economy and environment by various proposed development of society and economy, and based on that we can make and choose the best action plans, which are to keep regional virtuous circle and sustainable economic development and also to provide basis for decision-making for regional development planning and management. The evaluation targets of REA are Regional Planning, Town Planning, and Development Zone Planning and so on. It is an important means to coordinate the regional environment and development from the perspective of system. The basic assessment procedures of REA can be divided into following steps:â‘ analysis of regional development strategyâ‘¡environment investigations and environmental capacity analysisâ‘¢environmental impact analysis and predictionâ‘£the conclusion of REA. At present, a large number of industrial park projects are being built throughout the country. All the environment assessment work related to these projects belongs to REA, however, due to differences of regions and production projects, showing different characters. Therefore we should make evaluations at the strategic level according to the local water, air and ecological conditions, and make policies and planning programs which suit the regional sustainable economic development.This essay makes a systematic conclusion and explorative study on the theory and methods of REA. It also makes a further study on the aspects of REA such as contents and methods based on the environmental impact assessment projects of a certain Economic Development Zone in Changchun City and another university's foundation park.This Economic Development Zone in Changchun City covers characteristics of a large area and complex pollutants. This zone is a mix of industrial, commercial, residential, warehousing and construction areas and therefore the wastewater, emissions and residues produced will be quite complex and so that it will be very difficult to analyze and there is much to be taken in consideration. The Development Zone should enhance the supervision and management of the entire process of industrial waste discharge and disposal status. First, a comprehensive and scientific environmental waste management mechanism should be established, the Development Zone should also strengthen the management of the entire process, promote the concentrated disposal, especially enhance the management of the gather and delivery of hazardous waste, reduce environmental risks. Moreover, the Development Zone should also take its sustainable development into full consideration and make an appropriate evaluation and prediction for it.The construction of the university's foundation park construction project has complex uses; different uses cause different ways of pollution and the types of pollution are also different, therefore their impacts on environment are different too. There are chemical laboratories in the park; therefore the park has a different nature from other types of construction projects such as industrial and medical category. From the aspect of sewage discharge, the sewage caused by living is more than the capacity discharged by laboratories because a lot of students live on campus. If the sewage from the laboratories is diluted with living sewage, it will be easier to meet the emission standard; however, this practice will cause a certain impact on the environment. Therefore, it is very important to control the overall pollutant discharge amount of the park. Furthermore, as the student canteens in the park have the capacity of more than ten thousands people at the same time, a lot of smoke is brought during cooking, therefore the choice of fuel should be controlled in particular, and the clean fuel, which is natural gas should be adopted in line with the environmental standards. Comparing with the Economic Development Zone, although the university foundation park belongs to the EIA of small regions, due to it has its unique pollutant the treatments in these aspects should not be ignored.The analysis of the two examples demonstrates that Regional Environmental Assessment should be based on the actual situation in different regions, to better coordinate the relationship between the regional development and the surrounding environment and to meet the needs of sustainable development of the park.The current regional environmental impact assessment (REA) in China is mainly on the regional environmental quality and capacity, which is based on the programming control technique and acts in close coordination with the development of the environmental management construction. However, the assessment does not consider the sustainability of the whole environmental system and the regional comprehensive sustainability, which is in the period of the transition from EIA to SEA. Regional development SEA mode in a higher strategic level is needed to carry out the sustainable development strategy. There are many limitations in the research methods on the REA in China. The qualitative analysis and quantitative prediction should be combined better and some new techniques, such as remote sensing technique and environmental information technique, should be fully applied to REA.