Scope of the presentation:

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Scope of the presentation 1. The conceptual
basis of IIA 2. Evolution as an appraisal
tool 3. Links with policymaking 4. Key
disciplinary areas 5. Methodologies for
integration 6. Challenges
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• Impact Assessment
• systematic analysis of the problem being
  addressed, the objective, alternative options to
  reach the objective and their likely impacts
  through a structured way .
• (from EU Guidelines)

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The Evolution of IIA
Pre-1970s dominance of economic and technical
criteria in project evaluation
1970s practice of EIA in some developed
countries wider attention to environmental
impacts since mid-1980s
1980s consideration of social and institutional
aspects
1980s and early 1990s thematic assessments by
donor agencies
Late 1990s Integrated approaches to impact
assessment in varied forms
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Example 1 TBL linkages in the Chilika Lagoon
Length 64 kms (max) Breadth 20 kms (max) Avg.
water spread area 1065 sq km Depth 0.38 to 4.2
m Catchment area 4406 sq km Total fisher folk
0.2 million
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• By the mid-1990s
• the old mouth opening to the sea was getting
  choked up
• siltation and poor flushing was resulting in the
  shrinkage in waterspread area
• salinity was decreasing and the lagoon was in
  danger of turning into a freshwater lake
• proliferation of invasive species and loss of
  biodiversity
• decrease in fish yield and diversity

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• The restoration strategy implemented included
• opening of a new mouth to the sea
• watershed management in the catchment area
• GIS-based monitoring
• local community involvement in lagoon management
• public consultation
• rehabilitation through successive cycles

• As a result
• significant ecosystem improvements
• eight-fold increase in annual fish landings

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Example 2 Environmental Pollution in the Taj
Trapezium Zone (TTZ)
TTZ a 10,400 sq km area in and around the city
of Agra (India), witness to unplanned urban
growth, lack of basic infrastructure services,
and poor quality of life
But, at the same time, the zone is home to the
breathtaking beauty of the Taj Mahal, one of the
Seven Wonders of the world a World Heritage Site
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Sources of air pollution in the TTZ
2,354 polluting factories inside the zone,
majority belonging to the small sector
(foundries, glass-making, etc) Emissions from an
oil refinery at Mathura 95,000 vehicles pass
through the zone every day
Most importantly, over 50,000 diesel generators
used to fight endemic power shortages in the city
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All this is contributing to aesthetic damage of
the Taj, but the focus of public intervention has
been on relocating the small scale industries!
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Impacts of industrial relocation
Shutdown of the small scale industries, as a
result of which millions of workers have lost
their jobs Little impact on air quality as the
other sources have been left out Health hazards
persist because of poor working conditions Again
a strategy far removed from sustainability
objectives! How can an IIA help in this case?
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What is IIA? Definition 3 (Brouwer and van Ek,
2004 )
policy motivated research to develop an
understanding of the issue, not based on
disciplinary boundaries, but on boundaries
defined by the problem, to offer insight to the
research community for prioritization of their
efforts and to the decision-making community on
the design of their policies.
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What is IIA? Definition 4 (Janssen, 1996 )
Integrated assessment is an iterative process
where, on the one hand, integrated insights from
the scientific community are communicated to the
decision-making community and, on the other hand,
experiences and learning effects from
decision-makers form the input for scientific
assessment.
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Aim of IIA
It aspires to describe from the perspective of
an identified problem or a proposed project the
relations between the human communities
concerned, their economic organization and their
actual resource base.
It qualifies, quantifies and, as far as possible,
values the effects of proposed and alternative
interventions on the three (economic, social and
natural) subsystems and their inter-system
relations.
It attempts to identify beneficial interventions
and to fully expose unavoidable trade-offs.
(Post et al, 1997)
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Sustainability orientation
Inter-disciplinary Cross-sectoral/
Inter-departmental
Iterative use of IIA tools to test plans as they
develop and are implemented
On-going quality control including critical
internal evaluation
(Source Milner et al, 2005)
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• Impact identification methods
• Analogs (look-alikes case studies)
• Checklists (simple, descriptive,
  scaled/weighted)
• Matrices (simple, stepped, Leopold matrix)
• Networks (cause-effect)
• Expert systems (encoded rules in computer
  software)
• Overlays Geographical Information Systems
  (GIS)
• Professional judgement (Delphi studies)

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Judging for an impacts significance
requires a measure of the degree of change
encompassing the magnitude, prevalence, duration,
frequency, and likelihood of potential change
as compared with some standard or threshold of
concern, which may be institutional, social, or
functional
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Assessment methods

• Cost-benefit Analysis (CBA) Advantages
  (benefits) and disadvantages (costs) of one or
  more project/policy alternatives are quantified
  and monetarily valued based on market prices and
  a net benefit criterion is used to evaluate the
  efficiency of a project or policy measure.

• Multi-criteria Analysis (MCA) Multiple
  pre-selected and weighted evaluation criteria
  used to compare project/policy options

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Example of an IA framework (from Brower and van
Ek, 2004)
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Challenges of IIA

• Lack of a generic toolkit
• Methodological consistency
• Dominance of EIA
• Issues relating to multi-disciplinary
  cooperation
• Inclusive ownership of stakeholders

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References used in this presentation Bond R.,
J. Curran, C. Kirkpatrick and N. Lee (2001)
Integrated impact assessment for sustainable
development a case study approach, World
Development, Vol 29, No 6, pp.1011-24. Scholten
J.J. R.A.M. Post (1999) Strengthening the
integrated approach to impact assessments in
development cooperation, Environmental Impact
Assessment Review, 19, pp.233-243. Brouwer R. and
R. van Ek (2004) Integrated ecological,
economic and social impact assessment of
alternative flood control policies in the
Netherlands, Ecological Economics, 50,
pp.1-21. Ravetz, J. (2000) Integrated assessment
for sustainability appraisal in cities and
regions, Environmental Impact Assessment Review,
20 pp 3164. Bailey, P.D. (1997) IEA A new
methodology for environmental policy,
Environmental Impact Assessment Review, 17 pp
221-26. Perdicoúlis, A. and J. Glasson (2006)
Causal networks in EIA, Environmental Impact
Assessment Review, 26 pp 553-69. United Nations
(1997) Agenda for Development, New York,
UN. Rotmans, J. (1998) Methods for IA the
challenges and opportunities ahead, Environmental
Modelling and Assessment, 3 pp 155-79.
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References used in this presentation Milner,
S.J., C. Bailey, J. Deans and D. Pettigrew
(2005) Integrated impact assessment in the UK
use, efficacy and future development,
Environmental Impact Assessment Review, 25 pp
47-61. Post, R.A.M., A.J. Kolhoff and B.J.A.M.
Velthuyse (1997) Towards integration of
assessments, with reference to integrated water
management in third world countries, Impact
Assessment and Project Appraisal, 16
(1). http//www.publichealth.nice.org.uk/page.asp
x?o503942 (Identifies the broad thematic areas
in which IIA has been practised at the
international level and gives links to
international examples of IIA) http//sedac.ciesi
n.columbia.edu/mva/iamcc.tg/TGsec4-1.html
(Provides a comprehensive thematic guide to
integrated assessment studies related to climate
change) www.hda.oxi.net/media/hiadocs/Integrated_
impact_assessment_report_final.pdf (Report of
the UK Mapping Project on the practice of IIA in
the UK)
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Thanks