Determining Environmental Audits Pattern for Iran Roads

The purpose of this study is to practically implement an environmental auditing program for some selected roads in Iran. To fulfill this objective, reports of implementations were scanned. Thereafter, field observations and classification of the roads were carried out. Finally, after the verification of the obtained checklists, the functionality and applicability of the audit were evaluated. To achieve this, four roads were selected and various parameters were evaluated according to the corresponding traffic load in two separate time periods. Based on examinations, the values of most of the investigated parameters were below the standard limits. Although there are no rational and meaningful relations between traffic loads and obtained values, more attention should be paid to the sources of some basic pollutants such as vanadium in soil samples. In general, the concepts of the prepared auditing framework have been approved. However, revision is required at some aspects among which the most important one is the limiting criterion of detailed auditing. The opinions of the provincial stakeholders can also be considered for determination the type of auditing. For the biological section auditing, due to the lack of corresponding statistical and informational basis, as well as the lack of criteria for comparison, certain assessment is not feasible. While regarding the auditing of water and soil pollutants sources, it can be mentioned that the pre-determined band width was more than the required limit. Thus, according to the field activities and measurements results, a bandwidth of 300m for highways and freeways and 150m for main roads is suggested. Generally, auditing is necessary for all roads within the country. However, the localization of the audits for various roads must be considered.