Description
Book SynopsisReviewing over 50 years of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) policy-making and implementation around the world, this thought-provoking Handbook provides a comprehensive overview of the current research surrounding EIA. Presenting new trends in law and policy-making, it highlights best practices in the application of technology to impact prediction and management, procedural efficiency, decision-making and public participation.
In addition to explaining the practicalities of the EIA process, chapters delve deep into EIA’s decision-making stages and methods, revealing the causes of, and solutions to, recurrent issues. Contributions from leading scholars analyse case studies from Africa, Asia, Europe, Oceania, and North and South America to provide a truly global picture of EIA implementation. Critically examining the laws, policies and procedures involved in these case studies, this Handbook concludes by highlighting new ideas, trends and methods in the field.
With a global scope, the illustrative case studies and critical evaluations will prove a useful resource for students and scholars of environmental and management studies and law. Exploring how to implement best practices, it will prove invaluable to EIA practitioners, including consultants, developers and regulators, offering inspiration and guidance for policy reforms.
Trade Review‘Handbook of Environmental Impact Assessment
provides the reader with an overview of EIA in many countries. The research is literature-based. As in many books which are multi-authored, the chapters vary in terms of the style of writing and readability. The various authors are non-lawyers. They provide a broad and non-legalistic approach to environmental assessment, over a wide range of areas. The book will prove a valuable research tool to those wishing to explore environmental assessment globally, beyond the confines of project regulation.’ -- Francis McManus, Scottish Planning and Environmental Law
‘This Handbook marks 50 years of Environmental Impact Assessment practice, addressing contemporary issues in an innovative and engaging manner. It captures the state of the art provided by a diverse group of theorists and practitioners drawn from all around the world, before outlining possible directions for the next 50 years.’ -- Angus Morrison-Saunders, Edith Cowan University, Australia
Table of ContentsContents: PART I CONCEPTUAL FOUNDATIONS AND EVOLVING ROLES 1 Introduction to the Handbook of Environmental Impact Assessment 2 Alberto Fonseca 2 NEPA in the United States: death by extremism or redesign of a more useful tool? 28 Michael R. Greenberg and Stuart Shapiro 3 Impact assessment in the post-COVID-19 world: the growing role of health impact assessment 47 Mirko S. Winkler, Adithya Pradyumna, Francesca Viliani and Astrid M. Knoblauch 4 Integrated impact assessment: coming out of the shadows? 66 Richard K. Morgan PART II STAGES AND METHODS 5 Influence of EIA on project planning and design: exploring the gap between best and actual practice 86 Claire Gronow 6 The theory and practice of scoping: delivering proportionate EIA reports 111 Urmila Jha-Thakur, Fatemeh Khosravi and David Hoare 7 The benefits and perils of digital and automated technologies: impact assessment methods in the fourth industrial revolution 126 Alberto Fonseca 8 A new agenda for significance determination in EIA: promoting community-based determination processes to counterbalance technocratic approaches 146 Sara Bjørn Aaen, Ivar Lyhne and Helle Nedergaard Nielsen 9 Artificial intelligence solutions for environmental and social impact assessments 163 Atiyah Curmally, Blaise W. Sandwidi and Aditi Jagtiani 10 Mitigating climate change through impact assessments: critical reflections from Canadian policy reform 178 Karine Péloffy, Nicholas Zrinyi and Rosa Galvez 11 Follow-up: post-decision learning in EIA 198 John Glasson PART III IMPROVING GOVERNANCE AND DECISION-MAKING 12 Uncertainty in EIA 220 Sanne Vammen Larsen 13 Trade-offs in impact assessment design and implementation 233 Robert B. Gibson and Alberto Fonseca 14 Heuristics and bias in assessing the social impacts of energy projects 258 Douglas L. Bessette 15 Rightful resistance and activism through EIAs in Chile 270 Rajiv Maher and Diego Gálvez Pino 16 Indigenous Peoples and impact assessment 285 Philippe Hanna, Cássio Ingles de Sousa and Tumanako Fa’aui 17 Trends in EIA effectiveness research 303 John J. Loomis and Mauricio Dziedzic PART IV GLOBAL PRACTICE 18 EIA best practice in Africa 320 Luke Sandham, Francois Retief and Reece Alberts 19 EIA in Finland: the influence of international norms on the founding and evolution of national impact assessment systems 337 Timo Koivurova, Katri-Maaria Kyllönen and Krittika Singh 20 EIA in Canada: strengthening follow-up, monitoring and evaluation 352 Patricia Fitzpatrick and J. Byron Williams 21 EIA in Japan: the benefits of early public participation 366 Tetsuya Kamijo 22 Environmental impact assessment in Brazil: a review of its rise (and fall?) 383 Luis E. Sánchez and Carla Grigoletto Duarte 23 EIA in China: evolution and challenges 404 He Xu, Yiting Yang, Huanzhi Wang and Xueyan Guo PART V LOOKING FORWARD 24 The importance of leadership in impact assessment 423 Ross Marshall and Maria Partidário 25 Epilogue (The future of impact prediction: what to expect from EIA in the next 50 years?) 441 Alberto Fonseca Index
