Cumulative effect assessment : analysis of interrelationships among drivers (stressors) and valued ecosystem components in multifunctional tropical wetlands | |
| Author | Afroze, Shirina |
| Call Number | AIT Thesis no.EV-10-16 |
| Subject(s) | Cumulative effects assessment--Environmental aspects Tropics Wetlands--Environmental aspects--Tropics |
| Note | A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Environmental Engineering and Management |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Abstract | The concept of cumulative effect assessment (CEA) as a theory and tool for the quantitative assessment of cumulative effects (impacts) on multifunctional wetlands was furthered in view of a an inherent and chronic lack of environmental data sets in the vast majority of ecosystems in the developing Asia that is a major stumbling block on the way of CEA. Whereas expert opinion as a CEA method has been long recognized, a participatory rural appraisal (PRA) as another important method was largely overlooked despite its strong validity under the circumstances when the required environmental datasets are not available. The gaps due to the lack of parametric data hence call for further development of PRA to complement with the CEA tool. The need to overcome the shortage of data sets is thought to be particularly important due to the fact that the developing world comprises most of the world’s ecosystems, biodiversity and human population. The present approach of CEA was then employed in the assessment of the multifunctional wetlands with a focus on the Hoi An river basin and Truong Giang river-lagoon (Quang Nam province, Central Vietnam), Nam Ngum river basin (four provinces of Central Laos) and the Sundarbans (Bangladesh-India). In order to achieve the main objective of further developing a tool for quantitative CEA on said multifunctional wetlands, (i) direct/indirect drivers, VECs and services provided by VECs were first identified; (ii) using mathematical procedures (digraph theory and matrix analysis), interrelationships among drivers and VECs were then inferred such that the most impacting drivers and most impacted VECs were identified, while principal component analysis(PCA) and remote sensing-geographic information system (RS-GIS) VECs were used to qualitatively/quantitatively assess the impact of drivers and the vulnerabilities of amultitude of services performed by wetland VECs and their multifunctions with respect to the synergistic effects of multiple drivers; and (iii) the necessity of integrating CEA into the strategic environmental assessment (SEA) process was then substantiated and critically evaluated for the above-mentioned wetlands. Identified relevant sets of direct and indirect drivers demonstrate that despite substantial geographic and socio-economic differences between the studied areas in three different countries, drivers were nearly identical but varying in magnitude. Identification of physico-chemical, biological and socio-economic VECs showed that these performed services for the three geographic areas were substantially differing in terms of biological VECs but similar in physico-chemical and socio-economic VECs. Assessment of interrelationships between a multitude of relevant drivers by matrix analysis, digraph clustering and PCA showed that, despite the near identical drivers for all three area, driver inter relationships varied significantly. PCA demonstrated that, in terms of the quantification of cumulative impacts by a multitude of drivers on VECs and their services, the Nypa palm forest, surface water and the unique Heriteria forest was the most vulnerable VEC in Hoi An river basin, Nam Ngum are and Sundarbans, respectively. As vulnerability can also be measured by mapping on a categorical scale, the RS-GIS technique is anticipated to be most useful in further work. Lastly, while application of CEA within SEA in developed countries is practiced mainly at the project-level environmental impact assessments (EIAs) and not, as required at the SEA level, in Viet Nam and Laos even project-level CEA application is not practiced. All future developments are not fully incorporated in the current SEA, while mostly sectoral approach is pursued (e.g. SEA on hydropower developments only) not meeting requirements of a truly comprehensive SEA, which should incorporate all related developments. |
| Year | 2010 |
| Type | Thesis |
| School | School of Environment, Resources, and Development (SERD) |
| Department | Department of Energy and Climate Change (Former title: Department of Energy, Environment, and Climate Change (DEECC)) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Environmental Engineering (EV) |
| Chairperson(s) | Shipin, Oleg V.; |
| Examination Committee(s) | Visvanathan, C. ;Ebbers, Theo; |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | Norway Government; |
| Degree | Thesis (M.Sc.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2010 |