Handbook of Cumulative Impact Assessment: (Research Handbooks on Impact Assessment series)

This important Handbook is an essential guide to the state-of-the-art concepts, debates and innovative practices in the field of cumulative impact assessment. It helps to strengthen the foundations of this challenging field, identify key issues demanding solutions and summarize recent trends in forward progress, particularly through the use of illustrative case examples. Taking an international and transdisciplinary approach, this Handbook provides readers with frameworks and methodologies currently in use by leading academics, consultants and many others involved in cumulative impact assessment and management. This wide-ranging body of work demonstrates increased application of relevant, cross-disciplinary science to cumulative impact assessment problems, as well as a continued commitment to bridge the theory and practice gap for more effective and efficient assessments. Chapters also address contemporary and often controversial issues across a variety of sectors including agriculture, energy, watershed management, regional land use planning, and transport. This cutting-edge Handbook will be of great interest to academics and students who wish to further develop their understanding of key concepts within the field. It will also be beneficial to practitioners, industry, government officials and the many organizations involved in cumulative impact assessment processes.

Table of Contents:
Contents: Foreword xv Thomas R. Berger Foreword xx Sara Bice Foreword xxiii Peter Croal Foreword xxvi Renée Pelletier PART I FOUNDATIONS AND DEVELOPMENT 1 Introduction: Foundations, issues and contemporary challenges in cumulative impact assessment 2 Jill Blakley 2 Cumulative effects assessment requirements in selected developed and developing countries 21 Ayodele Olagunju, Divine Odame Appiah, Paulina Maria Porto Silva Cavalcanti, Bridget Durning, Juan Carlos Tejeda-González, Jason McLean, Richard Morgan, and Rebecca Nelson 3 Anatomy of a cumulative effects issue: farmland drainage, watershed landscape change and wetland loss in east-central Saskatchewan, Canada 43 Jeff Olson 4 The challenge of cumulative effects assessment at the project level 62 George Hegmann PART II APPROACHES AND TOOLS 5 Conceptualizing cumulative social impacts in complex development environments 75 Ilse Aucamp and Stephan Woodborne 6 Scenario planning in cumulative effects assessment 92 Peter N. Duinker and Lorne A. Greig 7 Measures to effectively forecast potential cumulative effects 106 Chris Sunderland 8 Cumulative impacts and strategic environmental assessment: policy development for Australia’s Great Barrier Reef 123 Evan Hamman, Karen Vella, and Umberto Baresi 9 The challenge and opportunity of applying ecological thresholds to environmental assessment decision making 140 Chris J. Johnson and Justina C. Ray 10 Assessing cumulative effects in regional and strategic assessment 158 Bram Noble and Jill Blakley 11 A systems approach to cumulative social impact assessment 174 Bill Grace and Jenny Pope PART III CUMULATIVE IMPACT ASSESSMENT IN PRACTICE 12 Mitigating cumulative biodiversity impacts 191 Riki Thérivel, Jill Blakley, and Jo Treweek 13 ‘Green’ is good, but is more ‘green’ always better? Wind farm development and cumulative social impact assessment 213 James Baines 14 Cumulative impact assessment for groundwater 230 Sue Vink, Paul Howe, and Chris Moran 15 Fourteen lessons from road ecology for cumulative effect assessments 250 Jochen A. G. Jaeger and Aurora Torres 16 Cumulative effects assessment and management in Alberta 274 Chris Powter and Dallas Johnson 17 Holistic cumulative effects assessments for watershed risk assessment 294 Barry J. Wilson PART IV CUMULATIVE IMPACT MANAGEMENT 18 The limitations of utilizing collaborative governance for cumulative effects assessment and management 311 Richard D. Margerum 19 Using indicators to measure outcomes: adaptive assessment 325 Will Rifkin 20 Cumulative effects and governance in the Yukon: honouring the treaty relationship 346 Kiri Staples and Lindsay Staples 21 Monitoring that matters: towards effective ecological monitoring to address cumulative impacts on biodiversity 361 A. Cole Burton and Cheryl-Lesley B. Chetkiewicz Index

About the Author :
Edited by Jill A.E. Blakley, Associate Professor of Environmental Impact Assessment, Department of Geography and Planning and School of Environment and Sustainability, University of Saskatchewan, Canada and Daniel M. Franks, Professor of Governance and Leadership in Mining, Sustainable Minerals Institute, University of Queensland, Australia

Review :
‘The book will be most useful to researchers and practitioners interested in moving forward with the practice and implementation of cumulative impact assessment.’ 'The consideration of cumulative effects is a critically important and complex aspect of impact assessment. Blakley and Franks have gathered an impressive list of leading experts to offer a broad range of insightful perspectives. Importantly, the book covers both biophysical and social impacts, and deals with cumulative effects at the project, strategic and regional level. It should be on the essential readings list of practitioners, academics and students alike.' ‘The handbook concentrates much of the current thinking on cumulative impact assessment, contains a wealth of information, and condenses knowledge of interest to anyone who, as a professional or as an academic, is involved in any form of impact assessment because in no way responsible practice can ignore cumulative effects.’