Environmental Impact

Assessment (EIA): Definition,

Process and Importance
Article Shared by Rikin Shah

Read this article to learn about Environmental Impact

Assessment (EIA):- 1. Definitions of EIA 2. Objective of
EIA 3. Methodology 4. Process 5. Importance.
Definitions of EIA:
Environmental Impact Assessment is defined as an activity
designed to identify the impact on the biogeophysical environment,
on man and well-being of legislative proposals, projects, policies,
operational procedures and to interpret and communicate
information.

EIA is a systematic process of identifying future consequences of a

current or proposed action.

Objective of EIA:
The objective of EIA is (i) to identify, predict and evaluate the
economic, environmental and social impact of development
activities (ii) to provide information on the environmental
consequences for decision making and (iii) to promote
environmentally sound and sustainable development through the
identification of appropriate alternatives and mitigation measures.

ADVERTISEMENTS:

EIA is widely accepted as a tool to ensure sustained development

with minimum environmental degradation.

First Environmental Legislation:

The first comprehensive environmental legislation (Section 102) in
United States came into force on 1st January 1970 in the form of
National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). In India, the Central
Ministry of Environment and Forests issued a Notification on 27th
January, 1994 making EIA statutory for 29 specified activities
falling under sectors such as industries, mining, irrigation, power
and transport etc.

This Notification was amended on 4th May, 1994 and the amended
version includes a self-explanatory note detailing the procedure for
obtaining environmental clearance, technical information,
documents required to be submitted for getting environmental
clearance from the Ministry of Environment and Forests.

EIS Contents:
Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) should contain the
following information’s/data:
ADVERTISEMENTS:

1. Description of proposed action (construction, operation and shut

down phase) and selection of alternatives to the proposed action.

2. Nature and magnitude of the likely environmental effects.

3. Possibility of earthquakes and cyclones.

4. Possible effects on surface and ground water quality, soil and air
quality.

ADVERTISEMENTS:

5. Effects on vegetation, wild life and endangered species.

6. Economic and demographic factors.

7. Identification of relevant human concerns.

8. Noise pollution. Efficient use of inputs.

ADVERTISEMENTS:

9. Recycling and reduction of waste.

10. Risk analysis and disaster management.

EIA Methodology:
Whenever a new development project is planned which is likely to
affect environmental quality, it is necessary to carry out EIA.

1. The first step in EIA method is to determine whether the project

under consideration follows the jurisdiction of the relevant acts and
regulations and if so, whether it is likely to create a significant
environmental disruption.

2. If so, an EIA is undertaken and the environmental impact

statement (EIS) is prepared.

3. In many countries, EIS is open to public scrutiny and is reviewed

at public hearings.

4. Finally, a political decision is taken. The development project

may be (i) accepted or (ii) accepted with amendments or (iii) an
alternative proposal is accepted or (iv) rejected.

Environment Impact Assessment Process:

In EIA system, there are sequence of activities implemented in a
project in logical manner termed as EIA process.

Guiding Principles:
The entire process of EIA is governed by eight guiding
principles.
1. Participation:
An appropriate and timely access to the process for all interested
parties.

2. Transparency:
All assessment decisions and their basis should be open and
accessible.

3. Certainty:
The process and timing of the assessment should be agreed by all
participants in advance.

4. Accountability:
The decision makers of all parties are responsible for their action
and decisions under the assessment process.
5. Credibility:
Assessment is undertaken with professionalism and objectivity.

6. Cost effectiveness:
The assessment process and its outcomes will ensure environmental
protection at the least cost to the society.

7. Flexibility:
The assessment process should be able to deal efficiently with any
proposal and decision making situation.

8. Practicality:
The information and outputs provided by the assessment process
are readily usable in decision making and planning.

Participants in EIA Process:

1. Proponent:
Government or Private Agency which initiates the project.

2. Decision maker:
Designated individual or group.

3. Assessor:
Agency responsible for the preparation of EIS.

4. Reviewer:
Individual/Agency/Board.

5. Expert advisers, Media and Public, Environmental organisations

etc.
EIA Process in Sequence of Application:
1. Stakeholder’s Involvement:
Stakeholders’ involvement occurs in various stages of EIA to ensure
quality, efficiency and effectiveness.

2. Project Screening and Scoping:

(i) Determine necessity for EIA requirement.

(ii) Describe various screening criteria.

(iii) Scoping determines coverage or scope of EIA.

3. Project Design and Construction:

(i) Type of project under consideration.

(ii) Physical dimensions of the area being considered.

(iii) Whether the resources will be used optically?

(iv) Whether there is an irretrievable commitment of land?

(v) Whether the project is a critical phase of a larger development?

(vi) Whether there will be serious environmental disruptions during

construction?

(vii) What are the long-term plans of the proponent?

4. Project Operation:
(i) What provisions have been made to check the safety equipment
regularly?

(ii) How will the hazardous waste products be handled?

(iii) What are the contingency plans developed to cope up with the
possible accidents?

(iv) What provisions have been made for training the employees for
environmental protection?

(v) What plans have been made for environmental monitoring?

5. Site Characteristics:
(i) Whether the site is susceptible to floods, earth quakes and other
natural disasters?

(ii) Whether the terrain is creating problems in predicting ground

water characteristics and air pollution etc.?

(iii) Whether the local environment is conductive for the success of

the project?
(iv) How many people are likely to be displaced because of the
project?

(v) What are the main attributes (e.g., protein content, calorie
content, weed or pest status, carnivorousness, rarity of species, etc.)
of the local fauna and flora?

(vi) Whether the project will interfere with the movements of fish
population and important migratory animals?

(vii) Whether historic sites are likely to be endangered because of

the project?

6. Possible Environmental Impacts:

(i) What are the possible short-term and long-term environmental
impacts from the projects during construction and after
construction?

(ii) Who would be effected because of these impacts?

7. Mitigation Measures:
(i) Design system to avoid, reduce and minimize adverse impacts.

(ii) Enhance beneficial outcomes.

8. Monitoring and auditing measures:

(i) Identify impacts that require monitoring and auditing.

9. Socio-Economic Factors:
(i) Who are the expected gainers and losers by the projects?

(ii) Where are the expected trade-offs?

(iii) Will the project interfere (blend, increase or reduce) with the
existing inequalities between occupational, ethnic and age groups?

(iv) Will it effect the patterns of local/regional/national culture?

10. Availability of Information and Resources:

(i) Whether local and outside experts are available to consult
specific impacts of the project?
(ii) Whether the relevant guidelines, technical information and
other publications are available to identify the possible impacts of
similar projects?

(iii) Whether relevant environmental standards, by-laws etc. are

considered?

(iv) Whether the sources of relevant environmental data are

identified and whether they are accessible?

(v) Whether the views of the specialist groups and general public
regarding the project have been considered?

(vi) Whether the competent technical manpower is available to

handle the project?

11. EIA Report and Review:

Complete information in report including non-technical summary,
methodologies used, results, interpretation and conclusions. Review
assesses adequacy of issues and facilitate decision making process.

12. Decision Making:

The project may be accepted, accepted with alterations or rejected.

Importance of EIA:
1. EIA is potentially a useful component of good environmental
management.

2. It is the Government policy that any industrial project has to

obtain EIA clearance from the Ministry of Environment before
approval by the planning commission.
2.1 Screening

EIA should be applied to those projects likely to have significant effects on the environment.

Frequently, however, little or no guidance is given on the interpretation of the term 'significant'. Those

responsible for screening are thus often left to make a choice, based on their own interpretation of the

likely effects of a project, and the probable implications for the local community.

The consequences of the screening decision may be far-reaching and therefore a correct decision on

the significance of a development's effects is important.

The screening decision is very important to the developer. If an EIA is required, the developer will

have to pay for the work and will also have to wait until it is completed before the application for

planning permission itself will be considered. Because of this, an indication from the appropriate

authority that an EIA would be required can frequently lead to design changes at an early stage in

order to reduce the impacts to a level where a formal EIA is no longer required. The screening

decision will often rest with the same body that will decide whether permission should be granted for

the particular development. This body will require basic details about the project: the sort of

processes that will be involved, the land use requirements, the infrastructure requirements, raw

materials needed and so on. This is all necessary to allow a consideration of the likely significance of

the development's impact on the environment.

The methods adopted for screening vary between countries. Some rely on the expertise of the

decision-makers, whilst others have adopted specific methods to aid the decision.

A screening decision is often a reasoned opinion based on certain criteria; important ones are included

in the table in 2.1.1.

2.1.1 Examples of criteria used in screening

Screening Criteria

The size or scale of the impact. For example, if the feeding grounds of a
Magnitude population of rare birds are to be affected, the proportion of the area
affected must be defined.

Potential for cumulative Is it a one-off impact? Even if it is of low magnitude, a large number of
impacts similar developments could lead to a severe cumulative impact. Typical
examples here include housing developments where the same housing
estate tends to be extended again and again, thus creating a large urban
area from an accumulation of small housing projects.

Taking duration first, it is important to establish whether an impact will be

short or long term. For example, a one-off delivery may cause
inconvenience, but it may not be a major problem. However, if deliveries
occur every day for a year or longer, the inconvenience may no longer be
Duration and frequency tolerable. The frequency of an impact is also important, especially in relation
to natural systems. For example, a pollution episode into a river occurring
once a week may be of little consequence if the river then has time to
recover between each episode. If, on the other hand, the pollution
frequency is daily, the river may be badly affected.

What is the probability of a serious event occurring and the likelihood of

Risks exposure to the event? This should be looked at in terms of the risk to
human beings and the effects on environmental systems.

Note that these two terms can be used synonymously. This can be a very
emotive criterion as it asks what sort of signficance we attach to the issue
under discussion. Views on this can vary enormously: but significance is a
function of the sensitivity and geographical distribution (among other things)
of the receptor - whether that be people, wildlife or aspects of the
Importance/
significance environment. Impacts on rare things will be more significant than on
common things, for example. Even a small magnitude impact may be
significant if the receptor is very rare or sensitive. Conversely, a large
magnitude impact may not be very significant if the receptor is common and
widely distributed.

If the potential problems can be easily resolved, eg if temporary or

Mitigation reversible, there may not be significant difficulties with the development.
This will be discussed in more detail later in this unit.
2.2 Scoping

In the early days following the introduction of EIA to the USA, voluminous EISs were produced which

were designed more with a view to avoiding legal challenge than meeting the objectives of NEPA

(Wood 2003). As a result, a formal scoping process was introduced in 1978 and now is widely

recognised as an important stage in EIA, even if not formally required by some legal regimes.

The purpose of scoping is to focus the environmental impact issues to ensure that useful and relevant

results will be obtained and to determine the parameters and boundaries of the assessment. The

geographical area to be covered by the EIA may need to be much greater than just the local area in

which the project is to be located. Ideally, a scoping exercise should involve public

participation or consultation to make sure that those issues that are important to the public are

addressed and considered at an early stage. This can allow for project design changes to

accommodate them. It will be seen in the discussion of procedures that public consultation and

participation frequently occur too late, if at all, with subsequent adverse effects for the environment,

or for the project itself. Scoping can be considered as having three main components focusing on

technical, political, and social aspects.

Technical aspects: involves identifying issues that, in the perception of technical experts, are

important. For example, when considering a nuclear plant, the disposal of radioactive water may be

identified as an issue, and may be something that a non-technical person would not think of.

Political aspects: concerns the perceptions of the decision-makers who will have their own set of

priorities, which are often political in derivation.

Social aspects: are the most difficult to deal with as this requires assessing the views of the public to

establish their concerns about a development. The table in 2.2.1 shows how such concerns might be

categorised.

2.2.1 Examples of social concerns considered in scoping

Social concerns Explanation

Health and Public concern about health may increase for any one particular hazard
safety as a longer period of time is considered, and decreases as wider areas
are considered. For example, consider air pollution from traffic: people
 living near to a major road may be more concerned about the risk to
health from air pollutants (asthma, respiratory diseases etc) than the
general population of the country in which it is situated, and concern
about traffic and air pollution may be greater where exposure is likely
over many years than over just one year.

This is concerned with the exploitation of natural resources. Effects can

be both direct and indirect. For example, if fish stocks dwindle as a result
Threats to
of a proposal, this is a direct impact; however, there are also indirect
livelihood
impacts on the fishermen, and further down the supply chain to dealers
and sellers.

The social make-up of a community may be based on a strong sense of

Lifestyle
cultural traditions and relationships. An influx of people into an area with
modifications
different social values can erode these cultural traditions.

EIAs in developed countries will often emphasise recreational, aesthetic,

Loss of leisure educational, and scientific issues to a greater extent than those in
activities developing countries. They are often associated with special interest
groups who lobby to get the issues considered.

This tends to be resource-orientated, for example, using flat land for

Land-use conflict
housing instead of other potential uses such as airfields.

Supply and demand varies, as demand grows at a rate which threatens

Imbalances in
supply, concern is expressed about the degradation of non-renewable
resources
resources.

Source: unit author

Issues that have to be included in an EIA by law

At this stage it is useful to indicate the type of issues that need to be addressed in an EIA. These can

include a consideration of the likely effects of the development on human beings, fauna, flora, air, soil,

water, climate, landscape, and cultural heritage amongst others. Obviously, the nature of the

development and its location will make some of these issues more important than others. Methods
are available to help the scoping of EIAs - these will be considered in a later unit. Scoping and the

next stage - baseline studies - go together as it is only necessary to carry out a baseline study on

those issues that have been identified as being potentially significant, although there may be some

iteration here; as information is uncovered potential impacts might be identified.

2.3 Baseline study

A baseline study is essential in order to be able to determine the level of impact expected and to

enable the monitoring of impacts after the development has occurred. In some cases, baseline

information will need to be gathered in the field, and in others it will already be available and need

only be collated. Where a project has a number of alternative sites, each of the sites should undergo a

baseline study so that the relative severity of the impacts for each alternative can be assessed.

It is essential that the baseline information which is collected represents both the temporal and spatial

trends of the parameters in question. For example, a particular habitat may be shrinking in size by

10% per year from the western margin. Without this trend having been established, the effect of a

development in the future would be hard to assess and it would be difficult to determine whether any

further loss of habitat was natural or due to the development. Understanding how the baseline

environment may change in the absence of the proposed project is therefore important in order to

understand what difference the project will make. This obviously becomes more difficult the longer

the timescale over which you are considering impacts, as issues like climate change may become

important in altering the baseline state of the environment.

Baseline study and information gathering.

View the video on landfills by Malok to see an example of landfill in action.

Read the following brief description of a proposal to extend a waste disposal landfill site and then think

about the possible impacts of the proposal. For each impact you identify, think about just one piece of

baseline information (or indicator) which you feel it would be necessary to collect before a full impact

prediction could be carried out. When you have done this, click on the show answers at the end to

reveal some possible answers.

Proposal
The extension of the existing Hemmel Road landfill site will provide an extra capacity of 700 000 cubic

metres, which will provide sufficient tipping capacity to meet the landfill disposal requirements of the

city until 2020. The site is located to the south-east of the city, approximately 8 km from the city

centre. The location is typically urban fringe in character; a mixture of informal open spaces,

agricultural land, residential development, and some minor industrial uses typify the surrounding

area. The open spaces to the west and the east of the site are the dominant surrounding land use.

The tract of land to the west, much of it in public ownership, is managed by the City Management

Project. Part of this area has been Local Authority designated as a Site of Special Interest and is

recognised by the Nature Conservation Authority as being important for invertebrates. The major local

centres of population surrounding the site are Goscote to the north, Dewton to the south and

Hemmel, to the east. In order to link the extension with the existing site it is proposed to culvert (put

in a covered channel or pipe) the Shire Brook for a further 225 metres; it is already culverted

throughout the existing waste disposal site.

The purpose of this activity is to illustrate the kinds of problems encountered in scoping and it should

be noted that the background of whoever tries this exercise can have a profound effect on how the

priorities for the impacts are perceived. For example, an ecologist may be most concerned with the

potential impacts on flora and fauna. Note also that more than one piece of baseline information

would be required in order to predict each potential impact properly.

2.5 Impact assessment

Once predictions have been made about impacts, the essential but difficult
task of assessing their importance or significance must be carried out.
Significance is a function both of the magnitude of the predicted impact but
also of the sensitivity of the receiving environment (which may also depend
on the geographical scale being considered, the frequency or duration of
the impact etc).

A development that removes an entire habitat on the site for a certain

species may seem highly significant, but if the lost habitat forms a tiny
fraction of the total habitat for that species available locally, the significance
of the impact is reduced. Likewise, a small impact would be highly
significant if it threatens a portion of the last remaining habitat of a species.
The overlap with screening and scoping is apparent here, as an initial
assessment of significance must already have been made to have
progressed this far. At this stage, the analyses need to be far more detailed
and precise.

It is this assessment of the impacts that provides the decision-maker with

information on the significance of environmental impacts when determining
a project application. Again it boils down to the reasoned opinions of
experts in the field who can view and interpret the available evidence.
However, as for screening, criteria can be applied to assist in the judgment.

The assessment will form the crucial part of an environmental impact

statement and will need to be able to stand up to the scrutiny of experts,
the public, pressure groups, and the decision-makers.

This assessment is the point at which problems of bias may occur. It is

often for the developer to organise the EIA and they can go about this task
in a number of ways; they can undertake the EIA themselves, they can
employ a consultancy firm to manage the whole assessment, or they can
employ a whole series of consultants with expertise in different fields and
combine all the results for the final EIS. Whichever of these alternatives is
employed, the developer will be paying for the work and have a vested
interest in the outcome - hence the possibility of bias. Whether it happens
or not depends on the quality control mechanisms put in place to review
and scrutinise the EISs.

2.6 Mitigation

Mitigation involves taking measures to reduce or remove identified impacts and may include

enhancements, which are changes unrelated to identified impacts but which improve the environment

in some way; for example, creating a public boating lake on derelict land some distance from a large

amenity development. The lake is undoubtedly an improvement to the existing environment, but

does not relate to the impacts resulting from the development itself. Mitigation measures include
landscaping to reduce visual impact and soundproofing around power sources to reduce noise

impacts.

A single definition of mitigation is difficult as many different definitions are used around the world.

However, in 1978, the Council on Environmental Quality in the USA produced regulations to

complement the National Environmental Policy Act (1969). These regulations define what, for the

purposes of that Act, is meant by mitigation:

• avoiding the impact altogether by not taking a certain action or parts of an action
• minimising impacts by limiting the degree or magnitude of the action and its
implementation
• rectifying the impact by repairing, rehabilitating, or restoring the affected
environment
• reducing or eliminating the impact over time by preservation and maintenance
operations during the life of the action
• compensating for the impact by replacing or providing substitute resources or
environments

The inclusion of mitigation measures obviously changes the nature of the project and its impacts.

Hence, it may be that where significant impacts are removed, an EIA is no longer required, or some

issues can be scoped out of the assessment.

Impacts that still remain even after the design of mitigation measures are known as residual

impacts.

To help you understand the potential value of mitigation measures, and also to appreciate exactly

what constitutes mitigation, try the following activity.

For the following impacts, indicate possible mitigation measures.

(1) Noise at a dwelling resulting from a wind farm 500 m away.

(2) Loss of a rare newt species as a hotel development drains a pond.

(3) Traffic congestion as a new leisure complex attracts more visitors to an area.

(4) High atmospheric particulate pollutant levels due to the increase in number of motorcars.
2.7 Review

Once the EIS is completed it will need to be reviewed by the competent authority or other bodies

asked to comment on the EIS, and by the public. It is essential that the statement be checked for

consistency, bias, and accuracy.

The purpose of the review is to establish whether the statement provides the necessary information to

allow the decision-maker to determine the application and, at the very least, provides the information

required to be provided in the governing EIA legislation. Some form of guidance undoubtedly helps in

this process, as it will focus the mind of the reviewer on the topics, which should be covered by the

statement, and the level of detail expected. A large part of the review involves the investigation of the

information quality; obviously a relevant technical expert will be required to assist in the review in

some cases. This issue is discussed in more detail elsewhere in the module.

2.8 Follow up

In practice, the EIA process often ends once project approval has been granted, with no form of follow

up. Although EIA is primarily a predictive tool, a follow up stage is important in order to identify actual

impacts that have arisen, implement corrective measures where necessary, and to learn from the

experience gained. EIA Follow-up can be defined as:

'The monitoring and evaluation of the impacts of a project or plan (that has been subject to EIA) for

management of, and communication about, the environmental performance of that project or plan.'

Source: Morrison-Saunders and Arts (2004) cited in Morrison-Saunders et al (2007) p. 1.

It therefore covers four main areas:

• Monitoring
the collection of activity and environmental data both before (baseline monitoring)
and after activity implementation (compliance and impact monitoring)
• Evaluation
the appraisal of the conformance with standards, predictions or expectations as well
as the environmental performance of the activity (to include auditing of predicted
impacts against what is observed through monitoring)
• Management
making decisions and taking appropriate action in response to issues arising from
monitoring and evaluation activities
 • Communication
informing the stakeholders about the results of EIA follow up in order to provide
feedback on project/plan implementation as well as feedback on EIA processes

Consequently, EIA follow up may involve the production of an environmental management plan

(EMP), which may be a mandatory requirement in some EIA regimes. This is sometimes absent from

some of the more mature EIA systems, such as that in the European Union (EU), where there has

been a reluctance to add further minimum legal requirements to the EIA process to avoid creating an

undue burden on developers and authorities. But, in practice, an EMP may be used by a developer as

a practical way to manage implementation of the project and any conditions that may have been

imposed by the consent authorisation. The EMP may also provide the link to an environmental

management system (EMS) once the project is operating (see Barnes 1999 - Chapter 4 in Sheate

2010).

3.0 Characteristics of an effective EIA system

A number of international studies or institutions have developed best practice guidelines or principles

for EIA. The first of these was UNEP in its Goals and Principles for EIA in 1987.

The International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA) produced its IAIA Principles of Impact

Assessment in 1999. These had come out of an international study of effectives of environmental

assessment in 1996. They have also produced a summary document 'What is Impact Assessment?' in

2009 (IAIA 2009).

International finance organisations have signed up to the Equator Principles (EPs) (2006) which are a

voluntary set of standards for determining, assessing and managing social and environmental risk in

project financing. The EPs are considered the financial industry 'gold standard' for sustainable project

finance.