• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.463-470
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• 2002

Environmental protection and precaution are the most frequently considered issues in the recent research fields for our present and future surroundings. However, it seems that these environmental issues were less reflected in local-level development plans, and caused several cases of environmental pollution, therefore it became a major concern of local governments and the communities. The role of a 'Local EIA(Environment Impact Assessment)' can be a core issue for the positive preferences of the local-level development plans. Cases of Local EIA in Germany which have been implied successfully are reviewed to generate a local EIA movement and to produce a guideline for Korean local governments. The local EIA in Germany was broadly commenced in the middle of 1980s, and a decade later it was carried out for over 200 of local governments. To produce a better suggestion for Korean local EIA, comparison and analysis of detail data of the German local EIA was carried out, and tested for fourteen cities in Korea based on five categories: i) assessment subject, ii) assessment procedure, iii) main office for assessment, iv) assessment factor and v) assessment standard. Prior suggestions for greater preference of local EIA in Korea are: it is necessary that I) launch of a support system in central government to help the movement of local government; Ⅱ) a knowledge-based expert group in local government which has by all means of exclusive responsibility far any action(new application or performance of local EIA) : 111) establishment of 'environmental protection measure' in local government level for environmental precaution based on individual environmental character and values in their communities.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.927-936
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• 2011

환경영향평가(Environmental Impact Assessment : EIA)는 대규모 개발사업에 관련된 의사결정의 효과성을 향상시킬 수 있는 제도이다. 알제리와 한국의 EIA 제도를 비교분석하여 특징 및 장단점을 파악하여 다른 계획관련 정부기관과 환경관련 기관과의 조정 및 협조 수준의 차이점을 연구하였다. 알제리와 한국의 EIA 제도는 의사결정 절차에 관련된 규정에서는 유사하지만 주민참여 수준에서는 한국이 발달되어 있다. 스크리닝 제도에서는 프랑스의 영향을 받은 알제리의 제도가 비교적 잘 발달되어 있다.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.467-483
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• 2007

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is a kind of planning technique to seek ways to minimize environmental impact, a scheme to encourage sustainable development. With the launch of the Ministry of Environment in 1980, the EIA was introduced in Korea. Its full operation was initially driven by regulations on documenting EIA reports in 1981, which was piloted as a decision-making scheme where final decision were made at the development department after considering opinions suggested by the Ministry of Environment. At that time, dominance of the economic logic overwhelmed environ-friendly opinions, but thanks to the fourth revision of the Environmental Conservation Law in 1986, private projects came to be included on the EIA list. This was a turning point for the EIA to become a regulatory system. Local governments are also conducting the EIA regardless of the national-level EIA. In order to prevent and resolve increasingly severe environmental problems in Seoul in advance due to various construction projects, the Seoul Metropolitan Government, for the first time as a local government in Korea, legislated city decrees to introduce the EIA which has been underway from September 1, 2002. In particular, the Seoul government, unlike the Ministry of Environment, has included construction works on the list of evaluation projects, adopting the scoping and screen procedure scheme. In addition, complementing operational setbacks, the city government has revised and implemented decrees and enforcement laws on the Impact Assessment on Environment, Transportation and Disasters by shortening the consultation period, eliminating the submission of reports on construction, and expanding the waiver requirements in consultation over the reports. Therefore, development measures for the EIA scheme of the Seoul Metropolitan Government will be the target of the research. To that end, the up-to-date data of the Ministry of Environment, the Seoul government and local governments was collected, and latest materials from the EU, previous research and the Internet were gathered for analyses. By doing so, the flow of the EIA was reviewed, and the EIA schemes of local governments under the national EIA were analyzed. Furthermore, based on the Seoul government's recent data on the EIA based on the decrees, the background and legislation of the Seoul government's EIA were analyzed along with the developments for the environmental organizations. Setbacks were derived from the implementation period, evaluation procedures, consultation period and details of the EIA, and corresponding development measures were proposed.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.397-409
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• 2011

This study was carried out for improving the effectiveness of water resources development project through local resident opinions in the environmental impact assessment(EIA). The EIA reports of seven dams were examined. Four dams -Youngju Dam, Seongduck Dam, Buhang Dam and Hantangang Dam- which included many local opinions including 470 opinions of 341 local residents were selected to be analyzed. Local residents submitted their opinions in the six fields which are meteorological phenomena, water quality, land use, fauna and flora, noise and vibration, and residence, and the major opinions of those opinions came from the atmosphere environment field which is 32% of total opinions and social and economic field which is 38% of total opinions, respectively. In submerged area, opinions of the measure for migration and compensation were 91% and in non-submerged area, opinions of the measure for meteorological phenomena was 86%. Those percentages were maximum in each area. Opinions concerned meteorological phenomena were 86% and 53% in Youngju Dam and Seongduck Dam where area is surrounded by existing dam, but there was only 9% and 0% of opinions in Buhang Dam and Hantangang Dam where area is without existing dam nearby. The reformation methods which reflected the resident's opinions were suggested on EIA in dam development projects. First of all, reliability and objectivity of the field of meteorological phenoma should be enhanced by scientific prediction of the phenomenon days. Secondly, techniques reducing uncertainty of various water quality prediction models ought to be developed and effectiveness of the reduction strategies in environmental impact should be quantified. Finally, the draft of EIA report should involve the detailed plans of migration and compensation's procedures, criteria and measures to support.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.57-71
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• 2004

This study aims to review the environmental impact assessment systems of Japanese local governments, to compare its outcome with the systems of Korean local governments, and to suggest the development direction for the environmental impact assessment systems of Korean local governments based on the result. The study results showed that, first, due to distinction in the political systems of Japan and Korea, while Japan has bottom-up environmental impact assessment systems, Korea has topdown environment impact assessment systems. Second, although introduction of national systems on planning was put on hold as a future initiative, local governments including Tokyo and Saitama are experimenting evaluation procedures tailored to local features by legislating them as regulations. On the other hand, while 'prior environmental review system' was in effect as a national system, nothing was practiced at all by local governments. Third, in a total of 47 Japanese local governments, about 45 projects and 44 assessment items were added to local government environmental impact assessment only and designated as target projects and assessment items. Fourth, in both national and local environment impact assessment systems in Japan, screening procedures to determine assessment by separating into Type 1 projects and Type 2 projects and scoping procedures to discuss assessment items in advance were introduced and in effect. This Japanese EIA system may serve as a good reference to the Korean national and local government EIA systems.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.30 no.8
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• pp.647-658
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• 2021

Jeju Special Self-Governing Province has implemented a self-governing environmental impact assessment system (Jeju-EIAS) in recognition of its autonomy. In this study, the institutional features of Jeju-EIAS were examined by analyzing the development projects whose consultation under Jeju-EIAS were completed from 1994 to 2019. The consultation procedure of Jeju-EIAS, such as the actual operation of Review Committee for Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), the consent of the provincial council, and the regular follow-up activities for the implementation of EIA consultations, has been implemented differently from those of other metropolitan cities and provinces. Under Jeju-EIAS, types of development projects subject to consultation on EIA also take into account local conditions, and include the construction of aquarium basin and building. In addition, provisions concerning the scale of development projects is strengthened above the Korean Environmental Impact Assessment Act (EIA Act).

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.495-502
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• 2007

In Korea, military authorities have neglected to consider impacts of military projects on local communities and natural environment. Moreover, local communities have had difficulties in dealing with the Ministry of National Defense (MND), which was stubborn enough not to implement environmental assessment on their projects. In this situation, recent case, "EIA of Baekgol Division's Howitzer Fire Training Site" in the Supreme Court-in which judges upheld the Higher Court's decision that the division violated the Environmental Impact Assessment law by ignoring to implement EIA-reveals that military projects can no longer forgo environmental assessment. The decision has serious ramifications on the future of Environmental Impact Assessment in military-led projects. This paper examines the proper scope of EIA in military-led projects and, more specifically, fire training site and searches for how to improve it through 'probable error,' a military training method that is applied to real 'howitzer' fire training. Probable error of the artillery field manual is nothing more than an error that exceeded as often as it is not exceeded and its scientific method was demonstrated through real fire tests in the US. Army. If it is applied to improve assessment methods about the proper scope of EIA in military 'howitzer' fire training site, 'probable error' will improve effect prediction, mitigation and reliability.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.281-289
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• 2018

The Korean environmental impact assessment(EIA) system, and explored ways to improve it as a more efficient and viable institution relevant to the demand of our time and conditions in study. The first problem this study identified is found in the fact that the party to write up the assessment report is itself the business operator or the one who is planning to work out the business plan. This structure translates into placing an order with an agent for EIA report. The reporting job may br subcontracted to the agent at a cost far below the rate specified in the 'Standard for Estimate of Agency Fee for Environmental Impact Assessment.' This practice also causes the vicious circle of producing a report that is written to justify the project or business in question or it leads to rough-and ready and poor documentation to minimize the time required. Second, in order to achieve the goal of the plan or business, which is the target of EIA, the local residents tend to ve regarded as an obstacle. This means elimination of the local people from participating in the EIA or their opinion being frequently ignored. This is the seed of distrust and hostility that sometimes provoke disagreements or fierce conflicts. The first proposal to improve these problem is to improve the factors that cause poor documentation of the assessment report as well as improve the understanding of the EIA system. This study proposes the following measures for improvement. The agency cost for EIA should be paid by the business operator or a third party that can ensure faithful implementation of the payment. A system should be established to verify transparent estimation of the agency cost. In order to enhance the professional quality of EIA agents, there should be implementation of qualification test for industrial engineer of related engineers in addition to the current EIA Qualification Test. The second proposal for improvement is to improve the citizen participation process by instituting a legal framework to make clear the purpose of the briefing session for local residents, which is held as a procedure of EIA, and to ensure more positive publicity during the stage of listening to the opinion of the local community. For a smooth and rational communication process, a moderator and a communicator of opinion, as is the case in a public hearing, could be instituted to clearly get the purpose of the briefing session across to the residents and to help to carry out the explanation and Q & A sessions according to the categories of the opinion of the residents. At present, the notification of the public inspection of the draft of the assessment report and briefing session for the residents is made on the newspaper and internet network. But some people have difficulty with access to this method of announcement. A higher participation rate could be secured if a legal provision is added to specify putting up placards in specific places such as the entrance to the place for the briefing session for residents or the building of administrative agencies of the area concerned.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.226-240
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• 2022

Local governments over a certain size in Republic of Korea may conduct Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) considering regional characteristics if it is necessary, in accordance with Article 42 of the 「Environmental Impact Assessment Act」. However, it was investigated that the number of local government EIA operation in many local governments was less than initial expectations. In order to improve it, the status of ordinances and consultation guidelines which are different for each local government need to be compared, and the institutional issues forthe relevant local governments must be found considering regional characteristics. Furthermore, detailed regulation and guidance on the local government EIA procedure should be included in the consultation guidelines and related information need to be provided. In this study, focusing on the case of Incheon Metropolitan City, the status of local government EIA ordinances in metropolitan cities and provinces with a similar condition was investigated, and the types and scope of target projects were compared and analyzed. In addition, consultation guidelines forIncheon Metropolitan City were written, and improvements on the procedure flow and overall schedule designation derived from the process were presented. In the case of Incheon Metropolitan City, there were no detailed information officially announced regarding the regulations of the local government EIA ordinance and follow-up management, so the administrative system of the local government needed to be reinforced in this field. Meanwhile, considering the status of local environment and geography, some target project types were deemed necessary to be added: port construction projects, water resource development projects, railroad construction projects, and military facilities installation projects. The results of this study will provide useful information to local governments which want to improve their operation effectiveness by reorganizing the local government EIA system and preparing specific guidelines.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.15-28
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• 2023

In the Republic of Korea, the target project scope of the small-scale EIA is stipulated as the plan area above around 5,000~60,000m² depending on a type of project and classification of land use. Whereas, the lower limit of the corresponding local government EIA project is generally located above the small-scale EIA's limits, and overlapping ranges exist. This situation has been enlarged since road construction and district unit planning were included as the target projects for small-scale EIA in the "Enforcement Decree of the Environmental Impact Assessment Act", which was partially revised in November 2016, and the current consultation system needed discussion in that small-scale EIA is allowed to be done without gathering review opinions at the local level. In fact, projects subjected to local government EIA but consulted as small-scale EIAs may seem insignificant because of a small number of total cases; however, it is worth paying attention to the fact that a local government may not add a target project due to the small-scale EIA. This study suggested the three policy measures for improving small-scale EIA to enhance the effectiveness of local government EIA: supplementing the institutional arrangements to incorporate the review opinion from the local region in small-scale EIA, giving priority to local EIA for conducing the projects in overlapping ranges with partial amendments on EIA law regarding exceptions to local government EIA, including small target projects (not to be small-scale EIA targets) to the ordinance that are deemed necessary to be conducted as local government EIA. Even though a positive function of small-scale EIA has been confirmed, efforts should be made to improve the situation in which many projects within local governments are consulted without review from the region.