, Marcin Pchałek
https://doi.org/10.21697/zp.2024.24.2.11
Diverse standards of quality apply in the measurement of the various individual components of the environment which are monitored in the course of broadly understood procedures required for the issue of environmental permits, and depend on the methodology used to assess the state of the environment and a project’s environmental impact on the given component of the environment. In general, these standards may be divided into quantitative parameters such as values for the emission of various pollutants, and qualitative parameters for the assessment of the condition of the diverse habitats and their protection, hydromorphological conditions, landscape protection, etc. In practice, these standards are checked on the basis of records submitted as evidence, with all the consequences applicable within the scope of the assessment, subject to the provisions pertaining to the administrative procedure. In the Republic of Poland, various methodologies are used for the assessment of the diverse components of the environment and the environmental impact of a given project and depend to a large extent on the network of Poland’s national environmental monitoring service (Państwowy Monitoring Środowiskowy), the scientific information and engineering instruments available to its officers, as well as the guidelines and practices of the European Commission and the national administrative bodies. The evidence required in individual administrative proceedings is examined using techniques based on the natural sciences (physics, chemistry, biology, hydrobiology, hydrogeology) and economics. Quite often, tests involve advanced mathematical modelling techniques, and the principles behind them are used as guidelines in the explanatory proceedings conducted afterwards for individual administrative cases. Environmental impact assessment is a special institution within the law on environmental protection, with its own characteristic features, and its operations involve a complex set of social standards correlated with each other because they all share the same values and have the same purpose. Thereby, environmental impact assessment is an institution which continues to pursue its aims while evolving without losing its integral status. This is not invalidated by the fact that the fundamental principle governing the research conducted by this institution relates to the system of legal norms determining its material aspect, its contribution to legal proceedings, and its status, making it a highly specialised branch of environmental protection law, with its own, multidisciplinary features. Hence, the examination of environmental impact involves the multilevel review of diverse factors analysed from different scientific perspectives, which makes the issue of a decision for a subsequent court case an extremely complicated matter. The aim of this paper is to describe this research principle by illustrating the complexity of the issues involved in the application of the substantive and procedural provisions relating to environmental protection law from the perspective of the multidisciplinary nature of the tests required to arrive at a decision, and to present our conclusions concerning the efficiency of the substantive and procedural regulations applicable to the implementation of projects which may have a significant impact on the environment.
Download files
Citation rules
Cited by / Share
English
Italiano
Język Polski