ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT

Kashmeera N.A.

EIA

EIA •What is it?•People involved

EIA •Objectives•Principles

EIA •Types•Steps involved

What is it?

• Formal process to predict envtal consequences of a proposed plan/project.

• Done prior to the decision to move forward.

• Envtal consequences include changes in physical, ecological& socio-economic components of envt.

• Done before,during and after completing devptal project.

People involved

• Decision maker• Assessor• Proponent• Reviewer• Expert advisors• Special interest groups

Objectives• To ensure that the environmental considerations are

explicitly addressed and incorporated into the development and decision-making process.

• To anticipate and avoid or minimize the adverse biophysical, social and other relevant effects of development proposals.

• To protect the productivity and capacity of natural systems and the ecological processes .

• To promote development that is sustainable and optimizes resource use as well as management opportunities

Principles

CORE VALUES

Integrity : should be fair, objective, unbiased and

balanced

Utility: should provide balanced, credible

information for decisionmaking

Sustainability: should result in environmental

safeguards

TYPES

Regional EIAStrategic

environmental assessment

Sectoral EIA Project level EIA

Strategic environmental assessment

• SEA represents a proactive approach to integrate environmental considerations into the higher levels of decision-making – beyond the project level, when major alternatives are still open.

Regional EIA

• integrates environmental concerns intodevelopment planning for a geographic

region,normally at the sub-country level.

• facilitates adequate integration of economic development with management of renewable natural resources within the carrying capacity limitation to achieve sustainable development.

Sectoral EIA

• helps in addressing specific environmental problems that may be encountered in planning and implementing sectoral development projects.

Project level EIA

• refers to the developmental activity in isolation and the impacts that it exerts on the receiving environment.

• Thus, it may not effectively integrate the cumulative effects of the development in a region.

Steps involved

• Screening, • Scoping,• Base line data,• Impact identification,• Prediction,• Evaluation, • Mitigation, • EIS preparation,• Review ,• Environment audit.

1.Screening

• done to see whether the project needs an EIA for clearance or not.

2.Scoping •involves determination of the extent of EIA required for the project.

• Gives a holistic picture of the overall environmental setting of the project location showing any potentially critical environmental changes and information about the site.

• The following environmental parameters are usually considered while preparing the baseline data:

• (a) Site location and topography.• (b) Regional demography.• (c) Regional landmarks.• (d) Geology• (e) Hydrology • (f) Meteorology • (g) Ecology

3.Baseline data

Baseline data• (a) Site location and topography.

• (b) Regional demography - population distribution within 10 and 50 kilometer radius; land-use and water-use pattern.

• (c) Regional landmarks like historical and cultural heritage in the area. For this archaeological or state register can be checked.

• (d) Geology – Groundwater and surface water resources are quantified; water, quality, pollution sources etc are studied.

• (e) Hydrology – Groundwater and surface water resources are quantified; water, quality,pollution sources etc are studied.

• (f) Meteorology – Temperature extremes, wind speed and direction, dew point,atmospheric stability, rainfall, storms etc. are recorded.

• (g) Ecology – The flora, fauna, endangered species, successional stage etc. are enlisted

• It includes the details of project characterization and base-line environmental characteristics to ensure the identification of full range of environmental impacts.

• Various methods employed for impact identification are as follows:

• (a) Checklists• (b) Matrices• (c) Quantitative Method

4.Impact Identification.

4.Impact Identification.

• (a) Checklists: These are based on enlisting of specific environmental, social, biological and economic factors affecting the environment. Checklists can be simple, descriptive or questionnaire based.

• (b) Matrices: This is most common type of impact identification method. Here the impacts are arranged in rows and columns i.e., like a matrix.

Matrices• Simple Matrix• 2-dimensional in nature • environmental component on one axis and developmental actions on the

other axis.• Time Dependent Matrix• time-scale of impacts is taken• Magnitude Matrix,• the magnitude of impact is also denoted in the matrix by putting symbols.• Leopold Matrix• consists of a hoziontal list of 100 project actions and a vertical list of 88

environmental components. • Magnitude of the impact and importance of the impact are shown on a

scale varying from 1 to 10.

Quantitative Method

• It compares the relative importance of all impacts by weighing, standardizing and aggregating the impacts.

• The best known method here is Battelle Environmental Evaluation System (BEES) which consists of Environmental, Social and Economic parameters.

5.Impact Prediction

• Here the magnitude and other dimensions of changes associated with the project are identified in comparison with a situation without the project.

• involves identification of potential change in the indicators of various environmental factors.

• The two important models of impact prediction are:

• (a) Mathematical Model• (b) Mass Balance Model

• (a) Mathematical Model: The cause and effect relationships are expressed in the form of a flow chart or mathematical function.

• (b)Mass Balance Model: This is usually adopted where physical changes are involved.Here all inputs are balanced by the outputs.

6.Impact Evaluation

• After prediction of the impacts, their relative significance is assessed

• methods of evaluation can be qualitative or quantitative

• to determine magnitude of the impact, temporal and spatial extent of the impact, recovery (resilience) of the affected environment, and the value of the affected environment.

• most important method- cost benefit analysis.

Cost benefit analysis

• This method takes into consideration a long view of the project and also the side-effects.

• Net social benefit is considered including all costs and benefits.

• It takes into account all tangible annual benefits and costs in monetary terms.

• However, it is very difficult to identify the intangibles like environmental parameters.

• The intangible category includes loss of a rare species, urbanization of a beautiful natural landscape, loss of human health etc.

7.Mitigation• done to avoid, reduce and if possible,

remedy the significant adverse change. • Various mitigation measures could be as

follows:• (a) Avoidance of Impacts• (b) Reduction of adverse effects• (c) Repair or restoration• (d) Compensation for adverse effect

• (a) Avoidance of Impacts• achieved by control of solid/liquid wastes by recycling or removing .• (b) Reduction of adverse effects• This is done by using sensitive building designs, using colour matching

with the local environment to reduce visual impact of the project, using silt-traps and planting of crop-covers.

• (c) Repair or restoration• The agricultural land used for storage of materials during construction

may be fully rehabilitated. Land used for gravel extraction may be restored for agricultural use. Any diversion in stream flow during construction by a road project must be reestablished.

• (d) Compensation for adverse effect• If there is loss of a public recreational space or wildlife habitat, then

provision must be made for creation of a spot with afforestation or plantation of the type of native plants. If there is lot of noise produced during the project operation, sound insulation must be done.

8.Decision Analysis

• Individual decision or group response are used • In order to have minimum bias, group

response is usually taken. • commonly used approach - multi-step

questionnaire based Delphi approach.

9.Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)

• It should include the following five major aspects• (a) The environmental impact of the proposed action.• (b) The adverse impact that cannot be avoided if the

development occurs.• (c) Alternatives to the proposed action.• (d) Relation between the local short-term use of human

environment and maintenance• of long-term production.• (e) Irreversible changes in resources.• EIS is to be written in the format provided by the MOEF or

CEQ as per their guidelines.

10.Environmental Audit

• involves comparison of the impacts predicted in the EIS with those actually occurring after implementation to assess whether the impact prediction performs satisfactorily.

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