Draft working paper Detailed description of the chains of causalities of environmental impacts

N – Nature, ecosystems: nature understood as ecosystems, i.e. the association between a physicochemical and abiotic (the biotope) environment and a living community characteristic of the latter (the biocenosis)
E - Earth: covers all the targets: the three previous targets (ecosystems, humans and man made heritage) and physical environments such as the atmosphere and the oceans
	H - Humans: humankind which we extract from nature and focus on its health as defined by the World Health Organisation
	M - Man-made heritage: with a distinction is made between common buildings and historic ones

Table 3: Targets in Goger (2006) and Goger & Joumard (2007).

In addition the Eco-indicator approach (Brand et al., 1997; Goedkoop & Spriemsma, 2000) includes three types of endpoint damages: resources, ecosystem quality, and human health. The 2 first are subdivisions of the target 'nature, ecosystems' from Table 3.

1.4. OECD key impacts and indicators for Strategic Environmental Assessment

Impacts	Indicators
Climate change	Emission of greenhouse gases
Acidification	Emission of SO2, NOX
Use of natural resources	Energy consumption, land take
Loss of biodiversity	Loss and damage of habitats and species
Air quality	Emission or concentration of pollution
Water quality	Number of water sources affected, concentration of pollutants
Visual impacts	Scale and key physical characteristics
Severance	Barriers, population size in affected areas
Noise	Noise levels, affected surface, population affected
Historical, archaeological, nature conservation	Recognised sites and areas of importance

Table 4: Key impacts and indicators for Strategic Environmental Assessment proposed by [OECD, 2002].

1.5. Categories of impact of emissions of atmospheric pollutants

We define 10 categories of impact of emissions of atmospheric pollutants (in the field of transport system):

Targets (see 1.3)				Impacts	description
N	H	M	E
			E	Greenhouse effect	more exactly the increase of greenhouse gases (GIEC, 2001)
			E	Ozone depletion	halogen compounds react with stratospheric ozone and lead to the depletion of the ozone layer. Although theoretically under control, this impact has not disappeared and is thus still of great interest (Académie des sciences, 1998)
N	H			Photochemical pollution	nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds react to form tropospheric ozone outside urban centres, toxic for humankind and nature (Derwent et al., 1998).
N				Acidification	nitrogen oxide and sulphur dioxide are transformed into acid compounds that acidify the natural environment up to 1,000 km away from the point of emission (Potting et al., 1998)
N				Eutrophication	nitrogen oxides contribute towards increasing plant biomass whose excessive development leads to anoxia in aquatic environments, then harms fauna and flora (Finnveden & Östlund, 1997)
	H			Direct restricted health effects	effects on human health, which is restricted since it does not include harm to welfare and psychological aspects (integrated in sensitive pollution), and direct since it only considers effects due to exposure to primary pollutants. Health impacts due to secondary pollutants (acidification, photochemical pollution, etc.) are regulated by impact laws of different natures (Campagna et al., 2002)
N				Direct ecotoxicity	primary pollutants affecting human health can also affect nature (Huijbregts, 1999a)
	H			Sensitive pollution	perceived by our senses, mainly sight and smell, it is composed of smoke, soiling and odours (Moch & Roussel, 2000)
		M		Degradation of common man-made heritage	this is mainly due to the affects of particles and corrosive products. It incorporates the impacts of photochemical pollution and acidification on buildings (Diren et al., 2004).
		M		Degradation of historic man-made heritage	this is separated from the previous category as the impact is not chiefly sensitive or economic, but cultural and irreversible insofar as each work is unique and impossible to recreate identically. There is also the factor of loss of know-how in certain cases (Diren et al., 2004)

Table 5: Categories of impact of emissions of atmospheric pollutants in Goger (2006) and Goger & Joumard (2007).

1.6. Main indicators of impacts of emissions of atmospheric pollutants

Impact category	Indicator	Operationalisation of the indicators
Greenhouse effect	« global warming potential »	GWPglobe; 20,100 or 500 (GIEC, 2001); [Houghton & coll., 2001; Houghton & coll., 1996]
	« health effects due to climatic change »	FIglobe; 20,100 or 500 or FI9 regions; 20,100 or 500 [Mayerhover & coll., 1997]
Ozone depletion	« Ozone depletion »	ODPglobe, infinite [Wmo, 1999] or ODPglobe; 5,10,15,20, 25, 30 or 40 [Solomon and Albritton, 1992]
	« health effects due to ozone depletion »	FIglobe; mid term [Gedkoop and Spriemsma, 2000; Hofstetter, 1998]
Photochemical pollution	« formation of tropospheric ozone »	POCPeurope ; 5 days or POCPNOx weak/strong ; 5 days (Anderson-Skold & coll., 1992) ; [Derwent & coll., 1998]
	« maximal reactivity »	MIRurban NOx Strong; 1 day or MOIRurban NOx Strong; 1 day or EBIRurban NOx mean ; 1 day [Carter W.P.L.]
	« effects on human respiratory capacities due to organic compounds »	FIglobe, Europe, Holland; 5 days [Gedkoop and Spriemsma, 2000; Hofstetter, 1998]. Low validity of the factor for earth and Europe.
Acidification	« acidification potential »	APglobe ; infinite [Hauschild and Wenzel, 1998; Huijbregts, 1999b] or APsensible area; infinite [Blau and Seneviratne, 1995; Hauschild and Wenzel, 1998; Hogan & coll., 1996] or APregion ; infinite [Huijbregts & coll., 2000a; Potting & coll., 1998a; b] or APDenmark, infinite [Wenzel & coll., 1997] or APHolland ; infinite [Blonk & coll., 1997b] in [Guinee & coll., 2001b] (Huijbregts, 2000b)
Eutrophication	« eutrophication potential »	EPglobe ; infinite [Heijung & coll., 1992] or EPEurope ; infinite [Huijbregts, 1999b]; (Huijbregts, 2000b)
	« damages to ecosystem quality due to combined effects of acidification and eutrophication »	FIglobe, Europe, Holland; infinite [Gedkoop and Spriemsma, 2000; Hofstetter, 1998]. Low validity of the factor for earth and Europe.
Sensitive pollution	« odor potential »	OPglobe ; infinite [Heijung & coll., 1992]; (Guinee & coll., 2002)
Direct restricted health effects	« toxicity »	HTPglobe; 20,100,500 or infinite [Hauschild and Wenzel, 1998; Huijbregts & coll., 2000b] or TEPglobe; infinite [Hertwich, 1999]. Factor for Europe in fact. HTPregion; 20,100,500 or infinite [Huijbregts, 2000a]
	« carcinogenic effects on humans»	FIglobe, Europe, Holland; infinite [Gedkoop and Spriemsma, 2000; Hofstetter, 1998]. Low validity of the factor for earth and Europe.
Direct ecotoxicity	« ecotoxicity potential »	ETPglobe; 20,100,500 or infinite [Huijbregts, 1999a; Huijbregts & coll., 2000b] . Factor for Europe in fact. ETPregion; 20,100,500 or infinite [Huijbregts, 2000]
	« damages to ecosystem quality due to ecotoxic emissions »	FIglobe, Europe, Holland; infinite [Gedkoop and Spriemsma, 2000; Hofstetter, 1998]. Low validity of the factor for earth and Europe.
Degradation of common man-made heritage