RT Journal Article
T1 A contribution for the evaluation of the territorial impact of transport infrastructures in the early stages of the EIA: application to the Huelva (Spain)–Faro (Portugal) rail link
A1 Ortega Pérez, Emilio
A1 Martín Ramos, Belén
A1 González Algarra, Encarnación
A1 Moreno Cuesta, Eduardo
AB The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) procedure should predict and identifythe major impacts of a project development that may cause specific spatial andtemporal effects. Early in the EIA, the scoping stage provides all the relevantinformation on the impacts of the project alternatives. In particular, potential effectson the territorial network such as habitat connectivity loss and accessibilityimprovements should be taken into account in the various proposed layout alternativeswhen evaluating transport infrastructure projects. However, several authors haveidentified deficiencies in practice. The aim of this article is to provide a methodologyfor the assessment of these territorial impacts using adequate indicators in the earlystages of the EIA procedure.The proposed method is based on a comparison of a range of alternative layouts fora railway line linking two population centres, using indicators calculated withgeographic information systems. The methodology was applied to a case study   therail link between Huelva (Spain) and Faro (Portugal)   and the high speed rail (HSR)and conventional rail were evaluated in different layouts. The method was effective inspatially identifying significant impacts on accessibility improvements, whichoccurred closer to the cross border area. The conventional railway alternatives havesimilar accessibility values to the HSR. The results also reveal that connectivity loss isnot limited to the area around the infrastructure, but extends throughout the territory.The results are at variance with the initiative proposed by Spanish and Portuguesetransport decision-makers, and raise the possibility of selecting a conventional railwayoption. An adequate territorial evaluation methodology enables the new action to becorrectly assessed, and supplies the information required to propose the most suitablealternative from a socio-economic and environmental standpoint, regardless ofwhether this proposal was initially included in the transport policy
PB Taylor & Francis
SN 0964-0568
SN 1360-0559 (electrónico)
YR 2015
FD 2015-02
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10272/23008
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10272/23008
LA eng
NO Ortega-Pérez, E., Martín-Ramos, B., Gonzalez-Algarra, E., & Moreno-Cuesta, E. (2015). A contribution for the evaluation of the territorial impact of transport infrastructures in the early stages of the EIA: application to the Huelva (Spain)–Faro (Portugal) rail link. In Journal of Environmental Planning and Management (Vol. 59, Issue 2, pp. 302–319). Informa UK Limited. https://doi.org/10.1080/09640568.2015.1009628
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Huelva
RD 30 may 2026