International Journal of Advanced Engineering Research and Science (IJAERS) [Vol-7, Issue-7, Jul- 2020] https://dx.doi.org/10.22161/ijaers.77.56 ISSN: 2349-6495(P) | 2456-1908(O) www.ijaers.com Page | 492 Turbining the Leopold Matrix Roberto Tenorio Figueiredo 1 , Vivianni Marques Leite dos Santos 2 , Jorge Luis Cavalcanti Ramos 2 1 PhD student of the Graduate Program in Agroecology and Territorial Development (UNIVASF) – Brazil 2 PhD Professors of the Postgraduate Program in Agroecology and Territorial Development (UNIVASF) - Brazil Abstract— The conservation of natural resources is a fundamental issue, in addition to being, in many cases, regulated by laws and decrees. In Brazil, resolutions require a rigorous environmental impact assessment to be carried out and the EIA (Environmental Impact Study) and RIMA (Environmental Impact Report) to be generated in any projects with activities that potentially cause degradation to the environment. A widespread way of assessing environmental impacts is the interaction matrix known as the Leopold Matrix. Many scientific articles use the original or modified Leopold matrix to perform the assessment of environmental impacts, although they commonly point out disadvantages or limitations in the use of the matrix. The purpose of this article is to propose a new matrix, named “Leopold Turbinated Matrix”, with the elimination of the identified disadvantages, in addition to enhancing the advantages, without visually loading the matrix, in addition to including new elements, which enhance its ability to evaluate and predict environmental impacts. For this, an in-depth study was carried out on the applications of the matrix based on national and international scientific and technological. The developed “Leopold Turbine Matrix”solve identified disadvantages or limitations, in addition to including new criteria, so that it constitutes a new powerful, efficient and comprehensive tool regarding the assessment of environmental impacts. Keywords— Leopold Matrix, Environmental Impact Assessment, Decision making. I. INTRODUCTION The first discussions with the participation of representatives from different countries take place in June 1972, during the First World Environment Conference in Stockholm, Sweden. At this conference, an instrument of great importance for the preservation of the environment was created, the Environmental Impact Assessment – EIA [1]. An environmental impact can be defined as: “[...]any change in the physical, chemical and biological properties of the environment, caused by any form of matter or energy resulting from human activities that, directly or indirectly, affect: I - the health, safety and well-being of the population; II - social and economic activities; III - the biota; IV - the aesthetic and sanitary conditions of the environment; V - the quality of environmental resources”. [2] According to Batista et al [3], EIA is an aid tool in decision making, which aims to evoke all environmental factors, so that decisions take these factors into account when designing projects. The authors also emphasize that it is fundamental for the development of the conscious use of the scarce resources of the planet earth and can be conceptualized as the “[...] qualitative and quantitative interpretation of the changes, of ecological, social, cultural or aesthetic order in the environment” [3]. The EIA includes procedures to identify and classify potential impacts that an action may cause to the environment, predicting the dimension and losses of these impacting activities [4]. According to Sanguinetto [5], it must be carried out by specialist technicians, helping organizations to execute projects with less damage to the environment. Consultation and popular participation are integral parts of this assessment, making EIA a participatory tool for environmental management [6]. The Brazilian law No. 6,938, of August 31, 1981, states that the assessment of environmental impacts is one of the instruments of the National Environment