Aquatic Pollution and Coastal Management

Unit 12 : Environmental impact assessment

12.5.Initial Environmental Evaluation
An outline assessment of possible environmental effects of a particular course of action
Outcome: Finding of no significant impact
Recommendation that EIA is necessary

Screening: Why do it?
The screening process is essential because
1. The level of analysis needs to be matched to the significance of the issues raised by the proposal.
2. The decision making system would become more inefficient and unwieldy if EIA was to be required for all projects
How is it done?
Sets of criteria to be applied to screening decisions have been devised and these aim to guide the determination of how significant the likely impacts will be

• Positive and negative lists
• Thresholds
• Sensitive locations

What is it?
This is a procedure initiated at the beginning of the EIA process to identify all possible interactions between project proposals and the environment and to decide as to whether or not to perform an EIA, based on type and size of the projects and environmental sensitivity of the area.

Preliminary Assessment
An early evaluation of the project in terms of purpose, societal need, technological requirements, location, level of resource utilization, people and communities’ alternatives and possible mitigation measures is extremely important. This step identifies that can be readily overcome.
The preliminary assessment includes

• Purpose, need and scope of the proposal
• Field reconnaissance (survey)
• Interviews
• Consultations with agencies and specialists
• Visit/contact with local political leaders

Such analysis will be invaluable during scoping. The PEA could then serve as the blue print for much of the complete environmental assessment to be accomplished later.

Scoping - What is it?
Developments are likely to induce a wide range of changes to environmental parameters. These effects will not all be of equal importance and the EIA needs to focus on the most important, with less emphasis on information concerning insignificant impacts. Scoping applies to projects which are likely to have serious environmental consequences and which need thorough examination and assessment.

Why is it done?
• Time and resource constraints
• To limit the length of document to a manageable size
• To ensure that concerns of the decision makers and public are addressed
• Scoping ensures optimal use of time and resources

How is it done?
The scope of a detailed EIA is determined in terms of objectives and major issues, appropriate methodology, data requirements, geographical boundaries, time horizon of analysis, costs involved, expertise required, affected groups, institutions, agencies and possible alternatives.

Why is it done?
Setting the boundaries of the assessment is the most important step of the entire EIA. Too narrow a scope will likely leave out an important factor or effect, but too brad a scope may make the analysis unwieldy or take long time.

Data Base:
Implies compilation of relevant data analysis and interpretation of results. Baseline studies establish the current state of ecosystems. These records are built up gradually and continuously through systematic surveys and monitoring.