Quantifying the environmental impact on individuals' well-being in risk analysis

Tavanaie Marvi, Morteza

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/88237 Copy

Description

Title

Quantifying the environmental impact on individuals' well-being in risk analysis

Author(s)

Tavanaie Marvi, Morteza

Issue Date

2015-07-24

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Gardoni, Paolo

Committee Member(s)

• Murphy, Colleen
• Rowell, Arden

Department of Study

Civil & Environmental Engineering

Discipline

Civil Engineering

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

M.S.

Degree Level

Thesis

Keyword(s)

• Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)
• Capability approach
• Ecosystem Services
• National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)
• risk analysis

Abstract

Catastrophes, such as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the Chernobyl nuclear power plant explosion, exemplify how accidents that damage the environment affect society in ways that exceed human and property losses. Environmental damages caused by disasters are often continuous, influencing a broader portion of society, and might continually affect future generations moreso than the acute impacts associated with human health risks. As this paper demonstrates, policies in the United States and abroad affirm the importance of protecting the environment as a common asset for current and future members of society. The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is a required common tool implemented by decision-makers to analyze the environmental impacts of their actions. Analysts around the world use various methods and techniques to assess the impacts of human actions on the environment. However, the effect of environmental impacts on individuals’ well-being is not sufficiently assessed in current EIA methodologies. Although current methodologies discuss how the environment may be changed by a particular human action, the scholarship does not sufficiently address questions related to how the affected environment can change human life. In response, this paper aims to improve the completeness of EIA methodologies by proposing a capability approach for assessing the effect of environmental impacts on humans’ well-being. Two human capabilities are specified to explicitly address the environmental impacts of human actions. Evaluating the proposed capabilities in EIA procedures can enrich and complement current EIA practices and more fully assess human actions’ impacts.

Graduation Semester

2015-8

Type of Resource

text

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/88237

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2015 Morteza Tavanaie Marvi

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