The first CAED report contains a proposal for a new approach for the administrative procedure of environmental damage and imminent threat of damage determination, made of three procedural steps: the screening process, the determination of clues, the determination of evidence.
It included a collection of 32 case studies of “ELD cases” and “non-ELD cases” across Member States to identify common and different ascertainment and assessment approaches from a regulatory, practical, and technological point of view. Case studies were presented showing how the “clues” and the “evidence” of environmental damage and threats of damage are detected, identified, and evaluated.
The analyisis of the 32 case studies highlighted that there are significant differences between Member States, regarding the way they assess environmental damages that mainly depend on either in the implementation (especially in the parts of monitoring and assessments) of the Habitat Directive, Birds Directive, Water Framework Directive and in the existence, or not, of a national law for the protection of land.
The main challenges to implementing the ELD, identified in the report, concern the definition and measurement of "significant adverse effects" and the lack/scarcity of corresponding criteria or thresholds to make a prompt accurate assessment and an effective remediation.
This Practical Guide is the product of the second year of the project, updated and upgraded in its current and final version in the fourth year of the project. It was produced by a project team gathered under the European Network for the Implementation and Enforcement of Environmental Law (IMPEL Network). The project team comprised different experienced practitioners, covering the relevant regulations such as ELD and other national legislations, working in various technical fields and having differing professional experiences.
In the second year of the CAED project, the project team collected and analysed existing indicators and flowcharts included in existing EU’s and country Guidelines related to ELD, to have a complete picture of the content of the current guidances, procedures and supporting tools for the determination of the environmental damage assessment (see References). A new methodological approach based on a DPSIR (Driver, Pressure, State, Impact and Response) model adapted to environmental damage assessment was proposed. Practical tools such as decision-making flowcharts, check-lists and tables of indicators to assist in the early-stage assessment of potential cases of environmental damage were produced. It is expected that the use of indicators, qualitative or quantitative ones, as well as flowcharts and check-lists to support and direct the decision-making process, is useful for the screening of ELD and non-ELD cases and for the identification and determination of the clues and evidence of damage and imminent threat of damage by ELD expert and non-ELD expert users, in lieu of the expert judgement (which might intervene whenever necessary).