Environmental Impact Assessment

Environmental Impact Assessment
(EIA)

Environmental Impact Assessment
• Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is a process of evaluating the likely
environmental impacts of a proposed project or development, taking into account
inter-related socio-economic, cultural and human-health impacts, both beneficial
and adverse.

Origin of EIA
• Before the First World War, rapid industrialization and urbanization in western
countries was causing rapid loss of natural resources.
• This continued to the period after the Second World War giving rise to concerns for
pollution, quality of life and environmental stress.
• In early 60s, investors and people realized that the projects they were under taking
were affecting the environment, resources, raw materials and people.
• As a result of this, pressure groups formed with the aim of getting a tool that can
be used to safeguard the environment in any development.
• The USA decided to respond to these issues and established a National
Environmental Policy Act in 1970 to consider its goal in terms of environmental
protection.

Origin of EIA (Cont……)
• The USA became the first country to enact legislation on EIA.
• This was the first time that EIA became the official tool to be used to protect the
environment.
• The United Nations Conference on the Environment in Stockholm in 1972 and
subsequent conventions formalized EIA.
• At present, all developed countries have environmental laws whereas most of the
developing countries are still adopting it (Lee, 1995).
• Multilateral and bilateral lenders included EIA requirements in their project
eligibility criteria (OECD, 1996).

Importance of EIA
• Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is a policy and management tool for both
planning and decision-making.
• It is a systematic process that assists to identify, predict and evaluate the
foreseeable environmental consequences of proposed development projects, plans
and policies.
• The process is applied prior to major decisions and commitments being done.
• The outcome of an EIA study assists the decision maker and the general public to
determine whether a project should be implemented and in what form.

Importance of EIA (Cont…..)
• EIA involves description and quantification of impacts of given policy options.
• However, it does not require full information about costs and benefits; impacts are
not expressed in monetary terms.
• EIA is a very important aid to CBA.
• EIA is not restricted to or biased to the examination and mitigation of negative
impacts alone.
• EIA can also look into the possible positive issues due to the developmental
projects and explore or suggest ways of enhancing them further by carrying out
modifications in the project.

Importance of EIA (Cont…..)
• The purpose of EIA is to:
• Provide information for decision making on the environmental consequences of
proposed actions; and
• Promote environmentally sound and sustainable development through the
identification of appropriate enhancement and mitigation measures

Objectives of EIA
Immediate objectives of EIA:
• improve the environmental design of the proposal
• ensure that resources are used appropriately and efficiently;
• identify appropriate measures for mitigating the potential impacts of the proposal;
• facilitate informed decision making including setting the environmental terms and
conditions for implementing the proposal.
Long term objectives of EIA:
• protect human health and safety
• avoid serious damage to the environment
• safeguard valued resources, natural areas and ecosystem components and
• enhance the social aspects of the proposal

Benefits of EIA
• The benefits of EIA can be direct, such as the improved design or location of a
project, or indirect such as better quality EIA work or raised environmental
awareness of the personnel involved in the project. Specific benefits may include:
• Better environmental planning and design of a proposal- carrying out an EIA
entails an analysis of alternatives in the design and location of projects. This can
result in the selection of an improved technology which lowers waste outputs or an
environmentally optimum location for a project. A well designed project can
minimize risks and impacts on the environment and people and thereby avoid
associated costs of remedial treatment or compensation for damage.
• Ensuring compliance with environmental standards – compliance with
environmental standards reduces damage to the environment and disruption to
communities. It also avoids the likelihood of penalties, fines and loss of trust and
credibility.

Benefits of EIA (Cont…….)
• Savings in capital and operating costs – EIA can avoid the undue costs of
unanticipated impacts. These can escalate if environmental problems have not
been considered from the start of proposal design and require rectification later.
• Reduced time and costs of approval of development applications: if all
environmental concerns have been taken into account properly before submission
for project approval, then it is unlikely that delays will occur as a result of decision
makers asking for additional information or alterations to mitigation measures.
• Increased project acceptance by the public – this is achieved by an open and
transparent EIA process with provision of opportunities for public involvement that
are most directly affected by and interested in the proposal.

EIA—Three core values
1. Integrity - the EIA process will conform to agreed standards
2. Utility - the EIA process will provide balanced, credible information for decision-
making
3. Sustainability - the EIA process will result in environmental safeguards

EIA — guiding principles
The EIA process should be:
1. purposive – meeting its aims and objectives
2. focused – concentrating on the effects that matter
3. adaptive – responding to issues and realities
4. participative – fully involving the public
5. transparent – clear and easily understood
6. rigorous – employing ‘best practicable’ methodology
7. practical – establishing mitigation measures that work
8. credible – carried out with objectivity and professionalism
9. efficient – imposing least cost burden on proponents
Source: Sadler, 1996; IAIA/IEMA 1999

Overview of EIA Processes
The EIA process comprises
1. Screening
• This is a process to decide whether the EIA process is applicable at all to the
development project.
• It aims to clear all those projects where there are no major negative impact issues.
• Screening criteria generally involve the specification of the location, type and size
of the project.
• Screening thresholds are generally set considering the project type, size and
location.
• The project type and size are used to estimate the extent of the impacts while the
thresholds of the project size depend on the project type.
• Financial institutions also have specific guidelines for screening projects to
ascertain whether an EIA is required or not – e.g. ADB, USAID, WB.

Overview of EIA Processes (Cont……)
2. Scoping
The scoping exercise should involve:
• review of all written materials on the purpose, need or prospectus for the project
• perform field survey of the desired site or sites for the project
• interview local residents and affected communities that use resources;
• consult with other agencies that have expertise, jurisdiction, or influence on the
decision to approve, design, or site a project;
• consult with local or regional scientists at colleges, universities, institutes or field
stations;
• visit local political leaders where the project may be sited

Overview of EIA Processes (Cont……)
3. The Initial Environmental Examination (IEE)
The IEE results in:
• a brief description of the expected or predicted environmental changes due to the
project
• measures or procedures that could be implemented to avoid or reduce the impacts
on the environment;
• examination of alternatives, including the proposed action and no action;
• additional study requirements, regulatory requirements and other coordination
requirements for the detailed EIA, if required.
Alternatives should be feasible and substantially different from each other.

Overview of EIA Processes (Cont……)
4. Detailed or Comprehensive EIA
• In this step, a detailed examination of impacts is carried out by conducting relevant
surveys along the lines of IEE.
• Assessment evaluates the predicted adverse impacts to determine whether they
are significant enough to need mitigation.
• The judgment of significance can be based on:
– Comparison with laws, regulations, or accepted standards;
– Consultation with the relevant decision makers;
– Reference to pre-set criteria such as protected sites, features or species
– Consistence with government policy objectives;
– Acceptability to the local community or the general public.

Overview of EIA Processes (Cont……)
• If the impacts matter, the next step is to answer what can be done about them.
• A range of measures are proposed to prevent, reduce, remedy or compensate each
of the adverse impacts evaluated as significant.
• Possible mitigation measures may include:
– changing project site, routes, processes, raw materials, operating methods, waste disposal routes
or locations or engineering designs.
– Introducing pollution controls, monitoring, personnel training.
– Offering as compensation, restoration of damaged resources, money to affected persons,
concessions on other issues, or fit site programs to enhance some other aspects of the
environment or quality of life for the community.

Overview of EIA Processes (Cont……)
5. Reporting
• The EIA report or impact statement is a primary document for decision making.
• The proponent is responsible for the preparation of the EIA report.
• A successful EIA report should be:
– Actionable – a document that can be applied by the proponent to achieve environmentally sound
planning and design;
– Decision-relevant – a document that organizes and presents the information necessary for project
authorization and if applicable, permitting and licensing; and
– User-friendly – a document that communicates the technical issues to all parties in a clear and
comprehensible way.

Overview of EIA Processes (Cont……)
6. Review of EIA Quality
• The purpose of review is to assure the completeness and quality of the
information gathered in an EIA.
• The review marks the final check of quality of the EIA report submitted to obtain a
project authorization.
• The key objectives of the review are:
– to assess the adequacy and quality of an EIA report;
– to take account of public comment; and
– to identify as necessary, the deficiencies that must be addressed before the report can be
submitted.
• In many EIA systems, the review stage is the major opportunity for public
involvement.
• They range from notification of a period for receiving written comments on the EIA
report to holding public hearings.

Overview of EIA Processes (Cont……)
7. Decision Making
• Decision-making is the process of choosing between alternative courses of action.
• The process is essentially political in nature.
• It involves weighing the benefits and costs and making trade-offs among a range of
considerations.
• The views of interested parties are presented directly and decisions are made
through an incremental process of negotiation, bargaining and compromise.
• The process concludes in a final decision on whether or not a proposal is
acceptable and under what conditions.

Overview of EIA Processes (Cont……)
8. Implementation and Follow up
• Without appropriate implementation and follow up to decision-making, EIA
becomes a paper exercise to secure an approval, rather than a practical exercise to
achieve environmental benefits.
• The purpose of EIA implementation and follow up is to ensure that the condition
attached to project approval are carried out and function effectively, and to gain
information that can be used to improve EIA practice.
• When used systematically, EIA implementation and follow up help optimize
environmental benefits at each stage of project development.

No EIAEIA Require d
*Public inv olv ementScoping
Mitigation
and impact
management
EIA Report
Pr oposal
Ide ntification
Scre ening
Initial
envir onm ental
examination
Impact analysis
Re view
De cision-making
Approve dNot approv ed
Implementation and
follow up
Information from this process
contributes to effective future EIA
Re design
Re submit
*Public inv olv ement
*Public involvement typically
occurs at these points. It may
also occur at any other stage
of the EIA Process.
Generalised EIA
Process Flowchart

Reference
1. Introduction to environmental impact assessment, 2nd edition, John Glasson, Riki
Therivel, Andrew Chadwick .
2. Search internet.