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Introduction of Environment Impact Assessment (EIA)

Definition of EIA

There are many definitions of EIA. The following are the sample of some of these definitions which indicate the nature of the process, including;

All of these definitions share the basic concepts of:

EIA has been developed as a result of the failure of traditional project appraisal techniques to account for environmental impacts. Many development projects in the past were designed and constructed in isolation from any consideration of their impacts on the environment, resulting in:

• higher costs,
• failure of projects,
• significant environmental change,and
• negative social effects

Despite differences in individual EIA systems throughout the world, the EIA process shares certain aims:

• to provide decision-makers with analysis of the total environment
  so that decisions can be made based on as nearly complete and balanced information as possible;
• to assess and present intangible/unquantifiable effects
  that are not adequately addressed by cost/benefit analysis and other technical reports;
• to provide information to the public
  on a proposal;
• to formalise the consideration of alternatives to a proposal
  being considered, in order that the least environmentally harmful means of achieving the given objective can be chosen;
• to improve the design of new developments and safeguard the environment
  through the application of mitigation and avoidance measures

The introduction of EIA has encountered resistance on the part of many planners and engineers, who have seen it as an unneeded change to traditional practices, in spite of its intended role in improving the project planning process. EIA has been severely criticised in some parts of the developing world as being inappropriate for application there. Some of these criticisms include:

See also Misconceptions about EIA and counter arguments

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