Impact Assessment Practical Solutions to Recurrent Problems and Contemporary Challenges

by Lawrence, David P.

• ISBN13: 9781118097373
• ISBN10: 1118097378
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2013-10-14
• Publisher: Wiley

Summary

Offers solutions and best practices to respond to recurrent problems and contemporary challenges in the field

Since the publication of the first edition of Environmental Impact Assessment in 2003, both the practice and theory of impact assessment have changed substantially. Not only has the field been subject to a great deal of new regulations and guidelines, it has also evolved tremendously, with a greater emphasis on strategic environmental, sustainability, and human health impact assessments. Moreover, there is a greater call for impact assessments from a global perspective. This Second Edition, now titled Impact Assessment to reflect its broader scope and the breadth of these many changes, offers students and practitioners a current guide to today's impact assessment practice.

Impact Assessment begins with an introduction and then a chapter reviewing conventional approaches to the field. Next, the book is organized around recurrent problems and contemporary challenges in impact assessment process design and management, enabling readers to quickly find the material they need to solve tough problems, including:

• How to make impact assessments more influential, rigorous, rational, substantive, practical, democratic, collaborative, ethical, and adaptive
• How each problem and challenge-reducing process would operate at the regulatory and applied levels
• How each problem can be approached for different impact assessment types—sustainability assessment, strategic environmental assessment, project-level EIA, social impact assessment, ecological impact assessment, and health impact assessment
• How to link and combine impact assessment processes to operate in situations with multiple overlapping problems, challenges, and impact assessment types
• How to connect and combine impact assessment processes

Each chapter first addresses the topic with current theory and then demonstrates how that theory is applied, presenting requirements, guidelines, and best practices. Summaries at the end of each chapter provide a handy tool for structuring the design and evaluation of impact assessment processes and documents. Readers will find analyses and new case studies that address such issues as multi-jurisdictional impact assessment, climate change, cumulative effects assessment, follow-up, capacity building, interpreting significance, and the siting of major industrial and waste facilities.

Reflecting current theory and standards of practice, Impact Assessment is appropriate for both students and practitioners in the field, enabling them to confidently respond to a myriad of new challenges in the field.

Author Biography

DAVID P. LAWRENCE, PhD, is an Impact Assessment Specialist with more than thirty-five years of experience in study design, impact analysis, alternatives evaluation, social impact assessment, cumulative effects assessment, and sustainability. He has undertaken numerous applied impact assessment research studies, published extensively, and taught at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Table of Contents

ACRONYMS

PREFACE

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 Highlights

1.2 A “Not So Hypothetical” Scenario

1.3 The Basics

1.4 A Structure

1.5 A Strategy

1.6 A Road Map

1.7 Summing Up

2. CONVENTIONAL IA PROCESSES

2.1 Highlights

2.2 Defining the Problem and Deciding on a Direction

2.3 Conventional EIA Choices

2.4 Choices for Other IA Types

2.5 SEA Good Practice

2.6 Summing Up

3. HOW TO MAKE IAs MORE INFLUENTIAL

3.1 Highlights

3.2 Insights from Practice

3.3 Defining the Problem and Deciding on a Direction

3.4 Selecting the Most Appropriate Route

3.5 Instituting an Influential IA Process

3.6 Contemporary Challenge – IA Influence – Good Practice Guidance

3.7 Summing Up

4. HOW TO MAKE IAs MORE RIGOROUS

4.1 Highlights

4.2 Insights from Practice

4.3 Defining the Problem and Deciding on a Direction

4.4 Selecting the Most Appropriate Route

4.5 Instituting a Rigorous IA Process

4.6 Contemporary Challenge – Good Practice IA Follow-up

4.7 Summing Up

5. HOW TO MAKE IAs MORE RATIONAL

5.1 Highlights

5.2 Insights from Practice

5.3 Defining the Problem and Deciding on a Direction

5.4 Selecting the Most Appropriate Route

5.5 Instituting a Rational IA Process

5.6 Contemporary Challenge – Siting Locally Unwanted Land Uses    

5.7 Summing Up

6. HOW TO MAKE IAs MORE SUBSTANTIVE

6.1 Highlights

6.2 Insights from Practice

6.3 Defining the Problem and Deciding on a Direction

6.4 Selecting the Most Appropriate Route

6.5 Instituting a Substantive IA Process

6.6 Contemporary Challenge – Horizontal IA Integration

6.7 Summing Up

7. HOW TO MAKE IAs MORE PRACTICAL

7.1 Highlights

7.2 Insights from Practice

7.3 Defining the Problem and Deciding on a Direction

7.4 Selecting the Most Appropriate Route

7.5 Instituting a Practical IA Process

7.6 Contemporary Challenge – Cumulative Effects Assessment

7.7 Summing Up

8. HOW TO MAKE IAs MORE DEMOCRATIC

8.1 Highlights

8.2 Insights from Practice

8.3 Defining the Problem and Deciding on a Direction

8.4 Selecting the Most Appropriate Route

8.5 Instituting a Democratic IA Process

8.6 Contemporary Challenge – Multi-jurisdictional IA

8.7 Summing Up

9. HOW TO MAKE IAs MORE COLLABORATIVE

9.1 Highlights

9.2 Insights from Practice

9.3 Defining the Problem and Deciding on a Direction

9.4 Selecting the Most Appropriate Route

9.5 Instituting a Collaborative IA Process

9.6 Contemporary Challenge – Capacity Building

9.7 Summing Up

10. HOW TO MAKE IAs MORE ETHICAL

10.1 Highlights

10.2 Insights from Practice

10.3 Defining the Problem and Deciding on a Direction

10.4 Selecting the Most Appropriate Route

10.5 Instituting an Ethical IA Process

10.6 Contemporary Challenge – Significance Determination

10.7 Summing Up

11. HOW TO MAKE IAs MORE ADAPTIVE

11.1 Highlights

11.2 Insights from Practice

11.3 Defining the Problem and Deciding on a Direction

11.4 Selecting the Most Appropriate Route

11.5 Instituting an Adaptive IA Process

11.6 Contemporary Challenge – Climate Change

11.7 Summing Up

12. HOW TO CONNECT AND COMBINE IA PROCESSES

12.1 Highlights

12.2 Insights from Practice

12.3 Defining the Problem and Deciding on a Direction

12.4 Composite Regulatory Frameworks

12.5 Recurrent Problems

12.6 IA Types

12.7 Contemporary Challenge – Matching Process and Context

12.8 Contemporary Challenges

12.9 Composite IA Processes

12.10 Limits and Priorities

12.11 Summing Up