2 Scope and objectives of the assessment
The purpose of a cumulative effects assessment is to determine the effects of multiple environmental stressors on the viability of environmental receptors of interest, commonly referred to as valued components (Beanlands and Duinker, 1983; Sinclair et al., 2017). In addition to the importance of the engagement process and the engagement of various collaborators, a cumulative effects assessment typically includes, but is not limited to, the following:
Identifying, involving, and communicating with assessment stakeholders at all stages of the process
Determining the scope of the assessment
- Establishing the objectives of the assessment
- Determining the spatial and temporal boundaries of the study area
- Identifying activities of concern and the environmental stressors they produce
- Identifying and prioritizing the valued components to be assessed.
Establishing a profile of the study area
- Characterizing the intensity, extent, and frequency of activities and environmental stressors.
- Characterizing the valued components
- Assessing the vulnerability of valued components to environmental stressors
Analysis of cumulative effects
Analytic diagnosis
- Spatial distribution of cumulative effects
- Detailed exploration of the effect of environmental stressors on valued components
- Identifying sources of uncertainty and gaps in knowledge
Implementation of decision-making processes
- Identifying and implementing management measures
- Identifying mitigation measures
Follow-up and adaptive management
The identification and involvement of stakeholders (1) and determining the scope of the assessment (2) were defined prior to starting the work presented in this report through various consultation, engagement and workshop processes organized by Transport Canada and the members of the St. Lawrence Action Plan (SLAP) committee. These processes made it possible to take into account the concerns of First Nations, coastal communities and various project stakeholders in order to establish the scope of the cumulative effects assessment of marine vessel activities in the study area, i.e. to identify the environmental stressors and valued components to be considered in the assessment. In light of these processes, the pilot project presented in this report focuses on the profile of the study area (3), the cumulative effects analysis (4), and the critical assessment of the analysis (5). Steps 6 and 7 are not part of this assessment. The next sections of the report outline the steps covered by the contract.
2.1 Objectives
The general objective of the pilot project is to develop a methodology to assess the cumulative effects of marine vessel activities in the St. Lawrence River (fluvial section and estuary) and the Saguenay River (deep water section) in Quebec. Specifically, the pilot project objectives are to:
- Characterize the intensity and spatial distribution of marine vessel activities and the resulting targeted environmental stressors in the St. Lawrence and Saguenay rivers
- Characterize the spatial structure of certain targeted valued components of the St. Lawrence and Saguenay rivers
- Assess the vulnerability of valued components to the environmental stressors
- Assess the cumulative effects of the environmental stressors on valued components in the St. Lawrence and Saguenay rivers
2.2 Spatial and temporal scope
The region for which the cumulative effects assessment of marine vessel activities is being conducted covers the fluvial portion of the St. Lawrence River and the St. Lawrence Estuary between the west side of Montreal – i.e. near Chateauguay and Dorval – and Pointe-des-Monts on the north shore and Cap-Chat on the south shore, and the deep water portion of the Saguenay River from its mouth on the St. Lawrence River to Saint-Fulgence (Figure 2.1). The study area was delimited by combining the Quebec - St. Lawrence River - Shoreline Classification (Sergy, 2008) and the Quebec Topographic Databases (BDTQ) at 1/20,000 scale (Ministère de l’Énergie et des Ressources naturelles, 2021a). A study grid consisting of 1 \(km^2\) cells was constructed based on the delimited study area with the addition of a 2.6 \(km\) buffer zone (Figure 2.1). This buffer zone was added to ensure that all aquatic and marine environments were covered by the resulting grid. The code and data describing the study area are available at the GitHub repository showing the study area boundaries (https://github.com/EffetsCumulatifsNavigation/ZoneEtude).
Figure 2.1: Limits of the study area for the cumulative effects assessment of marine vessel activities in the St. Lawrence and the Saguenay river pilot projet.
The availability of data allowing for the cumulative effects assessment to be conducted defines the study’s temporal boundaries. In most cases, historical data are not available, making it more difficult to identify baseline states. For this pilot study, the data search was directed towards a contemporary assessment of cumulative effects, i.e., within the last 5 to 10 years depending on the data available. Therefore, no historical data allowing the identification of baseline states were used. It is important to note, however, that where available, data covering a longer period of time were used (e.g. dredging activities; see section 4.2.3).
2.3 Marine vessel activities and environmental stressors
marine vessel activities can create a variety of environmental stressors potentially affecting the integrity of the social-ecological ecosystems exposed. An environmental stressor is a process of natural or anthropogenic origin that can disturb an environment beyond its maximum levels of tolerance (Kappel et al., 2012). For the purposes of this pilot project, environmental stressors refer specifically to any processes arising from marine vessel activities that may disrupt various valued components (see section 2.4) in the study area. Marine vessel activities include any activity related to marine transportation conducted in an aquatic or marine environment. Marine vessel activities include not only the activities of commercial vessels, but also cruise ships, ferries, fishing boats, and pleasure craft.
It is important to note that environmental stressors affecting the study area from other vectors such as climate change and land-based pollution are not considered in this assessment. Port infrastructure is therefore not included in the pilot project. Any reference to environmental stressors in this report therefore target environmental stressors arising from marine vessel activities, unless otherwise noted.
It should also be noted that although the term “stressor” suggests that the activities and processes described have negative effects, this is not necessarily so; in fact, some activities may have no effect on the valued components being considered, or even have positive effects. Considering activities as environmental stressors does not inherently assume that they have negative effects on the valued components considered.
In pre-pilot workshops, a series of marine vessel activities and various stressors arising from them were identified (Table 2.1). This list guided the work done to characterize the environmental stressors in the study area for the cumulative effects assessment.
| Marine vessel activities | Environmental stressors |
|---|---|
| Dredging | Hydrology, erosion, sediment accumulation, contamination |
| Anchorage | Substrate disturbance, light, noise, invasive aquatic species, entanglement, pathogens, vibrations |
| Groundings / Shipwrecks | Substrate disturbance, debris, light, noise, invasive aquatic species, cargo spillage |
| Operational discharges | Aquatic invasive species, hydrocarbons, chemicals, contaminants, atmospheric emissions, wastewater, pathogens, salinity |
| Accidental spills | Hydrocarbon/contaminant spills, cargo spillage, atmospheric emissions, bioaccumulation, substrate disturbance |
| Movements (ice-free water) | Light, noise, wakes/washes, invasive aquatic species, pathogens, vibrations, substrate disturbance, erosion, collisions, de-icing, entanglement |
| Fishing gear | Wakes/washes, loss of equipment |
2.4 Valued components
The valued components (VCs) are essentially the social or ecological elements on which the cumulative effects analysis is performed. As part of the pilot project, the valued components were identified in advance during engagement activities and workshops with community experts, Indigenous representatives and multiple stakeholders. Valued components were selected separately for the fluvial (Montreal to Quebec City) and marine (Saguenay River and estuary) sectors of the St. Lawrence River (Table 2.2). This list guided the work done to characterize the valued components identified in the study area for the cumulative effects assessment.
| Valued components | Fluvial sector | Marine sector |
|---|---|---|
| Bank integrity | X | |
| Habitats | X | X |
| Marine mammals | X | |
| Water quality | X | X |
| Areas of cultural, heritage and archeological interest | X | X |
2.5 Limitations and special considerations
The scope of the assessment imposes certain limitations on this study; we have presented some of these limitations prior to presenting the full profile of the study area and cumulative effects assessment of marine vessel activities so that the reader can make an informed interpretation of the next sections of the report. Additional limitations related to the methodology used, elements of the full profile of the study area, and the results of the cumulative effects assessment are also presented in section 6 of the report.
It is crucial to bear in mind that the full profile of the study area and the assessment results can only be interpreted in reference to the study scope: the assessment is fully constrained by the spatial and temporal boundaries, environmental stressors and valued components considered for the study. No interpretation beyond this scope can be made. The results must therefore be interpreted with the resolution, extent, and quantity of the elements included in the assessment in mind; any interpretation that goes beyond these parameters is necessarily erroneous.
This study is a sectoral cumulative effects assessment focused on marine vessel activities related to shipping. In addition to marine vessel activities, the study area is subjected to a variety of environmental stressors such as climate change and land-based stressors (e.g. Beauchesne et al., 2020). Thus, this assessment cannot be deemed to represent all the environmental stressors exerting environmental pressures within the study area.
Similarly, the selected valued components represent a series of concerns identified by experts and local communities and various stakeholders during engagement and co-development activities that led to this pilot project. These concerns are valid and important, but cannot be considered representative of all the environmental, social, cultural, heritage and archeological components of importance within the study area. It is therefore important to interpret the assessment results only in the context of the identified valued components. For example, a lower intensity of marine vessel activities on the valued components in the marine sector cannot be interpreted as an absence of environmental or social effects. The assessment results would be different if different valued components were considered. For example, an assessment considering only marine mammals would have predicted effects only within the marine sector of the study area; this could not be interpreted as an absence of environmental pressure in the fluvial sector.
It is also important to mention that the study is constrained by the availability and accessibility of data needed to assess cumulative effects. Since no new data were collected in this project, the profile of the study area was a monitoring of the available and accessible data to describe the stressors and valued components considered. In some cases, data were not available (e.g. international fleet operational discharges, see section 4.2.7), while in some cases they were inaccessible even if they did exist (e.g. commercial fishing in the fluvial sector and marine noise; see section 4.2.6). Some data are also in the process of being acquired through other environmental characterization projects (see section 6). When they become available, these data can be added to the cumulative effects assessment.
Lastly, the study area constrains the profile presented; the profile is thus representative of the study area, not of the elements characterized there. For example, areas of cultural, heritage and archeological interest identified by First Nations extend well beyond the spatial boundaries of the study area. It would therefore be incorrect to assume that the cumulative effects assessment captures all of the effects felt on the areas of interest to First Nations.
In addition, the proposed assessment is regional and explicitly spatial; thus, it required data that were regionally spatialized or that could be tied to elements of the study area in order to be included in the assessment. It was therefore difficult to use point data covering only a portion of the territory, and it was also difficult to add social and cultural considerations such as territorial attachment. These considerations are still important, however, and were taken into account in another parallel study conducted by Roxane Lavoie’s team at Université Laval entitled Projet Cultures et Nations Saint-Laurent (see section 6).