Environmental impact assessment

An Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is an assessment of the likely human

environmental health impact, risk to ecological health, and changes to nature's services
that a project may have. The purpose of the assessment is to ensure that decision-makers
consider environmental impacts before deciding whether to proceed with new projects.

Overview
The US Environmental Protection Agency pioneered the use of pathway analysis to
determine the likely human health impact of environmental factors. The technology for
performing such analysis is properly labelled environmental science. The principal
phenomena or pathways of impact are: soil contamination impacts, air pollution impacts,
noise health effects, ecology impacts including endangered species assessment,
geological hazards assessment and water pollution impacts. Pathway analysis and The
Natural Step definitions later became the basis of the global ISO 14000 series of
environmental management standards and the more recent ISO 19011 accounting
standard; however, these ISO standards are not in common use in the U.S. and most other
countries.

After an EIA analysis, the Precautionary Principle and Polluter Pays may be applied to
prevent, limit, or require strict liability or insurance coverages to a project, based on its
likely harms.

Environmental impact analysis is sometimes controversial and contested. Related

analysis of social impacts is achieved by Social impact assessment. Analysis of business
impacts is achieved by Context analysis. Design impacts are assessed in relation to
Context theory.
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EIA around the world

EU

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 The EIA Directive on Environmental Impact Assessment of the effects of projects on the
environment was introduced in 1985 and was amended in 1997. The directive was
amended again in 2003 following the 1998 signature by the EU of the Aarhus Convention
on public participation in environmental matters. The issue was enlarged to the
assessment of plans and programmes by the so called SEA-Directive in 2001 which is
now in force and establishes a mix of mandatory and discretionary procedures for
assessing environmental impacts.

New Zealand

In New Zealand, EIA is usually referred to as Assessment of Environmental Effects

(AEE). The first use of EIA's dates back to a Cabinet minute passed in 1974 called
Environmental Protection and Enhancement Procedures. This had no legal force and only
related to the activities of government departments. When the Resource Management Act
was passed in 1991, an EIA was required as part of a resource consent application.
Section 88 of the Act spells this out.

United States

Under United States environmental law an EIA is referred to as the Environmental

Impact Statement (EIS), and originated in the National Environmental Policy Act
(NEPA), enacted in the United States in 1969. Certain actions of federal agencies must be
preceded by an EIS. Contrary to a widespread misconception, NEPA does not prohibit
the federal government or its licensees/permittees from harming the environment, nor
does it specify any penalty if the EIS turns out to be inaccurate, intentionally or
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otherwise. NEPA merely requires that plausible statements as to the prospective impacts
be disclosed in advance. It is only a procedural requirement.

Usually, an agency will release a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for
comment. Interested parties and the general public have the opportunity to comment on
the draft, after which the agency will approve the Final Environmental Impact Statement
(FEIS). Occasionally, the agency will later release a Supplemental Environmental Impact
Statement (SEIS).

Gray, Kevin. Civil Engineering Technology, Global Media, 2006. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uniofmindanao-ebooks/detail.action?docID=3011060.
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 The adequacy of an EIS can be challenged in court. Major proposed projects have been
blocked because of an agency's failure to prepare an acceptable EIS. One prominent
example was the Westway landfill and highway development in and along the Hudson
River in New York City . Another prominent case involved the Sierra Club suing the
Nevada Department of Transportation over its denial of Sierra Club's request to issue a
supplemental EIS addressing air emissions of particulate matter and hazardous air
pollutants in the case of widening US Highway 95 through Las Vegas. The case reached
the 9th Circuit Court of the United States, which led to construction on the highway being
halted until the court's final decision. The case was settled prior to the court's final
decision.

Several US state governments that have adopted "little NEPA's," i.e., state laws imposing
EIS requirements for particular state actions and some of those state laws refer the
required environmental impact studies as Environmental Impact Reports or
Environmental Impact Assessments. For example, the California Environmental Quality
Act (CEQA) requires an Environmental Impact Report (EIR).

These various state rquirements are yielding voluminous data not just upon impacts of
individual projects, but also to elucidate scientific areas that had not been sufficiently
researched. For example, in a seemingly routine Environmental Impact Report for the
city of Monterey, California, information came to light that led to the official federal
endangered species listing of Hickman's potentilla, a rare coastal wildflower.

Budget
Budget generally refers to a list of all planned expenses and revenues. A budget is an
important concept in microeconomics, which uses a budget line to illustrate the trade-offs
between two or more goods.
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Personal or family budget

A personal budget is among the most important concepts of personal finance. In a
personal or family budget all sources of income (inflows) are identified and expenses
(outflows) are planned with the intent of matching outflows to inflows. There are a wide
variety of personal budgeting methods and tools that can be employed to help individuals

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 and families with the budgeting process. Also the level of planned finance available to a
person, corporation or government, as set by a certain person.

Government budget
The budget of a government is a summary or plan of the intended revenues and
expenditures of that government. In the United States, the federal budget is prepared by
the Office of Management and Budget, and submitted to Congress for consideration.
Invariably, Congress makes many and substantial changes. Nearly all American states are
required to have balanced budgets, but the federal government is allowed to run deficits.
In the UK the budget is prepared by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the second most
important member of the government, and must be passed by Parliament. The Parliament
seldom makes changes to the budget.

Corporate budget
The budget of a company is compiled annually. A finished budget usually requires
considerable effort and can be seen as a financial plan for the new financial year. While
traditionally the Finance department compiles the company's budget, modern software
allows hundreds or even thousands of people in the various departments (operations,
human resources, IT etc) to contribute their expected revenues and expenses to the final
budget.

If the actual numbers delivered through the financial year turn out to be close to the
budget, this will demonstrate that the company understands their business and has been
successfully driving it in the direction they had planned. On the other hand, if the actuals
diverge wildly from the budget, this sends out an 'out of control' signal and the share
price could suffer as a result.
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Gray, Kevin. Civil Engineering Technology, Global Media, 2006. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uniofmindanao-ebooks/detail.action?docID=3011060.
Created from uniofmindanao-ebooks on 2018-07-09 20:33:13.