SUN 2002 Environment and Regional Transport Planning ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT 1' Scope and purpose

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SUN 2002 Environment and Regional Transport
PlanningENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT1. Scope and
purpose

• Aleg Cherp
• CEU Department of Environmental Sciences and
  Policy

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Course content (EA part)

• 1. Introduction and course objectives
• 2-3. EA legislation. Screening and scoping in EA
• 3-4. Prediction and evaluation of environmental
  impacts
• 5. Documentation and quality control
• 6. Principles and tools for consultation and
  public participation

• 7. Mitigating, monitoring, auditing and managing
  environmental impacts after EIA
• 8. Strategic environmental assessment
• 9. Sustainability appraisal and other new
  paradigms in EA
• 10. Introducing EA in practice (seminar/round
  table)
• 11-12. Reserved for group discussions and
  presentation

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What is Environmental Assessment

• EA is a legal policy instrument
• EA is a planning tool
• EA is a scientific forecasting technique
• EA is a public participation tool

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Who needs to know about EA?

• Authorities
• Supervising and reviewing EA procedures
• Making decisions based on EA
• lawmakers
• Consultants
• specialists in particular disciplines
• managers of EIA studies
• advisors to international organisations and
  governments
• Industries and businesses
• NGOs
• Journalists, politicians, other opinion formers
• Researchers and teachers

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Examples of EIA research (CEU M.Sc. Theses 2001)

• Incorporating biodiversity considerations in EIA
  in Russia
• Comparative analysis of EIA in Azerbaijan,
  Georgia, Armenia and IFO
• EIA and post-project analysis the case of Kubaka
  Gold Mine
• Practical implementation of Environmental
  Assessment and Audit in Moldova
• Feasibility of application of SEA to land-use
  plans in Serbia
• Another interesting question does EIA have an
  effect?

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Key questions about EIA laws

• What should a good EIA law cover?
• How to conform to the EU, international
  conventions and IFAs requirements?
• How national specifics is taken into account?
• Is an EIA law implementable?

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Screening
Scoping
Impact prediction
Consultation and public participation
Mitigation measures
Documentation
Review
Decision-making
Post-project analysis/management
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The area of application of EA

• Which activities should be covered?
• Which activities should be excluded?
• What are the methods to decide on the need for EA?

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Key problems in scoping

• How to identify significant environmental
  impacts?
• How to prepare Terms of Reference for an EIA?

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Key issues in impact prediction

• What are impacts?
• How to predict potential impacts on
• Air, water, soil, ecosystems
• Human beings?
• How to deal with uncertainty?

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Impact evaluation

• How to tell whether an impact is significant
• To justify analysis and reporting
• To justify mitigation measures
• To justify selection of a different alternative
• To reject the proposal?

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Documentation

• How to write an EIS?
• How to tell whether an EIS is adequate?

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Public participation and consultation

• Who is the public?
• Why should the public participate?
• What are the methods of PP in different settings?

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Decision-making

• Does EA have an impact on decision-making?
• How to make a good decision based on an EIA?

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Post-project audit, monitoring and management

• What happens to EIA after the project
  implementation started?

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Strategic Environmental Assessment

• Is it the same as the project-level EIA, just on
  a different scale?

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Integration

• Should EA be combined with social, health, child,
  gender and other impact assessments?
• What is the role of EA in economic appraisals?
• Is sustainability appraisal possible?

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Practicalities

• How to introduce a good EIA system in a country?
• How to teach EA?
• How to conduct research on EA?

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Finally

• Can EA-thinking help us in other areas of life?