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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Review of technical approaches for cumulative ecological impact assessment. Final report

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:5373528

Government agencies are responsible for assuring that environmental impacts caused by specific projects or developments are within limits established in applicable regulations. Realization that significant cumulative impacts might result from a number of seemingly insignificant impacts of several independent projects or actions has lead many agencies to require the assessment of cumulative impacts in permits and licenses. Literature was reviewed and an annotated bibliography developed. The review document presents widely accepted definitions of cumulative impacts, summarizes and synthesizes current approaches to assessing cumulative impacts, identifies common elements among approaches, and assesses how existing information and approaches might be applied to individual aquatic systems with multiple large generating facilities and other dischargers or to the dispersed effects of many small non-utility generating facilities.

Research Organization:
Versar, Inc., Columbia, MD (United States). ESM Operations
OSTI ID:
5373528
Report Number(s):
PB-94-138831/XAB; CNN: PPER-PR91-047-001
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English