ENG 2013

Environmental Science and Engineering

M4 – Environmental Impact Assessment (Part 1)

Environmental Impact Assessment

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is an environmental decision

support tool which provides information on the likely impacts of
development projects to those who take the decision as to whether
the project should be authorized.
The purpose of an EIA is to determine the potential environmental,
social, and health effects of a proposed development, so that those
who take the decisions in developing the project and in authorizing
the project are informed about the likely consequences of their
decisions before they take those decisions and are thereby more
accountable.
It is intended to facilitate informed and transparent decision‐making
while seeking to avoid, reduce or mitigate potential adverse impacts
through the consideration of alternative options, sites or processes.

M4 ‐ Environmental Impact Assessment (Part 1)

Assessing Environmental Change

Even without humans, the environment undergoes continual change.

The formation of mountains and the movement of continents spans millions
of years (geologic time).
Siltation (accumulation of sediments) of lakes take place over hundreds of years.
Grasslands are taken over by trees and turn into woodlands take place over decades.
Human activities such as the combustion of fossil fuels, deforestation,
and agriculture also causes environmental changes.
Decisions on whether development goes ahead or not may involve
trade‐offs between an environment – which considered to be
desirable and healthy, ‘quality of life’ issues, and economic gain.
EIA aims to make explicit to society what the consequences of such
trade‐offs might be and so ensures decision makers are more
accountable for their decisions.

M4 ‐ Environmental Impact Assessment (Part 1)

Assessing Environmental Change

Perceptions of environmental change will vary between countries,

and within different sectors of a community.
Environmental concerns may rank low where poverty, lack of food, shelter,
healthcare, and education are widespread. Degradation of the environment
may be tolerated if it is considered to reduce poverty through the creation of
employment, wealth, or food.
On the other hand, industrialized countries suffer from affluence. Problems
faced by industrialized countries relate to massive and mounting demands
for energy and water by industry and a consumer society.
Typical environmental concerns in developing countries include soil
erosion, desertification, and the spread of water‐borne diseases, as
projects will often involve the clearing of land, and diversion or
creation of new water bodies. The resettlement of local people can
result in the erosion of the prevailing social organization and
traditions of a community.

M4 ‐ Environmental Impact Assessment (Part 1)

Assessing Environmental Change

There is the danger of unbalanced or inappropriate development.

Better‐adapted projects targeted at the local level are more apt to
engender broader public support and to cause less social
displacement than a few, large, centralized projects.
In developed countries, planning and management of land are
important in containing urban sprawl and siting development to
preserve remaining wilderness areas and the benefits these provide.
Sophisticated pollution control mechanisms are often employed to
maintain the quality of the environment.
While it is clear that decisions will often be made on the basis of
economic value, development can be planned to make better use of
resources and to reduce or avoid the environmental degradation
experienced in the past.

M4 ‐ Environmental Impact Assessment (Part 1)

Background and History of EIA

As early as 1872 the USA established national parks to preserve

wildernesses and natural ecosystems.
“Silent Spring” by Rachel Carson was published in 1962 and social
awareness to environmental issues was growing.
The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) was constituted in
1969 established EIA as a mandatory regulatory procedure.
Following the US initiative, several countries began to provide EIA
systems: Australia (1974), Thailand (1975), France (1976), Philippines
(1978), Israel (1981), Pakistan (1983)

M4 ‐ Environmental Impact Assessment (Part 1)

EIA Theory and Decision‐Making

EIA began as decision‐making tool. It has since been adapted to different

concepts, most notably the concept of sustainable development.
EIA arose out of the natural science disciplines, particularly the
ecology field.
“Design with nature” (McHarg, 1969)
EIA elevated the environment in decision‐making which had been
traditionally been dominated by economic considerations.
EIA has stretched its influence in the formation of plans and policies.
Decisions are based on many considerations, and are often highly
political. The process on EIA engages the stakeholders and the
potential dialog created holds great value in the formation of plans
and policies.

M4 ‐ Environmental Impact Assessment (Part 1)

Key Issues in EIA

In order to identify the likely consequences of development, a series

of steps must be undertaken to ensure that issues are approached in
a systematic and rational way. These stages form what is known as
the EIA process.
It is an iterative process where the stages in the process recur as
new information is gathered.

When is EIA required?

EIA is required for all projects that have been identified as likely to have a
significant effect upon the environment.

M4 ‐ Environmental Impact Assessment (Part 1)

Key Issues in EIA

When does EIA start?

To be effective, EIA should start early in the planning of a project in order
materially to influence the design and location.
There are a number of advantages and disadvantages of undertaking EIA at an
early stage:
Advantages
• Fewer costs associated with rethinking a project, or delays resulting from an attempt to
mitigate impacts late in the design process.
• The project is more likely to be accepted if it has dealt with the concerns of the local
people at an early stage; EIA can be seen as aiding good environmental public relations.
• Cost‐effective design, taking the environment into account, often means that the
overall project development costs are reduced
Disadvantages
• Difficulty of assessing the impacts of a project which is not fully designed.
• It may be difficult to predict the costs of EIA, and indeed the project, when the final
outcome is unknown as a result of not knowing what effects the consideration of the
environment may have on the project.

M4 ‐ Environmental Impact Assessment (Part 1)

Key Issues in EIA

What should be covered in an EIA?

It is important that the number of impacts considered in an EIA is reduced to a
manageable number of key issues at an early stage.
This helps to direct resources towards addressing important issues, which are of
concern to involved parties and the wider public.
Examples of the types of issues, which may be included, are pollution of
watercourses, visual intrusion in a sensitive landscape, or the destruction of a
habitat or area important for its cultural heritage.
Who carries out EIAs?
This varies in different counties.
Frequently, it is the developer or environmental consultants acting on behalf
of the developer who carry out EIAs.
In other cases, the EIA can be commissioned by the decision‐making
authority or undertaken by an independent body.

M4 ‐ Environmental Impact Assessment (Part 1)

Key Issues in EIA

What about the public?

Consultation and participation have formed an integral part of the EIA
process since its inception and most EIA systems make some provision for the
involvement of the public.
The public has a democratic right to be informed about projects that will
affect the environment in which they live and to voice their concerns.
There is growing acceptance that increased consultation and participation
can produce significant benefits for both the project proponent and those
affected.

M4 ‐ Environmental Impact Assessment (Part 1)

Key Issues in EIA

How are the results of the EIA presented?

The environmental impact statement (EIS) is the document that is
presented to the decision‐making body, alongside the application for
development consent.
It contains the environmental information and conclusions of the assessment
and should be presented in a clear, unbiased manner, enabling non‐
specialists to determine what issues are at stake.
A non‐technical summary is often produced for wider distribution. Public
meetings, exhibitions, and displays also provide a means of disseminating
information to the public.

M4 ‐ Environmental Impact Assessment (Part 1)

Stages in the EIA Process

The EIA process has nine stages:

Screening
Scoping
Baseline study
Impact prediction
Impact assessment
Mitigation
Producing the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)
EIS review
Follow up

M4 ‐ Environmental Impact Assessment (Part 1)

Stages in the EIA Process

Screening
The EIA process begins from the very start of a project.
Once a developer has identified a need and assessed all the possible
alternatives of project design and sites to select a preferred alternative, two
important questions must be asked:
What will be the effects of this development on the environment?
Are those effects significant?
If the answer to the second question is 'yes', an EIA may be required.
Answering this question is a process known as screening and can be an
essential first step into a formal EIA.
The EIA process is, and it must be stressed, iterative. The developer would
need to reassess the project design with the view of reducing the significant
impacts to a level where an EIA is not legally required (Nielsen et al 2005).

M4 ‐ Environmental Impact Assessment (Part 1)

Stages in the EIA Process

Scoping
Where it is decided that a formal EIA is required, the next stage is to define
the issues that need to be addressed, that is, those impacts that have a
significant effect on the environment.
Scoping is essential for focusing the available resources on the relevant issues.
Baseline study
Collecting all relevant information on the current status of the environment.
This provides a baseline against which change due to a development can be
measured.
Impact prediction
Impact prediction involves forecasting the likely changes in the environment
that will occur as a result of the development.

M4 ‐ Environmental Impact Assessment (Part 1)

Stages in the EIA Process

Impact assessment
Impact assessment requires interpretation of the importance or significance
of the impacts to provide a conclusion, which can ultimately be used by
decision‐makers in determining the fate of the project application.
Mitigation
Frequently, the assessment of impacts will reveal damaging effects upon the
environment. These may be alleviated by mitigation measures.
Mitigation involves taking measures to reduce or remove environmental
impacts.
Successful design of mitigation measures could possibly result in the removal
of all significant impacts; hence a new screening exercise would reveal that
there might have been no need to carry out a formal EIA had the mitigation
measures been included from the start.

M4 ‐ Environmental Impact Assessment (Part 1)

Stages in the EIA Process

Producing the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)

The outcome of an EIA is usually a formal document, known as an
environmental impact statement (EIS)
It is quite common that a requirement of an EIS is that it also produces a
non‐technical summary. This is a summary of the information contained
within the EIS, presented in a concise non‐technical format
EISs are public documents intended to inform the public of the nature and
likely consequences of a development in time to comment and/or participate
in the final project design.

M4 ‐ Environmental Impact Assessment (Part 1)

Stages in the EIA Process

EIS review
Once the EIA is complete, the EIS is submitted to the competent to permit or
refuse development applications. It is essential, therefore, that the EIS must
be reviewed.
Basically, the review process should enable the decision‐maker to decide
whether the EIS is adequate (e.g. whether it is legally compliant), whether
the information is correct, and whether it is unbiased.
If it is, they are then in a position to use the EIS as information to be
considered in determining whether the project should receive consent.

M4 ‐ Environmental Impact Assessment (Part 1)

Stages in the EIA Process

Follow up
Follow up relates to the post‐approval phase of EIA.
It includes monitoring of impacts, the continued environmental
management of a project, and impact auditing.
Follow up presents an opportunity both to control environmental effects
and to learn from the process, and cause‐effect relationships. Ideally, data
generated by monitoring and other aspects of follow up should be compared
with the original predictions and mitigation measures in the EIS to determine
the accuracy of the original predictions
the degree of the deviation from the predictions
the possible reasons for any deviation
whether mitigation measures have achieved their objective of reducing or eliminating
impacts
Information generated by this process can contribute to the improvement of
future EIA practice, for example, by enabling more accurate predictions to be
made.

M4 ‐ Environmental Impact Assessment (Part 1)

Reference

Environmental Assessment, SOAS University of London,

https://www.soas.ac.uk/cedep‐demos/000_P507_EA_K3736‐
Demo/module/topindex.htm#

M4 ‐ Environmental Impact Assessment (Part 1)