Environmental impact assessment and urban planning: a case study in Greece

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is used to predict, analyse and evaluate the potential impacts of a proposed project on the environment so that information regarding these impacts is considered in decision making. These decisions may concern mitigation, consideration of alternative sites or the do nothing option. Numerous methodologies exist that attempt to facilitate EIA and these include index and matrix methods, ecological assessment and networks, quantitative methods and overlays. In urban planning, the design of policies for sustainable development poses the problem of dealing with systems in which natural and human factors are interrelated. Understanding the processes that cause these systems to change and knowing their spatial implications is essential in preparing effective policies. In order to help policy makers see through this complexity, spatial data are required that can represent reality as realistically as possible. Accurate mapping of land use has been identified as a need of most significance to monitor and audit the parameters of change within time and space. In this paper, an integrated and multidimensional methodology for the appropriate monitoring of environmental parameters and phenomena is presented using Elaionas in Attica, Greece, as a case study.