MANIPAL

UNIVERSITY JAIPUR

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PIRED Y LIFE

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Environment Impact
Assessment
Introduction and Scope of EIA

Kamal Kumar
Department of Civil Engineering
Kamal.kumar@Jaipur.manipal.
edu
January, 2020

Parwez M Akhtar. PhD

 Last
Lecture
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Last Lecture

• Basics of the course

• Teaching methodology and evaluation

criteria

• Lecture plan and timeline

• Contact hours and contact details

Parwez M Akhtar. PhD

Today’s
Lecture
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Today’s Lecture
• Introduction to Environmental Impact
Assessment

• Necessity of EIA

• Scope of EIA
 Introduction to Environmental Impact
Assessment
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Key Questions

1 . What is Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)?

)
EIA is a planning tool for sound decision-making (see here )
)
EIA is an important management tool for ensuring optimal use of
natural resources for sustainable development (detailed here ).
)
EIA is activity designed to identify and predict the impact of
legislative proposals, policies, programmes, projects and
operational procedures on the bio-geophysical environment and
on the health (see here , also your textbook)
)
EIA is the process of identifying, predicting, evaluating and
mitigating the biophysical, social, and other relevant effects of
development proposals prior to major decisions being taken and
commitments made (from International Association for Impact
Assessment )

Parwez M Akhtar. PhD

 Introduction to Environmental Impact
Assessment
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Key Questions
2. Why EIA is required, when it was not required earlier- before 1960’s?
(I) modern society’s have a faster, more widespread and larger impact on the
natural environment.
(II) the individualism of modern societies requires legal controls to replace
traditional community control
(III) political priorities and environmental awareness has changed. (for more
check here )

3. So what is impact?
An impact can be defined as any change in the physical, chemical,
biological, cultural or socio-economic environmental system as a result of
activities relating to a project ( from Text book p-1).

Parwez M Akhtar. PhD

 Introduction to Environmental Impact
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Major
impacts of a
typical Land
Clearing
Activities (L.
C.A) project
on
environment
(From TB
p-2).

Parwez M Akhtar. PhD

 Introduction to Environmental Impact
Assessment
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Sailent features of EIA includes:

(a) Both positive and negative impacts to the environment
over both short and long term.

(b) EIA provides plan which if implemented can reduce

negative impacts on environment.

(c) EIA provides a monitoring programme targeted towards

protection of environment.

Parwez M Akhtar. PhD

 Introduction to Environmental Impact
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The entire EIA is a two step process:

1. The Initial Environmental Examination (IEE) – used for:
1. To examine if EIA study should be conducted.
2. Limited study, more based on experts judgement.
3. Identifying important factors to be considered in the full
scale EIA study.
4. Provide a Environment Management (EM) plan when EIA
is not required.
2. Full scale Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) –
consists of following analytical functions:
1. Scope
2. Identification
3. Prediction
4. Evaluation
Parwez M Akhtar. PhD
Introduction to Environmental Impact
Assessment
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Analytical functions of EIA

1. Scope of EIA
(a) Identify key issues and categorize them.
(b) Legal status
2. Identification
(a) Identify components of the project
(b) Assess the existing environment conditions
(c) Define the range of project impacts on the environment.
3. Prediction
(a) Quantitative forecasting of the significant impacts in
terms of spatial dimension.
(b) Forecasting time of occurrence of significant impact and
its longevity.
4. Impact Evaluation and Analysis
(a) Critical assessment of impact
(b) Identification of alternatives
(c)PhD Finalizing the impact statement
Parwez M Akhtar.
 Next Lecture: Effect
of human impacts on
environment.

Parwez M Akhtar. PhD