The Criteria for the Assessment of the Environmental Damage (CAED) project is primarily concerned with the Environmental Liability Directive 2004/35/CE (ELD) which concerns the environmental liability for the prevention and remediation of environmental damage.
In particular, the CAED project concerns the environmental damage to the natural resources protected by the ELD, namely, protected species and natural habitats (included in Habitat and Birds Directives), waters (under Water Framework and Marine Strategy Directives) and land1 2. Inaddition, the scope includes areas protected by national legislation (such as protected areas, national and regional parks, wetlands) and international conventions (RAMSAR).
The CAED project is framed in the administrative procedure for the determination of environmental damage and imminent threat of damage, and it is devoted to the the early stages of environmental damage assessment, referred to as the phase of “ascertainment” or the “determination of environmental damage”3.
The ascertainment can be divided into three steps of actions:
- The screening of cases of possible environmental damage and imminent threat of damage under ELD (to identify whether there are actual (or potential) adverse effects on natural resources)4
- The determination of clues of environmental damage and imminent threats of damage for the identification of candidate environmental damage and imminent threat of damage cases under ELD (to establish whether there may be actual (or potential, in case of imminent threat) significant/sustained adverse effects on natural resources)
- The determination of evidence of environmental damage and imminent threats of damage for the confirmation of cases of significant environmental damage and imminent threat of damage (to confirm whether there are actual significant adverse effects on natural resources (i.e. confirmed ELD cases for ELD resources)).
Fig. 1 below shows the three steps5: