Environmental Impact Analysis
10 weeks · 0 milestones
Conduct a real environmental impact analysis for a specific named development, land use change, or infrastructure project using established EIA methodology: baseline environmental conditions, impact identification (direct, indirect, cumulative), significance assessment (magnitude × likelihood), and mitigation recommendations. The proof is the completed analysis document for the named project plus a written statement of methodology and limitations. The project may be a real planned development (planning applications are publicly available from local authorities), a proposed policy change, or a historical project for which outcomes can be compared to predictions. Reviewed by an environmental scientist or EIA practitioner who challenges your significance assessment — specifically, whether you have correctly classified the magnitude and likelihood of named impacts — and asks whether a specific ecological receptor was adequately considered in your assessment.
Milestone map
Milestone map
3 milestones
Select a specific environmental impact to analyse — air quality impacts from a local facility, land-use change effects on a watershed, or projected climate change impacts on a regional ecosystem. Define scope: geographic boundaries, impact pathway (source → receptor → effect), baseline time period, and reference scenario. Collect baseline data from free public databases — no fieldwork or proprietary data required.
Proof required
Submit: (a) a scope document (minimum 500 words) naming the specific impact, geographic boundary, impact pathway, and baseline time period, (b) a data inventory listing at least three distinct environmental datasets used with source URLs, spatial resolution, and time period covered, and (c) the baseline metrics calculated from the data as specific numbers (e.g. PM2.5 annual average, land cover percentages, temperature trend over 30 years). All datasets must be publicly accessible and free — EPA AQS, NOAA CDO, NASA Earthdata, and OpenAQ are the canonical sources.
What gets checked
- Scope is specific — 'air quality impacts of the X facility on Y neighbourhood from 2015–2023' not 'air quality in my city'
- At least three distinct free datasets are used — not three subsets from the same database
- Baseline metrics are stated numerically — not described qualitatively