Utility of Environmental Impact Assessment Processes in Western Australia: submission to inquiry into the environmental effects statement process in Victoria, Environment and Natural Resources Committee of the Parliament of Victoria

I have been asked to discuss a number of issues relating to the inquiry, including: •the key strengths of environmental impact assessment (EIA) processes in Western Australia (WA), including objectives, project referrals, levels of assessment, appeal rights for third parties, and the role of the Environment Protection Authority; •proposed reforms to the WA EIA Framework; •your experiences in environmental impact assessment processes in other jurisdictions, including examples of EIA best practice in Australia and overseas; •the role of strategic environmental assessment; •the most suitable body/agency to carry out EIA; and •post-EIA monitoring and enforcement. A brief report addressing these points is provided following an account of the EIA context in WA

Screening elite winter athletes for exercise induced asthma: A comparison of three challenge methods

The official published version can be obtained from the link below.Background: The reported prevalence of exercise induced asthma (EIA) in elite winter athletes ranges from 9% to 50%. Many elite winter athletes do not report symptoms of EIA. At present there is no gold standard test for EIA. Objective: To establish the efficacy of screening for EIA and examine the role of the eucapnic voluntary hyperventilation (EVH) challenge and laboratory based and sport specific exercise challenges in the evaluation of elite winter athletes. Methods: 14 athletes (mean (SD) age 22.6 (5.7) years, height 177.2 (7.0) cm, body mass 68.9 (16.9) kg) from the Great Britain short-track speed skating (n=10) and biathlon teams (n=4) were studied. Each athlete completed a laboratory based and sport specific exercise challenge as well as an EVH challenge, in randomised order. Results: All 14 athletes completed each challenge. Two had a previous history of asthma. Ten (including the two with a previous history) had a positive test to at least one of the challenges. Ten athletes had a positive response to EVH; of these, only three also had a positive response to the sport specific challenge. No athletes had a positive response to the laboratory based challenge. Conclusions: Elite athletes should be screened for EIA. EVH is a more sensitive challenge in asymptomatic athletes than sport specific and laboratory based challenges. If sporting governing bodies were to implement screening programmes to test athletes for EIA, EVH is the challenge of choice

A REVIEW ON PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT IN MALAYSIA

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) was introduced to measure the benefit or cost from physical development to the public and community. In Malaysia, EIA was initiated in 1988 as a mandatory legislative requirement to protect and enhance the quality of the environment through licensing, setting of standards, coordination of research and dissemination of information to the public. Public involvement in assessment period is vital, and this conceptual paper identifies that there are three levels of participation in EIA. However, public participation in EIA in Malaysia, in general, is only instrumental due to weaknesses in regulation, lack of awareness and expertise among the public. This further raises the question of effective EIA implementation when public representation is characterized by pseudo participation and select involvement rather than broad participation of all community members, which is an important prerequisite for effective public participation.EIA, community involvement, public participation process

Observation of recoil-induced resonances and electromagnetically induced absorption of cold atoms in diffuse light

In this paper we report an experiment on the observation of the recoil-induced resonances (RIR) and electromagnetically induced absorption (EIA) of cold Rb87 atoms in diffuse light. The pump light of the RIR and the EIA comes from the diffuse light in an integrating sphere, which also serves the cooling light. The probe light beam is a weak laser split from the cooling laser in order to keep the cooling and probe lasers correlated. We measured the RIR and the EIA signal varying with the detuning of the diffuse laser light, and also measured the temperature of the cold atoms at the different detunings. The mechanism of RIR and EIA in the configuration with diffuse-light pumping and laser probing is discussed, and the difference of nonlinear spectra of cold atoms between in diffuse-light cooling system and in optical molasses as well as in a magneto-optical trap (MOT) are studied.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figure

Temporal build-up of electromagnetically induced transparency and absorption resonances in degenerate two-level transitions

The temporal evolution of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) and absorption (EIA) coherence resonances in pump-probe spectroscopy of degenerate two-level atomic transition is studied for light intensities below saturation. Analytical expression for the transient absorption spectra are given for simple model systems and a model for the calculation of the time dependent response of realistic atomic transitions, where the Zeeman degeneracy is fully accounted for, is presented. EIT and EIA resonances have a similar (opposite sign) time dependent lineshape, however, the EIA evolution is slower and thus narrower lines are observed for long interaction time. Qualitative agreement with the theoretical predictions is obtained for the transient probe absorption on the $^{85}Rb$ $D_{2}$ line in an atomic beam experiment.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures. Submitted to Phys. Rev.

Libatsama awam terhadap prosedur EIA terperinci berhubung projek petrokimia di Pengerang Johor

EIA (Environment Impact Assessment) ialah suatu kajian bagi mengenalpasti, meramal dan menghuraikan kebaikan serta keburukan sesuatu cadangan projek pembangunan. Libatsama awam dalam prosedur EIA Terperinci sewajarnya perlu lebih menyeluruh dan berkesan, ini bermaksud persetujuan majoriti daripada pihak awam berhubung sesuatu projek adalah sangat penting sebelum Laporan EIA Terperinci berkenaan diluluskan. Walau bagaimanapun, masih terdapat kurang penglibatasama awam terhadap prosedur EIA Terperinci yang dijalankan oleh JAS dan memberi kesan dalam perlaksanaannya. Oleh itu, objektif pertama kajian ialah, mengkaji permasalahan komuniti di Pengerang berhubung prosedur EIA Terperinci yang dijalankan oleh JAS. Objektif kedua ialah mengenalpasti pandangan JAS terhadap prosedur dan isu penyertaan orang awam berhubung EIA Terperinci. Objektif ketiga ialah menilai pandangan persatuan bukan kerajaan yang terlibat iaitu ahli FOMCA (Federation of Malaysian Consumers Associations) dan MNS (Malaysian Nature Society) berhubung sesi dialog dalam prosedur EIA Terperinci. Objektif keempat ialah membangunkan rangka kerja libatsama awam untuk projek pembangunan di Malaysia. Seramai 379 orang komuniti di Pengerang telah terpilih sebagai responden untuk menjawab borang soal selidik. Manakala seramai 70 orang responden ahli FOMCA dan 73 orang responden MNS terpilih untuk menjawab borang soal selidik. Dan borang temubual diedarkan kepada 10 orang pegawai JAS Putrajaya dan JAS Johor Bahru. Data kualitatif dianalisis menggunakan perisian QSR Nvivo11 manakala data kuantitatif dianalisis menggunakan kaedah SPSS. Hasil kajian membuktikan prosedur EIA Terperinci khusus diperingkat penglibatasama awam akan lebih berkesan sekiranya kelima-lima elemen diadaptasi melalui rangka kerja prosedur EIA Terperinci sedia ada. Lima elemen yang mendasari rangka kerja tersebut ialah penglibatan berkesan daripada pihak awam, komunikasi berkesan daripada pihak JAS, tindakan penguatkuasaan berkesan oleh JAS, kerjasama dan sokongan padu semua pihak dan pemantauan berkesan dalam tiga fasa projek EIA Terperinci. Rangka kerja ini membantu pihak JAS menyelesaikan segala permasalahan serta konflik pihak awam dan NGO yang terlibat dalam prosedur EIA Terperinci

A Quasi-Experimental Study of the Classroom Practices of English Language Teachers and the English Language Proficiency of Students, in Primary and Secondary Schools in Bangladesh

English in Action (EIA) is an English language teacher development project based in Bangladesh that was intended to run from 2008 to 2017, but which was extended at the request of the Government of Bangladesh, with additional funding from UKAID, for a further year to 2018. By the time of the design of this study (2014-2015) EIA was drawing to the end of upscaling (phase III, 2011-2014) and entering institutionalisation and sustainability (phase IV, 2014-17, extended 2018). Successive prior studies had indicated substantial success in improving both teachers’ classroom practices and student learning outcomes, over the pre-project baseline (e.g. EIA 2011, 2012). The 2014 Annual Review of EIA recommended that in the final phase, EIA should explore whether it would be possible to carry out a study that compared a ‘counterfactual’ or control-group of teachers and students, to the ‘EIA’ or treatment schools: i.e. a Randomised Control Trial or Quasi-Experimental study. A proposal for a Quasi-Experimental study was developed in collaboration with DFID’s South Asia Research Hub (SARH), which also provided the additional funding necessary to implement such a study. The teachers and students who were the subject of this study, were the fourth cohort to participate in English in Action (together with teachers from ‘control’ schools, in the same Upazilas). This fourth EIA cohort included Schools, Teachers and Students from approximately 200 Upazilas (of approximately 500 in total) across Bangladesh, including some of the most disadvantaged areas (with reference to UNICEF deprivation index), such as Char, Hoar and Monga districts. Teachers took part in a school-based teacher development Programme, learning communicative language teaching approaches through carrying out new classroom activities, guided by teacher development videos that showed teachers, students and schools similar to those across the country. Teachers also had classroom audio resources for use with students. All digital materials were available offline, on teachers own mobile phones, so there is no dilution of the Programmes core messages about teaching and learning, by some intermediary coming between the teacher and the materials. Teachers were supported through these activities, by other teachers in their schools, by their head teachers and by local education officers. Some teachers from each area were also given additional support and guidance from divisional EIA staff, to act as Teacher Facilitators, helping teachers work through activities and share their experiences at local cluster meetings. Whereas previous cohorts of teachers had attended eight local teacher development meetings over their participation in the project, for Cohort Four, this was reduced to four meetings, with a greater emphasis being placed on support in school by head teachers, as well as support from local education officers. This change was part of the move towards institutionalisation and sustainability of project activities within and through government systems and local officers. The purpose of this study was both to provide the evaluation evidence required for the final phase of the EIA project and to contribute to the international body of research evidence on effective practices in teacher development in low-to-middle income country contexts