A New Approach for the Identification of Environmental Issues at Stake in a Road Project

The concept of considering environmental stakes in engineering projects has gained more and more credence in recent times, mainly because of new regulations. An approach that is aimed at identifying environmental issues at stake in a road project is proposed. First, all elements highly affected by the project are determined using a cause–effect network. This type of identification is based on three components: actions undertaken, environmental characteristics and the stages of the project. Then, an expert evaluation is carried out using a multicriteria procedure followed by a public evaluation, in order to take into account the significance that individuals may give to each environmental component. Finally, these two independent evaluations are aggregated together. The entire process is integrated in a knowledge-based system.