Environmental Impact Assessment

Introduction
• Impact
• Assessment
• Environmental Impact
• Environmental Impact Assessment

Why EIA?
When to carry out EIA?
EIA Standards

General Methodology
• Steps in EIA
• Outcome of EIA
• Environmental Impact Statement
 Introduction
Impact:
• The effect or impression of one thing on another
• The power of making a strong, immediate impression

Assessment:
• The act of determining an amount to be paid
• The act of judging a situation or an event

Environmental Impact:
Effect of any activity on surrounding environment
(Short/Long)
Environmental Impact Assessment
• The assessment of environmental impacts likely to arise
from a major action (legislation, policy, program or
project) significantly affecting the environment.

• An evaluation designed to identify and predict the impact

of an action or a project on the environment and human
health and well-being. Can include risk assessment as a
component along with economic and land use
assessment.

• Advance assessment of the likely environmental impact

of a planned development, together with opinions of
people and interest groups. The information gathered is
passed on to planners and decision makers.
Environmental Impact Assessment
Cont..
•Detailed studies , which predict the effects of a proposed
project on the environment. They also provide plans for
the mitigation of the adverse impacts.

•A process required by government prior to the approval

and development of resource projects. The assessment
details the consequences of a proposed project, planned
remedial action and integrates environmental factors into
project planning and decision making.
Environmental Impact Assessment
Cont..

•Key Facets of EIA:

•All activities
•All Impacts
•Predictive
•Preventive and Corrective
•Positive and negative effects
•Must for approval/development.
•Government /public initiated
•Planning and decision with environmental factors in mind
 Why EIA
• Every human activity has positive/negative impact on
environment. Assessment is logical step towards better
understanding of these effects
• Development without environmental consideration is
no longer viable
• Stricter environmental regulations mean careful
planning and systematic evaluation to avoid future
problems / lawsuits / losses
• Positive effects on environment are identified and
understood. This directly leads to improvement in
environmental quality
 Purposes of EIA
EIA is a process with several important purposes, which
can be categorized as follows:
1) To facilitate decision-making:
• For the decision-maker, for example the local authority,
it provides a systematic examination of the
environmental implications of a proposed action, and
sometimes alternatives, before a decision is taken.
• The decision-maker along with other documentation
relating to the planned activity can consider the
environment impact statement (EIS).
 Purposes of EIA
2) To aid in the formation of development:
• Many developers see EIA as another set of hurdles for them to
cross in order to proceed with their various activities.
• They may also see the process involved in obtaining the
permission from various authorities as costly and time-
consuming.
• In reality, however, EIA can be of great benefit to them, since it
can provide a framework for considering location and design
issues and environmental issues in parallel.
• It can be an aid to the formulation of developmental actions,
indicating areas where the project can be modified to minimize
or eliminate altogether the adverse impacts on the environment.
 Purposes of EIA
2) To aid in the formation of development:
• The consideration of environmental impacts early in the planning
life of a development can lead to environmentally sensitive
development;
• to improved relations between the developer, the planning
authority and the local communities;
• to a smoother planning permission process and sometimes to a
worthwhile financial return on the expenditure incurred.
 Purposes of EIA
• 3) To be an instrument for sustainable development:
• The key characteristics of sustainable development include
maintaining the overall quality of life, maintaining continuing
access to natural resources and avoiding lasting environmental
damage.
• Institutional responses to sustainable development are, therefore,
required at several levels.
• For example, issues of global concern, such as ozone-layer
depletion, climate change, deforestation and biodiversity loss,
require a global political commitment to action.
• The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development
(UNCED) held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 was an example of
international concern and also of the problems of securing
concerted action to deal with such issues.
 Purposes of EIA
• 3) To be an instrument for sustainable development:
• Governments have recognized the interaction of economic and
social development and the ecosystems, and the reciprocal impact
between human actions and the bio-geophysical world.
• While there are attempts to manage this interaction better,
investigation reveal disquieting trends that could have devastating
consequences for the quality of the environment.
• These trends are likely to be more pronounced in developing
countries where, because of greater rates of population growth and
lower current living standards, there is more pressure on
environmental resources.
 EIA STANDARDS
• Environmental Assessment sourcebook ( the world
book)
• National Environmental policy Act (NEPA) (1970/USA:
Nixon Admn.)
• Draft operational Directive on environmental
Assessment (UNDP / World bank)
• Environmental Impact Assessment: Basic Procedures
for developing countries (UNEP)
• Development Assistance Committee guidelines on
environment and aid (OECD/UNEP)
 When to carry out EIA?
In the Beginning Itself !!
Where?
• Site Selection for a project
• Draft legislation
• Plant expansions
• Demolitions / planned destructions
• Mining
• Milk processing
• National Parks / reserved forests
• Waste disposal
• Piggery / poultry farms
• Oil exploration / recovery
 General Methodology

Stages in EIA

• Local level
• Regional level
• National level
• Global level
 Steps in EIA
• Preliminary activities
Coordinator selection
Background information
• Description of the project/development action:
This step seeks to clarify the purpose and rationale of the project
and understand its various characteristics, including the stages of
development, location and processes.
 Steps in EIA
Impact identification

• Identification of key impacts: This brings together the previous

steps with a view to ensuring that all potentially significant
environmental impacts (adverse and beneficial) are identified and
taken into account in the process.
• The prediction of impacts: This step aims to identify the likely
magnitude of the change (i.e., impact) in the environment when the
project is implemented in comparison with the situation when the
project is not carried out.
 Steps in EIA
Screening and Scoping
• Project screening: This entails the application of EIA to those
projects that may have significant environmental impacts. It is
quite likely, however, that screening is done partly by the EIA
regulations, operating in a country at the time of assessment.
• Scoping: This step seeks to identify, at an early stage, the key,
significant environmental issues from among a host of possible
impacts of a project and all the available alternatives.
 Steps in EIA

• Baseline study
Data on environmental condition prior to implementation
OR
Description of the environmental baseline: This includes the
establishment of both the present and future state of the
environment, in the absence of the project, taking into account the
changes resulting from natural events and from other human
activities.
 Steps in EIA
Impact evaluation
• Evaluation and assessment of significance: This seeks to
assess the relative significance of the predicted impacts to
allow a focus on key adverse impacts.
• Formal definition of significance is the product of
consequence and likelihood as
Significance =consequence X Likelihood
 Steps in EIA
Impact evaluation
Mitigation measures in quantitative terms
Mitigation: This involves the introduction of measures
to avoid, reduce, remedy or compensate for any
significant adverse impacts.
Project alternatives:
• This seeks to ensure that the proponent has considered
other feasible approaches, including alternative project
locations, scales, processes, layouts, operating condition
and the no-action option.
 Steps in EIA
Public consultation and participation:
• This aims to assure the quality, comprehensiveness and
effectiveness of the EIA,
• as well as to ensure that the public’s views are adequately
taken into consideration in the decision-making process.

EIS presentation: This is a vital step in the process. If

done badly, much good work in the EIA may be negated.
 Steps in EIA
Cont..

Documentation
Work done report
Recommendations
Alternatives / comments
• Decision – making
Accept / reject a plan
• Post Audits
Closeness of predictions
Steps in EIA
Cont..
 Environmental impact statement (EIS)

• The environmental impact statement (EIS) provides

documentation of the information and estimates derived from the
various steps in the EIA process.
• The information contained in a EIS provides the
decision-makers/regulators with valuable information that could
ultimately contribute to either the abandonment or substantial
modification of a proposed development action.
 Environmental impact statement (EIS)
A typical EIS contains the following three parts:
• Part 1 – Methods and key issues: This part deals with the
statement of methods used and a summary of key issues.
• Part 2 – Background to the proposed development: This part
deals with preliminary studies (i.e., need, planning, alternatives,
site selection, etc.), site description/baseline conditions,
description of proposed development and construction activities
and programmes.
• Part 3 – Environmental impact assessments on topic areas:
This part deals with land use, landscape and visual quality,
geology, topography and soils, hydrology and water quality, air
quality and climate, terrestrial and aquatic ecology, noise,
transport, socio-economic and interrelationships between effects.
 Outcome of EIA

• Environmental considerations are explicitly

addressed

• Environmental impacts are clearly identified and

suggestions are stated

• Environmental policy framework is prepared

 Environmental Impact

If the conditions of the environment change and/or new

set of conditions emerge then it will have effects on
ecology including the human life.

The effects are normally defined through the term

‘environmental impacts’ which may be caused or induced
by an action or set of actions of man or nature itself.

The environmental conditions vary according to the

nature, scale and location of the action (s). The impacts
of the conditions are assessed through environmental
impact analysis.
 Types of Environmental Impacts
1.Primary and secondary impacts:
Primary impacts are first round impacts associated with projects,
programmes and other activities of man such as air pollution,
water pollution, displacement of people etc.

Secondary impacts are induced effects in the subsequent rounds

linked to primary impacts.

For example, construction of highways, airports, dams, power

houses and other large projects would generate several types of
primary impacts like deforestation and the investment in such
projects induce several secondary impacts like socioeconomic
changes in the region.
 Types of Environmental Impacts
Cont..
2. Short-term and long-term impacts
The impacts which are felt in the shorter period of time such as
during construction period of a project and its early phases of
operation are ‘short-term’ in nature and the impacts which are
felt in the longer period of the time are defined as ‘long-term’
impacts.

For example the green revolution in short-term improves the farm

productivity and hence income of the farmers, but in long-run,
one may find declining fertility of farms due to excessive
chemicals used as fertilizers and insecticides
 EIA Methodology
EIA can be carried out in the following steps
1. Screening:
It is the step in which information is collected to determine
whether or not a proposal should be subject to EIA and , if so,
at what level of detail.
In the Department of the Environments' Environmental
Assessment: A guide to the procedures. There are two lists,
referred to as schedules.

Schedule 1 - Environmental Assessments are required in

every case. Schedule 1 projects range from "an integrated
works for the initial melting of cast-iron and steel", to "a thermal
power station or other combustion installation with a heat
output of 300 MW or more."
 EIA Methodology
Cont..

Schedule 2 - Environmental Assessments are required if

the project is likely to give rise to significant
environmental effects by virtue of factors of their
nature, size or location. The list of Schedule 2 projects
is greater than that of schedule 1. It covers projects
from "a holiday village" to "peat extraction" and "pig
rearing" to "a shipyard".

Screening is a comprehensive and clear method of

decision making. It is practical, quick and easy to use.
 EIA Methodology
Cont..
2. Scoping:
Scoping is used to identify the key issues of concern at an early
stage in the planning process.

Scoping should be carried out at an early stage in order to aid site

selection and identify any possible alternatives.

The scoping process should involve all interested parties such as

the proponent and planning or environmental agencies and
members of the public.

The results of scoping will form determine the scope, depth and
terms of reference to be addressed within the Environmental
Statement.
 EIA Methodology
Cont..
Why carry out Scoping?
To identify the key issues and concerns of the interested parties.
– Who is concerned?
– What are their concerns?
– Why are they concerned?
– What is the threshold of concern where change becomes
unacceptable?

When ineffective scoping occurs delays are caused by additional time

being required to assess unidentified impacts. Once the site for
development has been selected the scoping angle changes. There will
be a decrease in the number of issues and an increase in attention to
detail.

Scoping should be an ongoing exercise throughout the course of the project.

 EIA Methodology
Cont..

3. Examination of alternatives:
To establish the preferred or most environmentally sound and
benign option for achieving the proposal objectives.

This includes both alternative sites and alternative techniques. This

search must be genuine, well documented and carried out before
a choice has been made.

It is usually the case that alternative sites are available as well as

practical although this is not always the case. Some projects are
site specific such as mining.

The extraction can only occur were the mineral is sited. In such
cases an alternatives is pointless.
 EIA Methodology
Cont..

4. Mitigating measures:

This reviews the action taken to prevent, avoid or minimize the

actual or potential adverse effects of a project.

The measure could include the abandoning or modifying of a

proposal, substitution of techniques using BATNEEC (Best
Available Technology Not Entailing Excessive Costs).

This would include the various pollution abatement techniques

that would be required to reduce emissions to the legal limits.
 EIA Methodology
Cont..

Uncertainty
• If the uncertainties are great, with the possibility of
grave consequences and no mitigating measures,
then the development plan is rejected.

• If there are uncertainties that might me reduced by

further studies then the applications deferred until
further studies are carried out
 EIA Methodology
Cont..

5. Preparation of the EIS:

The EIS is a comprehensive document that reports the findings
of the EIA. This is practically the final stage of the EIA process
and is now often required by law before a new project can
proceed.
A typical EIS can be broken down into three parts with
different levels of detail:
• Volume 1 - a comprehensive and concise document drawing
together all relevant information regarding the project;
• Non-Technical Summary (NTS) - a brief report of volume one
in non-technical language so that it can easily be understood
by the public;
 EIA Methodology
Cont..

• Volume 2 - a volume which contains detailed

assessment of the significant environmental effects.
(This is not necessary if there are no significant effects
either before or after mitigation).

6. Review of the EIS:

To determine whether the report meets its terms of reference,
provides a satisfactory assessment of the proposal (s) and
contains the information required for decision making.
 EIA Methodology
Cont..

7. Decision making:
To approve or reject the proposal and to establish the terms and
conditions for its implementation.

8. Follow Up:
To ensure that the terms and condition of approval are met; to
monitor the impacts of development and the effectiveness of
mitigation measures; to strengthen future EIA applications and
mitigation measures; and, where required, to undertake
environmental audit and process evaluation to optimize
environmental management.

It is desirable, whenever possible, if monitoring, evaluation and

management plan indicators are designed so they also contribute to
local, national and global monitoring of the state of the environment
and sustainable development.
 Measurement of Environmental Impacts

For quantitative as well as qualitative assessment of

environmental impacts we need a stronger data base.

The data will be concerned to various aspects of the

environment, such as:

the physical environment: land, air, water, forests, noise,

animals, birds etc.,
economic environment: employment/unemployment,
economic activities, income levels, taxes, etc.
 Measurement of physical environment
variables
Air Pollution
Air pollution is rated as a very serious environmental
problem. There are various sources of air pollution,
which can be classified as follows:
• Mobile emissions
• Stationary emissions
A general physical measure of air pollution would be
given by the total emissions per day. Some methods to
compute this data is explained below.
 Measurement of physical environment
variables
Cont..

Mobile emissions of Residential Activity:

 i (ai )( X )  (Y )  ( Z )

where i = ith pollutant;

ai = Pollution Emission Factor, grams/mile
X = uses-rate of vehicles, miles travelled /day ;
Y= number of vehicles per dwelling unit;
Z = number of dwelling units.
 Measurement of physical environment
variables
Cont..
Mobile emissions for commercial and industrial
activities:
 i (ai )( X )  (Y )  ( Z )

Where i = ith pollutant;

ai = Pollution Emission Factor, grams/mile;
X= gross leasable area in 1000 sq.ft;
Y= average daily trips per 1000 sq.ft. GLA;
Z= Use rate, vehicles traveled per day.
 Measurement of physical environment
variables
Cont..
Stationary emissions for Residential Activity:
 i (ai )( X )  (Y )

Where i = ith pollutant;

ai = Pollution Emission Factor, lbs/1000 cft, of
ith pollutant
X = Natural gas consumption in 1000 cft;
Y= Number of dwelling units;
 Measurement of physical environment
variables
Cont..
Stationary emissions for commercial and industrial
activities:
 i (ai )( X )  (Y )

Where i = ith pollutant;

ai = Pollution Emission Factor, lbs/1000 cft, of ith pollutant
X = Gross Floor Area (GLA) in 1000 sq. ft, and
Y= Natural gas consumption in 1000 cft per 1000 sq. ft. of
GLA.
 Measurement of physical environment
variables
Cont..
Water Quantity and Quality:

Demand for Water: Water is required for different uses

such as domestic purposes, irrigation, industrial uses,
recreation and so on. The demand for domestic uses can
be estimated as mentioned in next slide
 Measurement of physical environment
variables
Cont..
Domestic Demand =

X Y  Z
Where X = liters of water per capita;
Y= number of people per house hold;
Z = number of houses in a unit.
 Measurement of physical environment
variables
Cont..
Commercial /Industrial Demand
= X Y  Z

Where X = Liters of water per employee

Y = Number of Employees per 1000 sq. ft of business
area
Z = Total GLA in 1000 sq. ft.
Or we may also simplify this by defining
Y = Number of Employees per business unit
Z = Total no of business units
 Measurement of physical environment
variables
Cont..
Irrigation Demand
n
  ( ai )( Ai )(t i )
i 1

Where ai = Water requirement per unit of area under crop

i,
Ai = Crop area for ith crop,
ti = Number of times irrigation is needed for ith crop
n = Total number of crop
 Measurement of physical environment
variables
Cont..
Water Quality:
Water Quality is generally reported in terms of pH,
turbidity and concentration of various impurities in
ppm.

Noise
It is major source of environmental pollution of its kind
called as noise pollution. To measure noise, we have
well defined physical unit called ‘decibel’ or its variant
like dBA. Instruments are available for measuring noise
in these units directly.
 Measurement of physical environment
variables
Cont..
Solid Waste
This is generated in the environment in various forms like cans,
plastic material, bottles and other types of rubbish generated by
households, and scrap materials, wrapping papers and other waste
generation by industrial and business units. We may use the
following formulae to measure total solid waste generated in the
environment.

Total Solid Waste (TSW) = X.Y.Z, for residential areas

Where,
X = Solid Waste in lbs per capita,
Y = Number of people per dwelling
Z = Number of dwelling units
 Measurement of physical environment
variables
Cont..
Total Solid Waste (TSW) = X.Y.Z, for commercial /
Industrial areas

Where,

X = Solid Waste per employee

Y = Number of employees per business unit

Z = Number of business unit

 Measurement of physical environment
variables Cont..
Forest and Wildlife
Forests are essential components of the total ecology. Measurement of
forest cover of an area (Percentage area) or region or nation should be
done.

The wildlife is normally measured in terms of ‘number of species’ such

as total number of endangered or threatened species in a particular
area.
Biodiversity or the variety of life and its processes is an important,
infact, a basic property of nature that provide several ecological,
economic and aesthetic benefits. It is normally measured through an
index: S
D  N ( N  1) /  ni (ni  1)
i

Where D= Biodiversity index;

N=Total number of individuals in all species;
ni= Number of individuals of a species i, i = 1 to s.
 Measurement Of Social Variables
Various social variables include population, population
density, population distribution, displacement of
people from project area, percentage of white-collar
workers, mode of public transport etc.

Each one has a different method of measurement and

the method may depend on the nature of the location.
 Measurement of Economic Variables

Economic variables are concerned with direct and indirect

effects of a project or action on economic base of the
project location and its surrounding area, and even on
national economy as a whole.

Some of economic variables are average income, average

home rent, inflation, taxes, property values and the social
evils like corruption, bribery, theft etc.
 Impacts Assessment Methods

1. Checklist Method:
Checklist means a listing of potential environmental
impacts.

First step of the method is the preparation of list

followed by the second step of assessing the nature of
impact i.e. its types such as adverse or beneficial ,
short-term or long-term, no effect or significant effect.

To identify the impact types, the normal practice is to

put a cross mark ‘X’ under the identified type(s) against
each impact area.
 Impacts Assessment Methods
Cont..
Table: Environmental Areas vs Type of Impacts

No + ve -ve Short Long

Env. Area Direct Indirect
Effect Effect Effect Term Term

Wildlife X X

Air X X

Water X X

Noise X X

Eco. Value X X X

Public Health X
 Impacts Assessment Methods
Cont..

2. Matrix Method:
A ‘simple interaction matrix’ is formed where project actions are
listed along one axis, say, vertically downward and environmental
impacts are listed along the other axis, say, horizontally.
Three step method:
• Identify all the actions that are part of proposed project and the
impacts of these actions.
• Describe the impact interaction in terms of its magnitude and
imortance .
• Sum the products of the all ‘magnitude’ and ‘importance’ ranks
across the rows and columns of the matrix. All rows or columns
sum will give an overall measurement of the impact score for the
project.
 Impacts Assessment Methods
Cont..

‘Magnitude’ of an interaction is its extensity or scale

marked in terms of a number from 1 to 10 where 1
represents a small magnitude and 10 a large
magnitude.

The scale of importance also varies from 1 to 10 where

10 represents a severe impact of highest importance
while 1 represent a very low importance.
 Impacts Assessment Methods
Cont..
Mathematically we can summarize this as
Let
mij= (+ or -) magnitude of the jth action on ith environmental factor
wij= ‘importance’ weight of the jth action on ith environmental
factor
Total impact on ith environmental factor
= , i = 1 to n.
 j
mij wij
Total impact of jth action on all environmental factor
= , j = 1 to n.
m i ij wij
Total impact score
= n n

m
i j
ij wij
 Weighted impacts of project actions (hypothetical entries)
Actions
Total
Habitat Noise Impounding Fertilizer
Dredging Impact
Environmental Construction variation Water Use
Factor
Conditions

5(3) 1(3) 1(1) 2(2) Σ=23

Land Form

Water 4(4) 3(4) -2(3) -3(3) Σ=13

Forest -2(2) -4(2) -3(2) 4(1) Σ=-14

Wildlife -3(2) -2(3) -3(2) Σ=-18

Air Quality 1(4) 1(4) -1(1) Σ=07

Health 3(5) -4(4) 2(5) -2(4) Σ=01

Eco.Value 6(6) 2(5) 6(6) 3(5) 5(6) Σ=127

Total Action
Σ=76 Σ=-12 Σ=51 Σ=04 Σ=20 Σ=139
Impact
Network Method:
This method uses the matrix approach by extending it further to
take into account the primary as well as the secondary impacts.
The network of impacts is shown in the form of a tree called as
‘impact tree’ or ‘sequence diagram’. In identification of impacts in
sequence, this method uses the probability that an identified
impact would be occurring.

The steps followed are

• Use the matrix method to assign ranks and important weights to

the estimated impacts on an impact tree;
• Estimate the occurrence probabilities of the individual chain of
events on a branch of the impact tree;
• Sum up the product of the probability that the event on the
branch occur and the total impact score obtained with the help of
the matrix procedure.
 Network Method
Cont..
Consider ‘A’ as a project activity. ‘A’ causes two primary impacts from which further
impacts are caused as seen in figure.

Project Primary Secondary Tertiary

Activity Impacts Impacts Impacts

A1.1.1
A1 A1.1
A1.1.2
A1
A2.1
A2

A2.2 A2.2.1

There are 4 impact branches in this figure

A1 A1.1 A1.1.1
A1 A1.1 A1.1.2
A2 A2.1
A2 A2.2 A2.2.1