Summary for
Environmental Impact Assessment
GEO3-2123, 7.5 ECTS
Faculty of Geosciences at Utrecht University
Lecturer: Britt a Rickert
EIA as a process of identifying, predicting, evaluating, and mitigating the
biophysical, social, and other relevant impacts of development prior to major
decisions being taken and commitments made
Contains:
Lecture Summaries
Literature summaries
Possible Exam questions
,Inhalt
Block 1 Introduction to environmental impact assessment...................................................................3
Lecture 1.............................................................................................................................................3
Literature 1.........................................................................................................................................7
Anne N. Glucker, Peter P.J. Driessen, Arend Kolhoff, Hens A.C. Runhaar, Public participation in
environmental impact assessment: why, who and how?, Environmental Impact Assessment
Review,...........................................................................................................................................7
Leonard Ortolano & Anne Shepherd (1995) Environmental Impact Assessment: Challenges and
Opportunities.................................................................................................................................9
Richard K. Morgan (2012) Environmental impact assessment: the state of the art.....................14
Joe Weston Eia Theories — All Chinese Whispers And No Critical Theory...................................20
Lecture 2 Deeper into EIA.................................................................................................................25
Literature 2.......................................................................................................................................30
Page , J. (2012). Make it easy on your readers: ideas on environmental impact document focus,
organization, and style. ................................................................................................................30
Tenney, A., Kværner, J., & Gjerstad, K. I. (2006). Uncertainty in environmental impact
assessment predictions: the need for better communication and more transparency................34
Lecture 3...........................................................................................................................................36
Literature 3.......................................................................................................................................41
Regional Energy Strategies and Environmental Assessment in the Netherlands..........................41
Block 2 Methods of impact-prediction & EIA in the field......................................................................44
Lecture 4 Law....................................................................................................................................44
Literature 4.......................................................................................................................................49
Craik 9781785369520...................................................................................................................49
Lecture 5 – Impact prediction on Soil and Water.............................................................................51
Literature 5.......................................................................................................................................56
Stapelton, C; Hawkins & Hodson (2009), Chapter 9 Soils, geology and geomorphology..............56
Kelday, Brookes, Morris (2009). Chapter 10 ‘’Water’’..................................................................59
Judith M. van Dijk (2006) Water assessment in the Netherlands, Impact Assessment and Project
Appraisal,......................................................................................................................................61
Lecture 6 Geospatial technologies and EIA.......................................................................................64
Literature 6.......................................................................................................................................66
Fothergill, J. and Murphy, J. (2021) The State of Digital Impact Assessment Practice, IAIA..........66
Ricker When open data and data activism meet: An analysis of civic participation in Cape Town,
South Africa..................................................................................................................................68
Lecture 8 Integrating climate change in EIA.....................................................................................70
Literature 8 – none...........................................................................................................................72
1
, Lecture 9 Cultural Heritage and Landscape......................................................................................73
Literature 9.......................................................................................................................................76
Jones 2010 Cultural heritage in environmental impact assessment – reflections from England
and northwest Europe..................................................................................................................76
Joks Janssen, Eric Luiten, Hans Renes & Eva Stegmeijer (2017) Heritage as sector, factor and
vector: conceptualizing the shifting relationship between heritage management and spatial
planning........................................................................................................................................78
Lecture 10 Mitigatin impact of BRI on Biodiversity...........................................................................80
Literature 10.....................................................................................................................................84
Hughes, A. C. (2019). Understanding and minimizing environmental impacts of the Belt and
Road Initiative. Conservation Biology, 33(4), 883-894..................................................................84
Hughes, et al 2020. Horizon scan of the belt and road initiative. Trends in Ecology & Evolution,
35(7), 583-593..............................................................................................................................87
The Belt and Road Initiative and the Sustainable Development Goals.........................................90
Lecture 11 Environmental Impact Assessment in developing countries...........................................93
Literature 11.....................................................................................................................................99
SEA for sustainable development of the hydropower sector, June 2021.....................................99
Kolhoff et al. 2016 The influence of actor capacities on EIA system performance in low- and
middle-income countries —Cases from Georgia and Ghana......................................................100
Exercise questions..............................................................................................................................103
2
,Block 1 Introduction to environmental impact
assessment
Lecture 1
Process
EIA process of identifying, predicting, evaluating, and mitigating the biophysical,
social, and other relevant impacts of development prior to major decisions being taken
and commitments made. “International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA, website)
Process:
3. 6. Follow-up
1. Screening 2. Scoping 4. Review 5. Decision
Assessment Procedures
Measure the environmental and social impacts of a proposed development
surpassing economic value
Purpose of EIA: For informed decision making
Provide ‘objective’ environmental information to improve the
knowledge base on which government decision-making is taking place
(rationalist approach)
Enhance quality of government decision-making
Enhance transparency in government decision-making by involving
all relevant stakeholders in the process
Actors
Initiator competent authority/gov
party seeking to gain authorisation legal bases of the process they
for a proposed project must ensure that
Can be the government, semi-state all relevant stakeholders are
organisation, or a private party appropriately
Responsible for and carries out the involved in the EIA process
EIA (Environmental/social Decides if the EIA report is of
consultancies carry out the EIA and sufficient quality
produce the final report) to facilitate decision-making
Develops various alternatives of When the EIA is sufficient for
project design decision-making,
→ decision whether an alternative
proposal presented in the EIA can
be given the green light
Different levels of government
3
, agencies that could disagree with
each other
independent experts The public is not a homogenous entity
EIAs need to be reviewed by an all interested stakeholders,
independent body by Dutch law depends on the characteristics of
(Netherlands Commission for the policy/project at hand
Environmental Assessment (in Participation can have various
Dutch: Commissie MER) objectives:
NCEA selects a working group of
→ Enhancing legitimacy of the EIA
experts → assess the quality on procedure
→ Redistribution of power, social justice:
various projects in NL
empower affected communities, groups
NCEA international team works and/or individuals
→ Enabling affected communities and
with governments to strengthen
stakeholders to influence the process and
EIA system abroad outcomes of the project/policy
→ Social learning: becoming active
citizens (Glucker et al., 2013)
→ ensure quality of life
Explores ways to avoid or reduce biophysical and social impacts of proposed
development projects in case of land use changes
Background
Environmental movement in the 1960s
Post-World War II period industrialization characterized with severe
pollution and environmental disasters with catastrophic effect on human
health
1969, NEPA (National Environment Policy Act) came into force in the
United States
European Union EIA Directive adopted in 1985, World Bank adopted in
1989
Over approx. The past 50 years, EIA has become a key instrument in
domestic and international law and policymaking
Environmental and Social impact assessment (ESIA) is a requirement by all
major International Financial Institutions (IFIs)
In rationalist model of decision making (Weston 2010)
4
,Each development proposal and project are unique
Project type and objectives
Size (land requirements)
Technical requirements
The context of the affected environment:
o Legal systems, local cultures, socio-economic status, Indigenous
Peoples
o Nature 2000, biodiversity hotspots,
endangered species
How EIA is undertaken
Steps in Videos: https://www.eia.nl/en/publications/videos
Screeni Is EIA required?
ng
Scoping For the initiator
Notification of intent, Terms of Reference (ToR): document
describing what needs to become assessed in the full EIA report
o Outlines scope of the proposed development
o Rationale for the proposed action
o Outlines alternatives: Most environmentally friendly,
Preferred alternative
o Identify relevant environmental and social aspects
o Public participation meetings and integration
5
, o NCEA: Advice on terms of reference (ToR)
Final approval of ToR by Competent Authority
For the public:
Public groups can propose adjustments in project design
Proposing to include more issues/impacts in EIA report
Lobby against the project and/or organise protests
For independent experts (NCEA)
Advice to competent authority on the extent and detail EIA
report should have
support government to determine and approve the final
ToR that the project Initiator MUST implement
Assess involve environmental and social consultants
ment
description of the project, objectives, the local context, and
applicable legislation
description of the potential environmental and/or social
impacts:
Consideration of various impacts and methods
Proposed mitigation and compensation measures
o Dropping environmentally damaging elements of a
proposed project
o Minimizing adverse effects by scaling down or redesigning
a project
o Repairing, rehabilitating, or restoring those parts of the
environment that are adversely affected by a project
o Creating or acquiring environments similar to those
adversely affected by a project
(Ortolano and Shepherd, 1995)
Review Review: the quality of the Impact Statement /EIA
Extent: does it cover the relevant impacts?
Detail: is it suitably in- depth?
Publish review document
Comment/lobby/protest on EIA process
Decisio Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) of sufficient quality for decision-
n making?
6
, YES → Competent Authority chooses alternative
NO:
• only part of the EIS insufficient → Supplementary EIS
• the entire EIS is insufficient → Restart process
Follow- → environmental and social management plans: Description of measures
up how to avoid/mitigate the adverse impacts of the project
→ to be implemented by the Initiator!
• initiator: monitor the impacts of the project during construction,
operational phase and decommissioning
• competent authority: monitoring independently from project initiator
Literature 1
Anne N. Glucker, Peter P.J. Driessen, Arend Kolhoff, Hens A.C.
Runhaar, Public participation in environmental impact
assessment: why, who and how?, Environmental Impact
Assessment Review,
Volume 43,2013,Pages 104-111,ISSN
0195-9255,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eiar.2013.06.003.
Introduction
Relevance of public participation to EIA, NEPA formally recognized
importance p. 104
o UN Rio Conference 1992: environmental issues are best handled
with the participation of all concerned citizens at the relevant level”
o Arhus Convention 1998: “guarantee the rights of access to
information, public
participation in decision-making, and access to justice in
environmental matters in accordance with the provisions of this
Convention”
Participation as goal in itself: consensus on key role to effective
environmental (environ.) assessment (assess.)
literature reveals questions in this consensus:
o What is public participation in the context of EIA p. 105
o What objectives of public participation in EIA can be distinguished?
o Who should participate in EIA and why?
Public participation in EIA context
public participation directly linked to objectives that participatory process
is to fulfil
Public participation wide variety of understanding and targets in use
(Adnan 1992)
7
, Conflicting definitions:
o IAIA 2006: “the involvement of individuals and groups that are
positively or negatively affected, or that are interested in, a
proposed project, programme, plan or policy that is subject to a
decision-making process”→ extent of involvement remains unclear
o Hughes 1998: a process, which enables individuals or organisations
affected by a proposed project to significantly influence decision-
making
o Adnan 1992 : a categorical term for citizen power: redistribution of
power, enables the have-not citizens (excluded from the political
and economic processes) to be deliberately included in the future →
empowerment of marginalised individuals
unclear boundary between consultation and participation, interchangeable
use
→ Framework to differentiate forms of public participation: Arnsteins ladder 1969
O'Faircheallaigh (2010) lower forms may trigger other (in)formal forms of
public participation (interrelation of different categories of public
participation and, also in cases of usual business)
Discurs:
o equality or level of importance of forms
o application depends on the policy issues at hand (structured or
unstructured) (Runhaar and Driessen 2007)
o lower forms to instrumentalize public participation for politcans
cause (Arnstein 1969)
o Different perceptions of public participation led to different
expectations of participation results
Objectives of public participation
Normative rationale Substantive rationale Instrumental rationale
Influencing decisions: Harnessing local Generating
scale of democracy information and legitimacy
(Hughes) and extent knowledge Resolving conflict
of public involvement Incorporating reflection
and policy experimental and
implications value-based
Enhancing knowledge
8
, democratic capacity Testing robustness of
Social learning information from
Empowering and other sources
emancipation
marginalised
Who should participate? p. 109
interchangeable use of public, stakeholders, or citizens
unclear definition of who the public are their respective interests (Petts
2003)
→ challenge of public as homogenous entity presents in EIA literature (Petts, Dietz and
Stern)
anyone who is interested of affected by the benefits or harms of decisions
(Dietz and Stern 2008)
→ differentiate between segments as general public (may be interested) and stakeholders(are
affected) and their involvement depending on the context
broad definition to not eliminate parties that could constructively
contribute to the process and should be permitted to participate (Doelle
and Sinclair 2004)
everyone affected by a decision should be given a chance to participate in
public policy making
trade-offs of participation:
o EIA important to many people → democratic, inclusive approaches
make sense
o but THE public entity challenged/nonexistant
→ harder to find consensus among heterogenous groups/expectations/ interests
→ frustration with the project and EIA participation + investment of human and financial resources
Conclusions
Public participation is key to effective EIA
No consensus on definition, breadth, objectives of PP in EIA
Look at differences, make them explicit and reflect implications for
practice
Leonard Ortolano & Anne Shepherd (1995) Environmental
Impact Assessment: Challenges and Opportunities
Impact Assessment, 13:1, 3-30, DOI: 10.1080/07349165.1995.9726076
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