Environmental Impact Assessment Technology Assessment And Risk Analysis

This volume is the outcome of a recent NATO Advanced Study Institute (ASI) on "Technology Assessment. Environmental Impact Assessment. and Risk Analysis: Contributions from the Psychological and Decision Sciences." The Institute was held in Les Arcs. France and functioned as a high level teaching activity during which scientific research results were presented in detail by eminent lecturers. Support for the Institute was provided by grants from the NATO Division of Scientific Affairs. the u.S. Office of Naval Research. and the Russell Sage Foundation. The Institute covered several areas of research. including quantitative studies on decision and judgmental processes. studies on human intellectual limitations. studies on risk attitudes and perceptions. studies on factors contributing to conflicts and disputes about hazardous technologies and activities. studies on factors influencing forecasts and judgments by experts. studies on public preferences for decisionmaking processes. studies on public responses to technological hazards. and case studies applying principles and methods from the psychological and decision sciences in specific settings.

The Joint Research Centre of the European Communities, and in particular the Institute for Systems Engineering and Informatics (ISEI) at Ispra, have weil established competences in risk analysis, uncertainty analysis and statistical data treatment. More recently, work on Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), particularly on environmental indicators and indices and on a "system engineering approach" to EIA, has started. This approach attempts to move towards "unified" procedures to investigate normal operation and acciclental risks; these are problems concerned within both the EIA Directive 85/337/EEC and the "Seveso" Directive 821501/EEC. In May 1990, a Workshop on "Indicators and Indices for Environmentallmpact Assessment and Risk Analysis" was organized at the JRC, Ispra. The Proceedings of this Workshop (Report EUR 13060 EN, 1990) are a reference document in the fielet This book is based on the papers presented at the Eurocourse EIAl91 held at the JRC, Ispra in the Autumn of 1991. This was the first course on Environmentaiimpact Assessment given in the JRC's Eurocourse series at Ispra. It was a success because of both the high calibre of the lecturers and the weil informed and numerous participants. The work focuses on the broader aspects of EIA, namely: legislation, indicators and indices, approaches and techniques, economic and sociological implications.

This systematic, critical review of more than 600 recent publications in social impact assessment (SIA) and related fields is based on the authors' belief that SIA is more than an analytical technique--it is also a logical and timely response to our ever-growing need for more and better information to facilitate decision making in an increasingly c

Reporting on recent developments in the field of impact assessment, this volume critically analyzes such key areas of assessment as technology, demography, economy, risk, ecology, health, development and climate. Each area is related back to impact assessment as an overall process.

Offers solutions and best practices to respond to recurrentproblems and contemporary challenges in the field Since the publication of the first edition of EnvironmentalImpact Assessment in 2003, both the practice and theory ofimpact assessment have changed substantially. Not only has thefield been subject to a great deal of new regulations andguidelines, it has also evolved tremendously, with a greateremphasis on strategic environmental, sustainability, and humanhealth impact assessments. Moreover, there is a greater call forimpact assessments from a global perspective. This SecondEdition, now titled Impact Assessment to reflect itsbroader scope and the breadth of these many changes, offersstudents and practitioners a current guide to today's impactassessment practice. Impact Assessment begins with an introduction and then achapter reviewing conventional approaches to the field. Next, thebook is organized around recurrent problems and contemporarychallenges in impact assessment process design and management,enabling readers to quickly find the material they need to solvetough 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 operateat the regulatory and applied levels How each problem can be approached for different impactassessment types—sustainability assessment, strategicenvironmental assessment, project-level EIA, social impactassessment, ecological impact assessment, and health impactassessment How to link and combine impact assessment processes to operatein situations with multiple overlapping problems, challenges, andimpact assessment types How to connect and combine impact assessment processes Each chapter first addresses the topic with current theory andthen demonstrates how that theory is applied, presentingrequirements, guidelines, and best practices. Summaries at the endof each chapter provide a handy tool for structuring the design andevaluation of impact assessment processes and documents. Readerswill find analyses and new case studies that address such issues asmulti-jurisdictional impact assessment, climate change, cumulativeeffects assessment, follow-up, capacity building, interpretingsignificance, and the siting of major industrial and wastefacilities. Reflecting current theory and standards of practice, ImpactAssessment is appropriate for both students and practitionersin the field, enabling them to confidently respond to a myriad ofnew challenges in the field.

Technology and society; Institutionalization of TA/EIA; Basic features of an assessment; Strategies for particular assessments: bounding and techniques; Technology description and forecasting; Social description and forecasting; Impact identification and policy considerations; Impact analysis; Environmental analysis; Economic impact analysis; Analysis of social and psychological impacts; Technological, legal, and institutional/political analyses; Impact evaluation; Policy analysis; Communication of results; Project management; Evaluation of technology assessments and environmental impact statements; Critiques of TA/EIA; Future prospects.

This comprehensive treatment of environmental impact assessment (EIA) provides an authoritative contemporary review of theory and practice over the past ten years. EIA is viewed as both science and art, reflecting the concern both with technical aspects of appraisal and the effects of EIA on the decision-making process. Adopted in many countries, with different degrees of enthusiasm, since its inception in the early 1970's, EIA is established as a major procedure for assessing the environmental implications of legislation, the implementation of policy and plans and the initiation of development projects. EIA is increasingly an essential part of environmental management