User:Joey.becker99/Leopold matrix/Jcreeggan Peer Review

The Leopold matrix is a qualitative environmental impact assessment method developed in 1971 by Luna Leopold and collaborators for the USGS. The report in which it was published came as a response (I would suggest shortening this to "It came as a response") to the National Environmental Quality Act of 1969 which was criticized for lacking adequate guidance for government agencies on how to properly predict potential environmental impacts and consequently prepare impact reports. It is used to identify and assign numerical weightings to potential environmental impacts of a proposed project(s) on the environment. The system consists of a grid of 100 rows representing the possible project activities on the horizontal axis and 88 columns representing environmental factors on the vertical axis, for a total of 8800 possible interactions. In practice, only a select few (25-50) of these interactions are likely to be of sufficient importance to be thoroughly considered. Where an impact is expected, the appropriate cell of the matrix is split diagonally from the top right corner to the bottom left corner(. This allows) in order for the magnitude and significance of each interaction to be recorded. The magnitude (from -10 to +10) is inserted on the top left corner and the importance (from 1 to 10) is inserted on the bottom right corner.

Measurements of magnitude and importance tend to be related, but do not necessarily directly correlate. Magnitude can be measured more tangibly in terms of how much area is affected by the development or how severely, however, the importance is a more subjective measurement. While a proposed development may have a large impact in terms of magnitude, the effects it causes may not actually significantly affect the environment as a whole. The example given by author Luna Leopold is of a stream that significantly alters the erosion patterns in a specific area, which may be scored highly in terms of magnitude, but may not be necessarily significant, provided the stream in question is swift moving and transports large amounts of soil regardless. In this case, an impact of significant magnitude may not actually be important to the environment in question.

Advantages

As outlined by the original authors, the matrix provides a structured framework for practitioners of environmental impact assessment to systematically rank potential significant environmental cause-and-effect relationships. A structured approach avoids the downsides of less organized ad hoc approaches to impact prediction in which impacts can be either underestimated or completely overlooked. The matrix is also capable of expanding and contracting based on the scope and environmental context of any given undertaking, rendering it functional for both large and small scale projects. Finally, it is beneficial for users that the tool can be applied at various temporal stages of the environmental impact assessment process.

General info

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