Assessing and managing the cumulative social effects of resource development projects
department or school: Science, Irving K. Barber Faculty of (Okanagan)
department or school: Earth, Environmental and Geographic Sciences, Department of (Okanagan)
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCO
creator: Arnold, Lauren
issued: 2022-07-06T19:09:56Z
issued: 2022
related degree: Doctor of Philosophy - PhD
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: The impacts of individual resource development projects are cumulative and combine and interact with other stressors in complex environmental and social systems. Cumulative effects assessment is an established process that is intended to evaluate environmental impacts in combination with other past, present, and foreseeable activities, but it has been difficult to implement as part of the environmental assessment processes used to evaluate and approve prospective resource development activities. In addition, the focus of research and practice has been on biophysical effects. Cumulative effects assessments are increasingly expected to account for cumulative social effects to people, their communities, and livelihoods caused by resource development projects and land use activities, but there has been limited attention devoted to how to complete such an assessment. This research responds to this deficit and uses case study analysis and semi-structured interviews to explore practitioner experience in environmental assessments for hydroelectric developments in British Columbia and Manitoba, Canada. The objectives were to explore what is known about accounting for cumulative social effects, how such impacts are defined, framed, and evaluated in practice during project assessments, and the regulatory and professional capacity needed to support an assessment of cumulative social effects. The results present a conceptual framework for the cumulative social effects of projects, and outline how identified challenges for cumulative effects assessment are exacerbated by social impacts that introduce additional complexities in impact identification, assessment, and decision-making. Addressing these challenges requires substantial changes to CEA frameworks that are applied during project assessments including attention to impact legacies, responsibility, and a focus on the extent to which a project contributes to healthy human systems. Key capacity deficits and needs are iii ident…
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/82093
note: ASSESSING AND MANAGING THE CUMULATIVE SOCIAL EFFECTS OF RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS by Lauren Arnold B.A. & Sc., University of Saskatchewan, 2015 M.A., University of British Columbia, 2018 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FUFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE COLLEGE OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Interdisciplinary Studies) The University of British Columbia (Okanagan) June 2022 © Lauren Arnold, 2022 ii The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the College of Graduate Studies for acceptance, a thesis/dissertation entitled: Assessing and Managing the Cumulative Social Effects of Resource Development Projects submitted by Lauren Arnold in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy . Dr. Kevin Hanna, University of British Columbia Okanagan Supervisor Dr. Bram Noble, University of Saskatchewan Supervisory Committee Member Dr. William Nikolakis, University of British Columbia Supervisory Committee Member Dr. Sarah Gergel, University of British Columbia Supervisory Committee Member Dr. John Wagner, University of British Columbia Okanagan University Examiner Dr. Murray Rutherford, Simon Fraser University External Examiner iii Abstract The impacts of individual resource development projects are cumulative and combine and interact with other stressors in complex environmental and social systems. Cumulative effects assessment is an established process that is intended to evaluate environmental impacts in combination with other past, present, and foreseeable activities, but it has been difficult to implement as part of the environmental assessment processes used to evaluate and approve prospective resource development activities. In addition, the focus of research and practice has been on biophysical effects. Cumulative effects assessments are increasingly expected to account for cumulative social effects to people, their communities, and livelihoods caused by resource development proj…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2022-09
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0416161
language: eng
degree discipline: Interdisciplinary Studies
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
contributor: Hanna, Kevin S. (Kevin Stuart), 1961-
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/82093