ENVS 8732 Environmental Impact Assessment 2018 Student Workbook

ENVS 8732
Environmental Impact
Assessment
2018 Student Workbook
Topic Convenor: Wil Van Deur
Name: _________________________________
ID: _________________________
Flinders University  Adelaide

Student Workbook
Guidelines for using this Workbook
The purpose of the Workbook is to support your learning in this topic by encouraging you to connect and
consolidate information from lectures, set weekly readings and supporting readings. You are
encouraged to reflect upon what you have a learned and how you have learned on a weekly basis.
There are 9 sections in the Workbook corresponding to the 9 set weekly readings. Each section
provides space for you to précis the article, to evaluate it and to explain what you learned about the
topic or how your thinking changed about a topic as a consequence of reading, discussing and thinking
about the topic under discussion—i.e. your reflection. There are tips provided on the following pages
about writing précis, opinion pieces and reflective pieces.
All writing MUST be in your own words. Cutting and pasting from support materials is not
acceptable. Large quotes are also unacceptable.
Each week follow the steps below:
1. Read the set weekly reading (available each week in FLO) early in the week.
2. Complete the sections of this Workbook to record your analysis of the allocated journal article.
3. After you have attended the tutorial for the week, write the ‘reflection’ section of the Workbook.
If you follow the steps and complete the appropriate sections of the Workbook each and participate fully
in the online discussions you will progress through the topic at an appropriate pace.
With these 9 journal article readings, you will be able to earn a total of 35 marks.
Student Workbooks will submitted (uploaded on FLO) in Week 3 in order to provide you with formative
(non-graded) feedback about your progress. You will re-upload your Workbook during the semester,
with all work submitted at the end of semester for grading.
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Student Workbook
Ideas for reading effectively and for approaching the Student Workbook task
Before using the Student Workbook
Before you commence writing you need to understand the purpose of the week’s journal article:
 Where is it set (what is the context)?
 What is its central message (the problem is set out to investigate); the purpose of the paper?
 What evidence do the authors use to support their arguments (is the paper primarily a literature review, a
piece of empirical research or a survey?
 See if you can recite for yourself a brief summary or synthesis.
If you find the journal articles difficult to read use the resources in the ‘Topic Resources and Support
Tools’ link on FLO. There are useful tips to help you make sense of the content of the articles.
Writing a précis
A précis is a tightly focused summary of an argument expressed by a piece of academic writing. A
précis is NOT a summary of each paragraph in the original work, in the same sequence as the original
work. Be sure to include the main idea or purpose cited within the set reading. Use your own words, but
do not include your opinion. Avoid using phrases like ‘this article states...’. Do not make an argument
in the précis; only restate the author’s argument in the third Person and in the past tense.
 What was the central point of the paper?
 What is the context of the paper
 How is the paper structured?
 What key concepts or ideas are raised by the article?
Write an evaluation of the paper
You are asked to make a judgement about the quality of the paper and to evaluate its effectiveness.
Consider the following questions as a guide to help you make your assessment. Try to use your own
style using the points below to help you.
 Did the author achieve what they set out to?
 How easy was the article to read?
 Is the paper well organised? Were ideas clearly expressed; was the structure logical and well thought
through?
 Are the methods described in sufficient detail?
 How well are tables and figures used to explain ideas?
 Was the article convincing through the evidence it provided? If so, give examples
 Was the article credible? How would you know?
Avoid using formulaic responses to these questions.
Writing a reflection
After you have completed the requirements for class discussion (i.e. read the article, written a précis,
perhaps read more widely, had a discussion either in class or on FLO) you then need to reflect on how
your thinking about topic under discussion for the week has changed. You need to express HOW your
thinking has changed.
 What do you know now that you didn’t before?
 How did the class discussion affect your thoughts about the topic?
 Were ideas raised in lectures or discussion that you hadn’t thought about before?
 Did you disagree with ideas raised? Etc.
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Student Workbook
Schedule of set journal articles
Week Week
Beginning
Reading
1 23 July Reading one
Morgan, R. K. (2012), 'Environmental impact assessment: the state of the
art', Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal, vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 5-14.
2 30 July This week bring your completed workbook precis/evaluation and draft
journal article review of Morgan 2012 to class to discuss.
3 6 Aug Reading two
Beattie, R. (1995). "Everything you already know about EIA (but don't
often admit)", Environmental Impact Assessment Review, vol. 15, 109-
114.
4 13 Aug Reading three.
Ross, A., Morrison-Saunders, A. & Marshall, R. (2006), ‘Common sense in
environmental impact assessment: it is not as common as should be’,
Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal, March, pp. 3-10.
5 20 Aug Reading four
Wiklund, H. (2011), 'Why High Participatory Ideals Fail in Practice: A
Bottom-Up Approach to Public Nonparticipation In EIA', Journal of
Environmental Assessment Policy and Management, vol. 13, no. 02, pp.
159-178.
6 27 Aug Reading five
Madeleine Marara, Nick Okello, et al. (2011). ‘The importance of context
in delivering effective EIA: Case studies from East Africa.’ Environmental
impact assessment review 31(3): 286-296.
7 3 Sept Reading six
Middle, G. & Middle, I. (2010), 'A review of the use of environmental offset
as a policy mechanism in the environmental impact assessment process
(EIA) in Western Australia', Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal, vol.
28, no. 4, pp. 313-322.
8 11 Sept Reading seven
Ahammed, A. K. M. R. & Nixon, B. M. (2006), 'Environmental impact
monitoring in the EIA process of South Australia', Environmental
Impact Assessment Review, vol. 26, pp. 426– 447.
Mid-Semester Break 18 September—29 September
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Student Workbook
9 2 October Reading eight
Tetlow, M. and Hanusch M., (2012), ‘Strategic environmental
assessment: the state of the art’, Impact Assessment and Project
Appraisal, vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 15–24.
10 9 October Reading nine
Pope, J., A. Bond, A. Morrison-Saunders and F. Retief (2013).
"Advancing the theory and practice of impact assessment: Setting the
research agenda." Environmental Impact Assessment Review 41: 1-9.
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Student Workbook
Reading One
Week Week Beginning Topic Mark
1 23 July Morgan, R. K. (2012), 'Environmental impact
assessment: the state of the art', Impact Assessment
and Project Appraisal, vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 5-14.
N/A
Précis of the article
Use the ‘précis’ criteria on p.3 to complete this section.
Your evaluation
Use the ‘evaluation’ criteria on p.3 as a guide to complete this section.
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