Requires sustainability perspective in each planning process.

Approach

- Holistic system perspective (combines EIA with other initiatives for inclusive social and
environmental planning).
- Transcend professional and disciplinary boundary.
- Extend geographic and temporal boundary.
- Should be anticipatory, prescriptive and consensus based.
- Design and implementation should be adapted to the proposal type.

Ends

- Pertain to
o directions (intermediate objectives)
o destination (goals and end states)
o procedures (planning process principles and objectives)
- Should be supportive to larger sustainability visions and goals
- Should focus on specific problems and opportunities
- Should reflect sustainability values
- Should be flexible to adapt to changing environmental conditions and priorities
Alternatives/Project characteristics

- Seek choices that meets sustainability ends in harmony with other initiatives
- Differences among alternatives about how they contribute to sustainability ends should be
specified.
- Assessment of alternatives should reflect value differences among various stakeholders.

Baseline conditions

- Focusing on the consistency of environmental conditions and intrusions with sustainability

principles.
- Ecological, social and economic carrying capacity should be identified.
- Identifying key relationships within ecological, social and economic systems.
- Ecological and social indicators help to characterize the baseline.
- By assessing historical trends and cycles and extending those to futures make the
characterization dynamic.

Impact analysis

- Impact identification and prediction should begin with impact hypothesis statement.
- Magnitude, duration, geographic extent, frequency and degree of irreversibility of the
consequences should be characterized.
- Rigorous estimation methods should be used, augmented by field monitoring, sensitivity
analysis, iterative assessments and re-adjustments.

Interpretation

- Whether sustainability is fostered or inhibited should be explicitly addressed.

- Should assess whether the proposed action threatens ecological limits or sustainable resource
use.
- The values of those most likely to be affected should be thoroughly assessed.

Mitigation and enhancement

- Focusing on measures to reduce pressures on ecological limits by

o Enhancing key functions and processes
o Restoring damaged and degraded ecosystems

Synthesis

- Frameworks and models that improves understanding of potential threats to the sustainability
of social, economic and ecological systems.

Evaluation

- Screens and compares alternatives

- Assesses the proposed actions

Impact management

- Includes mitigation, compensation, monitoring and involvement measures

 - Cost effective measures should be used to prevent serious environmental degradation
- Environmental liabilities should be defined and victims should be compensated
- Key environmental components and sources of potential impacts should be monitored
- Monitoring should permit individual activity monitoring within broader monitoring system
- Individual management measures should be integrated to overall impact management strategy

Approvals

- Facilitate involvement of stakeholders in legal procedures and implementation.

- link with higher-level decision-making body should be maintained to address interjurisdictional
and transboundary sustainability concerns.

Necessary processes in steps

Documentation:

documents and data with traceable records of how sustainability is incorporated in EIA
planning process which will be broadly distributed and consistent with enhancing sustainability
knowledge base.

Communications:

Prioritizing the sharing of sustainability knowledge and communication among

stakeholders and scrutinizing transboundary concerns by focusing on sustainability objectives.

Involvement:

Stakeholders are involved in early and on-going stage for consensus building and
conflict resolution facilitated through a wide variety of public consultation methods which
ensures that public concerns and suggestions are explicitly identified and addressed in the
process and documentation.