Environmental impact assessment
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
An Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is an assessment of the likely human environmental health impact, risk to ecological health, and changes to nature's services that a project may have. The purpose of the assessment is to ensure that decision-makers consider environmental impacts before deciding whether to proceed with new projects.
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Overview
The US Environmental Protection Agency pioneered the use of pathway analysis to determine the likely human health impact of environmental ills. It and The Natural Step definitions later became the basis of the global ISO 14000 series of environmental management standards and the more recent ISO 19011 accounting standard.
After an EIA analysis, the Precautionary Principle and Polluter Pays may be applied to prevent, limit, or require strict liability or insurance coverages to a project, based on its likely harms.
Environmental impact analysis is often controversial and rarely uncontested. Related analysis of social impacts is achieve by Social impact assessment.
EIA around the world
EU
The EIA Directive on Environmental Impact Assessment of the effects of projects on the environment was introduced in 1985 and was amended in 1997. The directive was amended again in 2003 following the 1998 signature by the EU of the Aarhus Convention on public participation in environmental matters. The issue was enlarged to the assessment of plans and programmes by the so called SEA-Directive in 2001 which is now in force.
New Zealand
In New Zealand EIA is usually referred to as Assessment of Environmental Effects (AEE). The first use af EIA's dates back to a Cabinet minute passed in 1974 called Environmental Protection and Enhancement Procedures. This had no legal force and only related to the activities of government departments. When the Resource Management Act was passed in 1991 an EIA was required as part of a resource consent application. Section 88 of the Act spells this out.
United States
Under United States environmental law an EIA is referred to as the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), and originated in the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), enacted in the United States in 1969. Certain actions of federal agencies must be preceded by an EIS. Contrary to a widespread misconception, NEPA does not prohibit the federal government or its licensees/permittees from harming the environment, nor does it specify any penalty if the EIS turns out to be inaccurate, intentionally or otherwise. NEPA merely requires that plausible statements as to the prospective impacts be disclosed in advance; it is only a procedural requirement. The same general pattern has since been followed by several U.S. state governments that have adopted "little NEPA's," i.e., state laws imposing EIS requirements for particular state actions. Many other countries have also enacted laws requiring environmental impact assessment. For example, the European Community has established a mix of mandatory and discretionary procedures for assessing environmental impacts. [1]
Usually, an agency will release a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for comment. Interested parties and the general public have the opportunity to comment on the draft, after which the agency will approve the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS). Occasionally, the agency will later release a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS).
The adequacy of an EIS can be challenged in court. Major proposed projects have been blocked because of an agency's failure to prepare an acceptable EIS. One prominent example was the Westway landfill and highway development in and along the Hudson River in New York City -- see the court decision in Sierra Club v. United States Army Corps of Engineers.
See also
- Natural environment
- List of environment topics
- Environmental movement
- Ecological Footprint
- Social Impact Assessment
External links
- European Commission - EIA website
- Guide to Environmental Impact Assessment and Design
- International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA)
- International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA)
References
- Petts, J. (ed), Handbook of Environmental Impact Assessment Vol 1 & 2, Blackwell, Oxford ISBN 0632047720
- Environmental Impact Assessment Review (1980 - ), Elsevier
- Glasson, J; Therivel, R; Chadwick A, Introduction to Environmental Impact Assessment, (2005) Routledge, London
