ID: 1510
Presenting Author: Lauren Osmond
Session: 520 - Connecting infrastructure and IA – Assessing impacts in contested planning
Status: pending
Assessing large infrastructure projects requires evaluating multiple core years, as worst-case environmental impacts vary across phases due to evolving technologies and overlapping activities.
This paper will discuss the complexities involved in the phasing and assessment of large-scale infrastructure projects where there is the challenge of overlapping construction and operational activities and their varying impacts on different receptors. The paper will talk through an example of how the worst-case environmental effects may not coincide with periods of maximum operational capacity for an airport, due to technological advancements such as quieter aircraft and less polluting vehicles. As a result, determining specific project phases and identifying the worst-case years for significant effects is necessary but difficult.
This means that for the technical aspect assessments carried out within the EIA, there is no single year that would result in the identification of the ‘reasonable’ worst case effects, for all aspects. Major periods of construction and operational activities are assessed by reference to a number of ‘core’ years. This approach the assessment enables clear and robust assessment of the effects associated with the activities.
Lauren Osmond is Head of EIA at WSP UK with 25 years’ experience leading complex infrastructure projects. She specialises in directing multidisciplinary teams to deliver sustainable outcomes.