Research Projects

Project number V4-2136, price category A, is co-financed in the total amount of EUR 30,000.00, of which EUR 15,000.00 from the Public Research Agency of the Republic of Slovenia and EUR 15,000.00 from the Ministry of the Environment and space. The project is co-financed for a period of 12 months.

Abstract

Landscape is one of the components of the environment for which an impact assessment must be carried out under the Decree on the method of drafting and on the content of the report on the effects of planned activities affecting the environment (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, No 36/09 and 40/17). The European Landscape Convention (ELC) recognizes the landscape as an essential component of the human environment, which the signatories must incorporate into their policies which may have a direct or indirect impact on it. However, despite the clearly expressed requirements for landscape protection in European and Slovenian documents, there are no clearly defined criteria for assessing impacts on the landscape, so the treatment of landscapes in environmental impact assessments is often marginal, neglected and inadequately addressed. The subject of this project is the preparation of a transparent and professional method of assessing the impact on the landscape.

The project starts from an understanding of the landscape as a complex area as perceived by people and whose character is the result of the action and interaction of natural and/or human factors. The central concept of the methodology that we will develop is the character of the landscape, as a clear, recognizable, and consistent pattern of landscape elements. The methodology will combine geoinformation-based visual exposure analyses and landscape change analyses to evaluate the impact of planned interventions on the landscape.

The project is organized in four work packages. In the first we will review relevant literature, foreign and domestic examples of landscape impact assessments and conduct interviews with the authors of environmental impact assessments, in which we will focus mainly on the treatment of the landscape. In the review we will analyze 1) methods of determining the initial state of the landscape, 2) indicators of baseline situation and change, 3) evaluation of changes and thresholds, 4) synthesis of indicators and final assessments and 5) mitigation measures. This review will form the basis of the second working package in which the landscape impact assessment methodology will be prepared, following the following steps: 1) Scoping, 2) Assessment of the baseline situation, 3) Analysis of changes, 4) Evaluation of changes, 5) Landscape impact assessment. The third working package will develop a typology of possible mitigation measures and, in the last working package, the concept of guidelines for the implementation of the methodology in practice will be created. The project will be completed with a professional workshop where the methodology will be presented and evaluated. A panel of external consultants experienced in conducting environmental impact assessments will advise the project team throughout its implementation.

The phases of the project and their realization
 

• WORK PACKAGE 1: Literature review, foreign and practice of landscape impact assessment review.

Objective: to review the scientific literature and reports of foreign and domestic practices of landscape impact assessments and possible methods of evaluation.

Result: analysis of foreign and domestic examples of landscape impact assessment

• WORK PACKAGE 2: Development of a methodology for landscape impact assessment

Objectives: preparation of a methodology for describing the character of the landscape, preparation of a methodology for determining the impacts of the planned intervention in the landscape and preparation of a set of indicators for assessing the impact of the planned intervention and evaluation criteria.

Results: methodology for describing the character of the landscape, methodology for determining the impact of the planned intervention on the landscape.

• WORK PACKAGE 3: Review and selection of mitigation measures and alternatives

Objective: to identify a set of possible mitigation measures

Result: a typology of mitigation measures with a set of cases

• WORK PACKAGE 4: Preparation of the basis of instructions and its evaluation at a workshop with the professional public

Objective: preparation of concept for the creation of instructions for the treatment of the landscape in the EIA

Result: the concept of guidelines for landscape impact assessment in EIA

Researchers

Sicris