New digital template to strengthen environmental screenings in infrastructure projects

When Denmark expands motorways or builds cycle paths, protected natural areas, animal species and protected areas must be taken into account. This requires detailed environmental screenings, and now consultants and authorities will have a new digital tool that will standardize the process for assessing the environmental consequences of large infrastructure projects.

Danmarks Miljøportal and the Danish Road Directorate have collaborated to develop a new digital template for the environmental assessment tool EA-Tools. The purpose is to ensure more uniform and qualified environmental screenings in connection with infrastructure projects.

The Danish Road Directorate works with many consulting subcontractors who normally use their own internal systems to carry out environmental analyses, but in the future they can use the template so that they carry out overlap analyses in the same way and directly in the environmental assessment tool EA-Tools. 

"With the new template, it will be easier to ensure that everyone works with the same updated data basis and examines all the essential factors. It increases the quality and makes the processes more uniform and comparable," says Lars Linneberg, biologist and team leader for the environment at the Danish Road Directorate.

EA-Tools are widely used by authorities, but also companies, to identify potential conflicts with nature, conservation and environmental conditions. 

"Our digital tools will serve as decision support for society's major projects, so we are pleased that the Danish Road Directorate has prioritised using it for their environmental assessments. The more people who use EA-Tools, the more up-to-date and accurate the data basis becomes, and this benefits Denmark," says Karl Rasmus Sveding, project manager for the solution at Danmarks Miljøportal.

The template can be accessed on eatools.miljoeportal.dk. Select "Country screening", define your search area and then select the data basis via "Choose template", where the Danish Road Directorate's template can be found.