Research On Environmental Impact Identification Method And Application Of Urban Master Planning

In the process of an environmental impact assessment (EIA), the environmentalimpact identification (EII) is the first step to make a comprehensive analysis thatcombines the human activity and environmental response. In the next stage EIA predictsand evaluates major and noticeable environmental issues from the effects of humanactivities identified by EII. However, due to the time lag between urban master planningand EIA intervention, it is difficult for EIA to play the role in adjusting and correctingthe planning scheme in China. The study suggests that the contents of EII should be thepart of the environmental protection chapter in the urban master planning so that theplanner is able to prejudge the significance of the potential environmental issues fromthe planning scheme at an early phase. Therefore, the planner can easily review therational of the planning scheme, the strategic goals and the protective measures to makethe urban master planning more targeted.The study first analyzes the commonly used methods and related applications ofEII in EIA. Considering the characteristics of the urban master planning, the Checklistsand the Matrices are selected as applicable methods. Based on the analysis of everyaspect of urban master planning and the qualitative description of any potentialenvironmental impact caused by implementation of urban master planning, a checklistis made and converted to the input of the EII matrix. Through comparing with thepresent and future vision of city during master plan implementation and referring torelevant area experts, we build an index system which can judge the significance of theenvironmental impacts. The EII method in urban master planning is applied to the urbanmaster plan of Suzhou City. Its efficiency is verified clearly by the result ofenvironmental protection plan of Suzhou City.The study consists of three parts. First, a basic EII method being adapted to urbanmaster planning is introduced to determine the expression and the study level of theplanning scheme. Second, it is quite important to analyze the relationship between theplanning and the environment thoroughly, therefore an entire list about EII of urbanmaster planning is made. Finally, the evaluation criteria of significance aboutenvironmental impact caused by urban master planning is proposed, including the index system which can determine sensitivity of receptors and the index system which canjudge the strength of the environmental effects.