Environmental Impact Assessment & Resource Management Flashcards
7 cards from real CSC practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Environmental Impact Assessment & Resource Management flashcards as text
Which analytical technique plots the monetary value of ecosystem services provided by a natural area to justify its conservation?
Answer: Ecosystem services valuation
Ecosystem services valuation assigns economic values to nature's benefits (clean water, pollination, carbon storage) to make conservation financially comparable to development.
Under the Clean Water Act, a NPDES permit regulates:
Answer: Point-source discharges of pollutants into navigable waters
The National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit program controls pollution from discrete discharge points (pipes, ditches) into US waters.
Resource productivity is calculated as:
Answer: GDP divided by total domestic material consumption
Resource productivity measures economic output (GDP) per unit of material consumed, indicating how efficiently an economy uses natural resources.
In environmental impact assessment, a 'significance threshold' is used to:
Answer: Determine whether a predicted impact warrants detailed mitigation planning
Significance thresholds help EIA practitioners decide which predicted impacts are important enough to require detailed mitigation, monitoring, or alternatives analysis.
The 'circular economy' model differs from the traditional linear economy primarily by:
Answer: Designing products and systems to keep materials in use as long as possible through reuse, repair, and recycling
A circular economy closes material loops through strategies like reuse, remanufacturing, and recycling, minimizing waste and resource extraction compared to the take–make–dispose linear model.
Which tool maps the flow of materials through an industrial system to identify waste streams and efficiency opportunities?
Answer: Material flow analysis (MFA)
Material flow analysis (MFA) tracks the movement of materials from extraction through processing, use, and disposal to quantify losses and resource efficiency.
Which US regulatory framework requires facilities that store hazardous chemicals above threshold quantities to report inventories to local emergency planners?
Answer: Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA)
EPCRA (SARA Title III) mandates reporting of hazardous chemical inventories to Local Emergency Planning Committees (LEPCs) and state agencies to support emergency preparedness.