Graphical Methodology of Global Pollution Index for the Environmental Impact Assessment Using Two Environmental Components

• Published in: Sustainability Vol. 9; no. 4; p. 593
• Main Authors: Cojocaru, Corneliu, Cocârţă, Diana, Istrate, Irina, Creţescu, Igor
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 12.04.2017
• Subjects: Coal-fired power plants; Environmental impact assessment; Evaluation; Graphical methods; Graphical representations; Human influences; Indoor air pollution; Marine environment; Methodology; Organic chemistry; Pollution; Pollution index; Refineries; Risk management; Sustainability; Triangles; Water pollution
• ISSN: 2071-1050; 2071-1050
• DOI: 10.3390/su9040593

One of the applied methods for environmental impact assessment is the index of global pollution (IGP) proposed by Rojanschi in 1991. This methodology enables the global estimation for the ecosystem state affected more or less by human activities. Unfortunately, Rojanschi’s method has a limitation; it can be applied only if at least three environmental components are considered. Frequently, many environmental impact assessment applications rely on analysis of only two environmental components. Therefore, this work aimed to develop a new graphical method to extend Rojanschi’s approach for the case of two environmental components. The proposed method avoids the average value of evaluation grades and uses only the graphical correspondence for calculation of the index of global pollution. A right-angle triangle graph methodology was proposed, where bases represented the values of evaluation grades. Thus, for the case of two environmental components, the index of global pollution was calculated as the relation between the ideal and real ecosystem states represented by the ratio between areas of external and enclosed right triangles. The developed graphical method was tested and validated for real case studies: the environmental impact assessment from a refinery located on the Romanian Black Sea Coast considering Air and Water environmental components and from a coal-fired thermoelectric power plant from Eastern Romania regarding Air and Soil environmental components. In this way, it was provided a reliable and faster tool to be used for the pollution characterization of human-derived chemicals for better decisions in risk management.