Impact Assessment

Offers solutions and best practices to respond to recurrent
problems and contemporary challenges in the field

Since the publication of the first edition of Environmental
Impact Assessment in 2003, both the practice and theory of
impact assessment have changed substantially. Not only has the
field been subject to a great deal of new regulations and
guidelines, it has also evolved tremendously, with a greater
emphasis on strategic environmental, sustainability, and human
health impact assessments. Moreover, there is a greater call for
impact assessments from a global perspective. This Second
Edition, now titled Impact Assessment to reflect its
broader scope and the breadth of these many changes, offers
students and practitioners a current guide to today's impact
assessment practice.

Impact Assessment begins with an introduction and then a
chapter reviewing conventional approaches to the field. Next, the
book is organized around recurrent problems and contemporary
challenges in impact assessment process design and management,
enabling readers to quickly find the material they need to solve
tough problems, including:

• How to make impact assessments more influential, rigorous,
  rational, substantive, practical, democratic, collaborative,
  ethical, and adaptive

• How each problem and challenge-reducing process would operate
  at the regulatory and applied levels

• How each problem can be approached for different impact
  assessment types--sustainability assessment, strategic
  environmental assessment, project-level EIA, social impact
  assessment, ecological impact assessment, and health impact
  assessment

• How to link and combine impact assessment processes to operate
  in situations with multiple overlapping problems, challenges, and
  impact assessment types

• How to connect and combine impact assessment processes

Each chapter first addresses the topic with current theory and
then demonstrates how that theory is applied, presenting
requirements, guidelines, and best practices. Summaries at the end
of each chapter provide a handy tool for structuring the design and
evaluation of impact assessment processes and documents. Readers
will find analyses and new case studies that address such issues as
multi-jurisdictional impact assessment, climate change, cumulative
effects assessment, follow-up, capacity building, interpreting
significance, and the siting of major industrial and waste
facilities.

Reflecting current theory and standards of practice, Impact
Assessment is appropriate for both students and practitioners
in the field, enabling them to confidently respond to a myriad of
new challenges in the field.

Autorentext

DAVID P. LAWRENCE, PhD, is an Impact Assessment
Specialist with more than thirty-five years of experience in study
design, impact analysis, alternatives evaluation, social impact
assessment, cumulative effects assessment, and sustainability. He
has undertaken numerous applied impact assessment research studies,
published extensively, and taught at both the undergraduate and
graduate levels.

Zusammenfassung

Offers solutions and best practices to respond to recurrent problems and contemporary challenges in the field

Since the publication of the first edition of Environmental Impact Assessment in 2003, both the practice and theory of impact assessment have changed substantially. Not only has the field been subject to a great deal of new regulations and guidelines, it has also evolved tremendously, with a greater emphasis on strategic environmental, sustainability, and human health impact assessments. Moreover, there is a greater call for impact assessments from a global perspective. This Second Edition, now titled Impact Assessment to reflect its broader scope and the breadth of these many changes, offers students and practitioners a current guide to today's impact assessment practice.

Impact Assessment begins with an introduction and then a chapter reviewing conventional approaches to the field. Next, the book is organized around recurrent problems and contemporary challenges in impact assessment process design and management, enabling readers to quickly find the material they need to solve tough problems, including:

• How to make impact assessments more influential, rigorous, rational, substantive, practical, democratic, collaborative, ethical, and adaptive
• How each problem and challenge-reducing process would operate at the regulatory and applied levels
• How each problem can be approached for different impact assessment types—sustainability assessment, strategic environmental assessment, project-level EIA, social impact assessment, ecological impact assessment, and health impact assessment
• How to link and combine impact assessment processes to operate in situations with multiple overlapping problems, challenges, and impact assessment types
• How to connect and combine impact assessment processes
  Each chapter first addresses the topic with current theory and then demonstrates how that theory is applied, presenting requirements, guidelines, and best practices. Summaries at the end of each chapter provide a handy tool for structuring the design and evaluation of impact assessment processes and documents. Readers will find analyses and new case studies that address such issues as multi-jurisdictional impact assessment, climate change, cumulative effects assessment, follow-up, capacity building, interpreting significance, and the siting of major industrial and waste facilities.

Reflecting current theory and standards of practice, Impact Assessment is appropriate for both students and practitioners in the field, enabling them to confidently respond to a myriad of new challenges in the field.

Inhalt

Preface ix

1. Introduction 1

1.1 Highlights 1

1.2 A Not So Hypothetical Scenario 1

1.3 The Basics 5

1.4 A Structure 12

1.5 A Strategy 16

1.6 A Road Map 19

1.7 Summing Up 20

2. Conventional IA Processes 22

2.1 Highlights 22

2.2 Defining the Problem and Deciding on a Direction 22

2.3 Conventional EIA Choices 23

2.4 Choices for Other IATypes 34

2.5 Contemporary ChallengeSEA Good Practice Guidance 46

2.6 Summing Up 49

3. How to Make IAs More Influential 52

3.1 Highlights 52

3.2 Insights from Practice 52

3.3 Defining the Problem and Deciding on a Direction 56

3.4 Selecting the Most Appropriate Route 62

3.5 Instituting an Influential IA Process 75

3.6 Contemporary ChallengeIA InfluenceGood Practice Guidance 84

3.7 Summing Up 84

4. How to Make IAs More Rigorous 91

4.1 Highlights 91

4.2 Insights from Practice 91

4.3 Defining the Problem and Deciding on a Direction 94

4.4 Selecting the Most Appropriate Route 94

4.5 Instituting a Rigorous IA Process 100

4.6 Contemporary ChallengeGood Practice IA Follow-up 111

4.7 Summing Up 114

5. How to Make IAs More Rational 116

5.1 Highlights 116

5.2 Insights from Practice 116

5.3 Defining the Problem and Deciding on a Direction 119

5.4 Selecting the Most Appropriate Route 121

5.5 Instituting a Rational IA Process 129

5.6 Contemporary ChallengeSiting Locally Unwanted Land Uses 139

5.7 Summing Up 148

6. How to Make IAs More Substantive 150

6.1 Highlights 150

6.2 Insights from Practice 150

6.3 Defining the Problem and Deciding on a Direction 153

6.4 Selecting the Most Appropriate Route 156

6.5 Instituting a Substantive IA Process 169

6.6 Contemporary ChallengeHorizontal IA Integration 179

6.7 Summing Up 183

7. How to Make IAs More Practical 186

7.1 Highlights 186

7.2 Insights from Practice 186

7.3 Defining the Problem and Deciding on a Direction 190

7.4 Selecting the Most Appropriate Route 1…