Towards successful social impact assessment follow-up: a case study of psychosocial monitoring of a solid waste incinerator in the North of Portugal

Since 1997, an extensive monitoring programme has been assessing the psychosocial impacts of the solid waste incinerator of the Oporto region of Portugal. This paper describes the theoretical psychosocial model that guided this process; this stresses the joint effect of mediating variables (environmental annoyance and risk perception) and moderating variables (attitudes towards the incinerator and local identity). The test of the model and some main developments of follow-up results are presented.

[1]  Judith Petts,et al.  Effective Waste Management: Understanding and Dealing With Public Concerns , 1994 .

[2]  A. Wandersman,et al.  Are people acting irrationally? Understanding public concerns about environmental threats. , 1993 .

[3]  Monika Bullinger,et al.  Psychological effects of air pollution on healthy residents—A time-series approach , 1989 .

[4]  T. Kamarck,et al.  A global measure of perceived stress. , 1983, Journal of health and social behavior.

[5]  Randolph R. Cornelius,et al.  Noise Disturbance from a Developing Airport , 1999 .

[6]  Julie Barnett,et al.  The social amplification of risk and the hazard sequence: the October 1995 oral contraceptive pill scare , 2003 .

[7]  P. Slovic Perception of risk. , 1987, Science.

[8]  G. Huston The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. , 1987, The Journal of rheumatology.

[9]  S. Folkman,et al.  Stress, appraisal, and coping , 1974 .

[10]  A. Dembe The Environment and Mental Health: A Guide for Clinicians , 2000 .

[11]  Brigitte Steinheider,et al.  Industrial odours as environmental stressors: Exposure-annoyance associations and their modification by coping, age and perceived health , 1993 .

[12]  Angus Morrison-Saunders,et al.  Lessons from practice: towards successful follow-up , 2003 .

[13]  A. Baum,et al.  Implications of psychological research on stress and technological accidents. , 1993, The American psychologist.

[14]  R. Burdge,et al.  A conceptual approach to social impact assessment : collection of writings by Rabel J. Burdge and colleagues , 1994 .

[15]  Andrew Baum,et al.  6. Toxins, Technology, and Natural Disasters , 1987 .

[16]  Ortwin Renn,et al.  The Social Amplification of Risk: Social amplification of risk in participation: two case studies , 2003 .

[17]  J Kastka,et al.  Comparison of odour-annoyance data from different industrial sources: problems and implications. , 1987, Developments in toxicology and environmental science.

[18]  M. Lima,et al.  Predictors of Attitudes Towards the Construction of a Waste Incinerator: Two Case Studies1 , 2006 .

[19]  Marcus B. Lane,et al.  SOCIAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT , 1997 .

[20]  R. Guski,et al.  THE CONCEPT OF NOISE ANNOYANCE: HOW INTERNATIONAL EXPERTS SEE IT , 1999 .

[21]  Djamel Ouis,et al.  ANNOYANCE FROM ROAD TRAFFIC NOISE: A REVIEW , 2001 .

[22]  Ortwin Renn,et al.  The Social Amplification of Risk: A Conceptual Framework , 1988 .

[23]  R. Spears,et al.  Attitudes toward Nuclear Energy , 1986 .

[24]  M. Lima,et al.  On the influence of risk perception on mental health: living near an incinerator , 2004 .

[25]  Frank Vanclay,et al.  International Principles For Social Impact Assessment , 2003 .

[26]  G. Breakwell,et al.  Identity Processes and Environmental Threat: the Effects of Nationalism and Local Identity upon Perception of Beach Pollution , 1996 .

[27]  Marit Vorkinn,et al.  Environmental Concern in a Local Context , 2001 .

[28]  D. Shusterman,et al.  Critical review: the health significance of environmental odor pollution. , 1992, Archives of environmental health.