누적영향평가를 위한 평가범위 산정에 관한 연구

Abstract

A Study on Range of Environmental Impact Assessment for Cumulative Effect Assessment: Living Environment Sector Cumulative effects can be defined as impacts on environment which results from incremental impacts of a proposed project, which covers other past, present, and reasonably foreseeable future actions. The necessity of Cumulative Effect Assessment is that, when there are several projects near the project area, environmental effects of individual project can be larger or smaller than those of individual project without having projects nearby because of synergy, ascending and descending effects. Considering current legislation of South Korea, Cumulative Effect Assessment has not worked well because Environmental Impact Assessment Law and related regulations did not define cumulative effect explicitly. To carry out Cumulative Effect Assessment efficiently, identifying spatial and temporal boundaries is essential from the scoping stage of project. Especially, spatial boundary is very important because it is used to decide whether plaintiff―when there was a suit related to Environmental Impact Assessment―has a right to sue in South Korea. Currently, Korea does not have scoping stage that can be seen in other countries. But the Ministry of Environment has been giving public notice that it would amend the Environmental Impact Assessment Law that obligates the scoping stage. This study was intended to help Environmental Impact Assessment practitioners identify spatial and temporal boundaries during the scoping stage. To do this, literature review of domestic and foreign legislations, guidelines, textbooks and papers related to Environmental Impact Assessment & Cumulative Effect Assessment was accomplished. Findings of this study demonstrate: first, the appropriate range in a road construction project to assess air quality and noise is determined to be 200m and 300m respectively. Second, the appropriate range in a incineration plant construction project, a power plant construction project, and a landfill site preparation project is determined to be 5km, 10km, and 4km respectively. Third, the appropriate range to assess water quality is determined to be watershed. Fourth, minimum separation distance or separation distance recommended in foreign countries can be used as reference for spatial boundary. Compared to U.S. and Canada which have no guidelines as to future temporal boundary, EU recommended 5 years for future temporal boundary. On the other hand, this study recommends that total duration of project be considered as future temporal boundary. For cumulative effects, the time-frame relates only to those past or future projects whose any adverse effects overlap. In order to legislate Cumulative Effect Assessment in South Korea, partial amendment of Environmental Policy Act and Environmental Impact Assessment Law needs to be considered. Specifically, the term "proposed project" of clause 28 of Environmental Policy Act and clause 1 and 31 of Environmental Impact Assessment Law is being amended as "proposed project and other projects which are under construction and are already-planned". Furthermore, the definition of effects described at the clause 2 of the regulation of environmental impact statement preparation needs to be changed from "every deleterious direct, indirect, short-term and long-term impacts resulted from implementation of proposed project which produces the change of environment" to "every beneficial and deleterious impact including direct, indirect, cumulative, short-term and long-term impact resulted from implementation of proposed project which produces the change of environment". This study suggests that continuous research be needed in order to identify spatial boundaries for other assessment fields and to develop methodologies on cumulative effect assessment.