Environmental Impact
Assessment
Student Assessment Guide (SAG)
This subject is assessed holistically and is comprised of the following units;
Unit Code
Unit Title
MSS025001A
Assist with assessing site environmental indicators
MSS025002A
Assess environmental risk or impact of a project or activity
Successful completion of either/both MSS025001A and MSS025002A requires the following
pre-requisite unit;
MSS024003A
Apply an understanding of environmental principles to a site
Environmental Impact Assessment
SAG
Subject purpose
This subject covers the ability to;

assist environmental scientists and engineers with determining the environmental
condition of a site or locality, and,

evaluate the risks or impacts associated with a specific project activity or process
Personnel are required to locate and assess relevant data sets and reports, interpret the
magnitudes and trends in measured environmental parameters, and determine and report
on the potential significance for site/locality activities.
It includes researching and describing the activity/process and local environment,
identifying relevant environmental issues, assessing environmental risks or impacts, and
then identifying appropriate environmental management actions and/or alternatives.
This requires sufficient knowledge of environmental science to interpret measurements
involving the atmosphere, biodiversity, land and water.
The subject does not cover the collection of field data.
Personnel will have access to an enterprise environmental management plan for the site
and/or a checklist to guide risk/impact assessment of the activity or process against
enterprise, community, and/or legislative requirements. They work under the supervision of
environmental managers, scientists, engineers and/or planners
Assessment
Assessment for this subject will consist of five (5) assignments based on key aspects of
assessing site risks and indicators and includes;
•
Reviewing site history to identify environmental issues of the activity
•
Determining the risk associated with the activity
•
Determining relevant environmental indicators to monitor activity
•
Analyse data to determine the level of impact
•
Documenting & reporting the impact of the activity on the environment
There is substantial assignment work required for this unit. The overall assessment for this
unit is summarised in the assessment table below;
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Environmental Impact Assessment
Assessment Task
SAG
Weighting
Site review summary
15%
Environmental risk analysis
25%
Environmental indicator determination*
25%
Data analysis*
15%
Environmental Impact Assessment report
20%
TOTAL
100%
*Note: These assessments are the same as for MSL025011A – Design & supervise complex environmental field
surveys and as such the assignments are fully transferable to this subject to avoid duplication.
Subject content
This subject deals with a wide variety of topics including the following aspects;
•
environmental services (e.g. sampling and monitoring of air quality, water, soil
and noise)
•
environmental compliance, auditing and inspection
•
groundwater and clean water (e.g. catchments, supply and environmental flows)
•
water treatment, storm and wastewater management
•
solid and hazardous waste management
•
management of contaminated sites
•
site remediation/rehabilitation
•
geotechnical services and civil engineering
•
natural resource management
•
geotechnical services
•
natural resource management
•
occupational hygiene monitoring (e.g. air, noise and radiation)
•
groundwater and clean water (e.g. catchments, supply and environmental flows)
•
water treatment, storm and wastewater management
•
solid and hazardous waste management
•
site remediation/rehabilitation
•
resource efficiency (e.g. energy, water and waste auditing).
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Environmental Impact Assessment
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Grading
The assessment for the units in this subject are both recorded as a Class Mark. All
assessment events used to determine your result will be locally set and locally marked.
Your results will be reported as DISTINCTION, CREDIT, PASS (AC) or FAIL (NYC). To receive a
particular grade you must get at least the mark shown below:
Grade
Class mark
DISTINCTION
>=83
CREDIT
>=70
PASS (ACHIEVED COMPETENCY)
>=50
FAIL (NOT YET COMPETENT)
<50
Delivery strategy
This subject is assessed directly against the unit’s performance criteria.
Elements
Performance
Criteria
Subject
Weighting
Unit
Weighting
MSS025001A
All
All
50
100
MSS025002A
All
All
50
100
Unit
NOTE: The subject weighting MUST add up to 100 for the subject, but the Unit Weighting MAY NOT add up to
100 as each unit is weighted differently in each subject it is used in. Refer to cffet.net/env/assessment for
further explanation.
What you will need
To complete this subject successfully you will need;
•
The course notes
•
A portable USB flash / thumb drive.
•
Access to a computer with internet, email and general office programs
•
Environmental risk spreadsheet (from website)
•
General computer skills
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Environmental Impact Assessment
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Where to get help
Contact your teacher [www.cffet.net/env/contacts] if you run into any trouble this unit. You
would be surprised how flexible we are at accommodating your needs, but communication
is key. If you don’t let us know you are having trouble, we may have trouble trying to help
you.
Resources and references
References
Note that you are not required to purchase, download or read these references (unless
specifically directed to by your teacher). Some of these resources might be available from
your teacher or library for free.
Bates, G. (2010). Environmental Law in Australia. Australia: LexisNexis-Butterworths.
Bratram, J. E. (1996). Water Quality Monitoring - A Practical Guide to the Design and
Implementation of Freshwater Quality Studies and Monitoring Programmes. New
York?: UNEP/WHO.
Burden, F. E. (2002). Environmental Monitoring Handbook. McGraw-Hill Professional.
DSEWPC. (2010, October 27). Australia's Biodiversity Conservation Strategy. Retrieved May
27, 2013, from environment.gov.au:
http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/strategy/states-territories.html
Elliot, M. T. (2009). Environmental Impact Assessment in Australia: Theory and Practice, 5th
Ed. Sydney, Australia: Federation Press.
Ferrier, R. C. (2010). Handbook of Catchment Management. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
Glasson, J. e. (2005). Introduction to Environmental Impact Assessment. New York, USA:
Routledge.
Grammeno, Gaby (Ed). (2009). Planning Occupational Health and Safety, 8th Ed. Melbourne:
McPherson's Printing Group.
Jorgensen, S. E. (2005). Handbook of Ecological Indicators for Assessment of Ecosystem
Health. Boca Raton: CRC Press.
Manahan, S. (2000). Environmental Chemistry. Boca Raton: Lewis Publishers.
Manly, B. (2009). Statistics for environmental science and management. Boca Raton: Taylor
& Francis Group.
Newton, A. (2007). Forest Ecology and Conservation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Schuenemeyer, J. E. (2011). Statistics for Earth and Environmental Scientists. New Jersey:
John Wiley & Sons.
StandardsAustralia. (2004). AS/NZS ISO 14001:2004 Environmental Management Systems:
Requirements with guidance for use. Australia: Standards Australia.
Sutherland, W. (2006). Ecological Census Techniques. 2nd Ed. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Thomas, I. (2005). Environmental Management Processes and Practices for Australia.
Sydney, Australia: Federation Press.
U.S.GeologicalSurvey. (Variously dated). National field manual for the collection of water
quality data: U.S. Geological Survey Techniques of Water Resources Investigation,
book 9, chaps. A1-A9. available online at http://pubs.water.usgs.gov/twri9A.
vanLoon, G. W. (2011). Environmental Chemistry: a global perspective. New York: Oxford
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University Press.
Workplace Health and Safety Act 2011. (n.d.).
Workplace Health and Safety Regulation 2011. (n.d.).
Resources
•
TAFE Referencing and plagiarism information can be found here
•
Information relating to EIA in NSW can be found here
•
The EPBC Act website can be found here
•
The NSW office of the EDO can be found here
•
Not that you need it but free software for statistics can be found here
•
Another source of NSW DEH EIA information can be found here
•
Good info on BACI and MBACI can be found here
•
NSW legislation can be viewed here
•
The NSW Office of the Greens political party information is here
Assessment Submission
Students are to submit all assessments by the due date to the subject teacher by email using
the following filename format;
firstname-surname-assessmentname-duedate
Visit cffet.net/env/assessment for more information on submitting assessments, file names
and available file extensions that you can use.
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