"A background paper prepared for the Canadian Environmental Assessment Research Council." Includes bibliographical references (pages 57-63).

This state-of-the-art review of cumulative effects assessment in Canada confirms that cumulative effects are having an increasingly significant impact on the quality of natural and social environments in Canada. Most significant cumulative effects issues facing Canadians are consolidated into 13 categories: long range transportation of air pollutants; urban air quality and airshed saturation; mobilization of persistent or bioaccumulated substances; cumulative effects associated with climatic modification; occupation of land by man-made features; habitat alienation; habitat fragmentation; losses of soil quality and quantity; effects of use of agricultural, silvicultural and horticultural chemicals; reduction of groundwater supplies and groundwater contamination; increased sediment, chemical and thermal loading of freshwater and marine habitats; accelerating rates of renewable resource harvesting; long-term containment and disposal of toxic wastes.