New Techniques for Standardization of Environmental Impact Assessment

The exploitation of deep-sea mineral resources has not yet begun. In order to realize it in the future, various issues need to be addressed. One such issue is establishing an appropriate environmental impact assessment (EIA) technique and a supporting environmental research method. At present, knowledge on the deep-sea environment is quite poor, and existing environmental research methods rely on various methods used in ocean science. However, the goals of oceanography do not always align with those for EIA. Furthermore, the purposes of EIA and scientific research are different. Considering economic performance and technical convenience, scientific research methods are not necessarily suitable for EIA. In this context, this paper introduces three new technologies of turbulence measurement, niche modeling, and genetic connectivity survey method and suggests approaches for their standardization for the purpose of EIA.