Calculating and Representing the

Environmental and Social Impacts of the

TANAP Pipeline Project

GIS based impact calculation tool

Massimo Dragan

mdragan@golder.com

© 2017 Golder Associates. All rights reserved.

Southern Europe Gas Corridor in Numbers

TANAP is the Turkish leg

1850 km pipeline

19 km under the Sea of Marmara

7 compressor stations,

4 measuring stations,

11 pigging stations,

49 block valve stations and

2 off-take stations

May 5, 2017 2

ESHIA for Linear Infrastructures

The challenges

Vast geographical extent of the project area

Different projects components with different impacts

Seasonal variation of activities

Crossing areas with varying degrees of sensitivity

The amount of data to process is very relevant

The representation of results is complex

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Why a spatially explicit model

Integrate the impact assessment workflow with engineering design in a

shared GIS environment

Leverage the availability of national geodata repositories for assessment

endpoints

Consider cumulative effects of concurrent spatially overlapping impact

factors

Account for the spatial overlay of impact factors with the geometries of

sensitive elements

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Environmental

and Social

Components

PIPELINE PROJECT

Conceptual model

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Impacts

Impact

factors

Project

actions

Project

components

Sensitivity

Mitigation

measures

Project components

Pipeline onshore

Pipeline offshore

Road crossing open cut

Road crossing trenchless

Railroad crossing

Channel crossing open cut

Channel crossing trenchless

River crossing open cut

River crossing trenchless

Pipeline in HGWC

Compressor stations

Camp sites

Block valve/pigging/ metering station

Pipe stock yards

Pipeline landing

Temporary access roads

Permanent access roads

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The project components are all

represented as a GIS vector layers

and modelled as potential sources of

impact during the project phases of

Construction

Operation

Decommissioning

Project components spatial representation

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Project components spatial representation

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Project Actions

Each project component is characterized by a series of activities

needed for its construction, functioning/operation or decommissioning

which are likely to have an effect

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Land acquisition

Vegetation clearing

Topsoil/soil removal/excavation

Sediment excavation

Rock blasting

Topsoil/soil storage

Pipe laying

Pipe padding

Topsoil/soil reinstatement

Pipe concrete coating

Biorestoration works

Water diversion

Dewatering

Wastewater discharge

Pipe/material transportation

Pipe/material storage

Building/infrastructure construction

Building/infrastructure demolition

Waste management

Machinery use

Energy production

Energy use

Water use

Presence/accommodation of workforce

Purchase of goods, materials and services

Payment of taxes

Pipeline system operation

Pipeline system malfunctioning management

Impact Factors

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Impact Factors are associated through Project Actions to each Project

Component in the three Project Phases: Construction, Operation, and

Decommissioning

Impact factors are physical, chemical, biological and social stressors that

the project is introducing as a consequence of various project actions

For each factor and phase, every project component may generate a

specific level of impact intensity or severity

The quantification of the severity of each impact factor is based on an

expert opinion, according to the following numerical system

Impact factors assessment parameters

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Magnitude Reversibility Geographic extent Duration FrequencyProbability of

occurrence

Low

5

Short term

reversible

1

Local

0

Short

0

Rare

0

Unlikely

0

Medium

10

Long term

reversible

3

Regional

1

Medium

1

Intermittent

1

Likely

1

High

15

Irreversible

5

Beyond regional

2

Long

2

Continuous

2

Certain

2

Impact factor severity example

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Calculation example for the “Emission of dust and particulate” during

construction phase

IF01 Emission of dust and particulate Phase: CONSTRUCTION

Project component

Dire

ctio

n

Ma

gn

itu

de

Reve

rsib

ility

Ge

ogra

ph

ic

exte

nt

Du

ratio

n

Fre

qu

en

cy

Pro

ba

bili

ty o

f

occu

rre

nce

Imp

act

inte

nsity

Pipeline onshore Negative 15 1 0 1 1 2 20

Pipeline offshore Negative 5 1 0 0 2 2 10

Road crossing open cut Negative 10 1 0 0 1 2 14

Road crossing trenchless Negative 5 1 0 0 1 2 9

……. … … … … … … … …

Spatial Model of Impact Factors

Every impact factor has a spatial extension that can vary in width from

phase to phase.

This spatial extension ranges from just the project footprint (i.e. the

combination of the different PC footprints) to a larger buffer

The severity of the IF is considered constant – not varying in

intensity - within the buffer region.

For instance, during the construction phase, noise can impact a region

of 500 meters surrounding the pipeline footprint.

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Impact Factors spatial extent: example

Spatial extent per impact factor in each project phase

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Impact Factor Construction Operation Decommissioning

IF01 200 5000 200

IF02 500 5000 500

IF03 footprint footprint footprint

….. ….. ….. …..

Impact factor cumulative effect

Where the impact extent is not limited to

the project footprint, each project

component is buffered according to the

impact factor spatial extent

The specific severity value is assigned

to the resulting polygon.

Where the project component footprints

or buffers overlap, the impact factor

intensity cumulates to account for a

concurrent, simultaneous and

consequently higher potential impact

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Gaseous emissions during the

construction phase

VECs and Sensitivity

The Valued Environmental and Social Components (VECs) are

characterized by a sensitivity or propensity to change, which is function

of one or more intrinsic features of the components, like

the presence of elements of particular value or vulnerability

function of existing high levels of degradation

The sensitivity of the VECs is evaluated on the basis of the

presence/absence of some features called sensitivity elements which

define both the current degree of quality and the component’s

susceptibility to environmental changes (IFC PS).

The sensitivity level of each element is assigned according to the scale

low, medium, high.

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Sensitivity Elements Spatial Extent

In the GIS impact assessment tool, the sensitivity layer is a geographic

feature composed by the geometries of one or more receptor types with

a sensitivity value for every assessment endpoint.

Receptor geometries can be polygons (e.g. settlements,

archaeological sites, protected areas, habitats), lines (e.g. roads), or

points (e.g. watercourse crossings, groundwater resources) according to

the resolution of the available geographic data.

The sensitivity level is assigned according to a simple reclassification

or spatial rule and it is based on the subject matter expert evaluation.

The sensitivity value is constant for the three phases and is not impact

factor specific.

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Sensitivity level

Sensitivity level calculation: Soil assessment endpoints example

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VALUED ENVIRO

NMENTAL

COMPONENT

(VEC)

ASSESSMENT

ENDPOINT

(AE)

SENSITIVITY

ELEMENT

SENSITIVITY LEVEL

Soil

1-LOW 2-MEDIUM 3-HIGH

Reduction/degrada

tion of soil with

high agricultural

potential

Soil agricultural

potential

soil capability

(AKK VIII)

soil capability

classes (AKK

V÷VII)

soil capability

classes (AKK I÷IV)

Degradation of soil

with high erosion

potential

Soil erosion

potential

None or very little

(ERZ 1)

Medium (ERZ 2) Severe and very

severe (ERZ 3,4)

Contamination of

soils

Soil pollution

potential

Corine Land

cover Industrial

areas

(121)

Corine Land cover

Urban areas

(111, 112)

Corine Land cover

Agricultural areas

(211, 212,213,

221, 222, 223,

231, 241,242, 243,

244)

Impact calculation and representation

The impact layers are derived as a spatial

overlay of impact factors and sensitivity

layers

The impact level is calculated for each of the

individual receptors identified and represented as

a point, a line or an area

e.g a settlement, a river, or an ecosystem

patch

There are different methods of assigning impact

factor intensity to a receptor according to its

spatial dimension

The total impact is given by the sum of all

impact factors intensity values overlaying a

receptor and multiplied by its intrinsic sensitivity.

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Effects on Traffic and Mobility

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Reduction of Soil with Agricultural Potential

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Presence of Suitable Habitat for Fauna

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Conclusions and lessons learnt

A complex project benefits from the use of model automation for a

variety of reasons

The project changes

Early identification of areas of concern (hotpsots), may inform design

improvements and mitigations

Impacts are automatically calculated through algorithms in the GIS

system and the GIS methodology is able to geographically identify

potential areas of concern or “hotspots”

This approach aims to focus the mitigation strategy in the more critical

areas, optimizing the use of the project resources dedicated to

environmental and social management.

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Conclusions and lessons learnt

Automation is key to:

Tackle the complexity and massive volume of data

«Survive» last minute changes

Reduce computational risks

A spatially explicit ESHIA allows to

Geographically identify potential areas of concern or “hotspots”

Inform design improvements

Focus the mitigation strategy in the more critical areas

Optimize the use of the project resources

May 5, 2017 24