Integrated Impact Assessment

An outgrowth of the recognition that the varieties of impact assessment have much in common and that the common elements are a sound basis for an intellectual framework, this book incorporates contributions from leading practitioners of technology, environmental, and social impact assessment. The authors describe integrated impact assessment; addre

General circulation models state that the central United States (and other mid-latitude continental regions) will become warmer and drier as the result of greenhouse warming. On this premise the dustbowl period of the 1930s was selected as an analogue of climate change and its weather records imposed on the Missouri--Iowa--Kansas region to assess how current agriculture, forestry, water resources and energy and the entire regional economy would be affected. The same climate was also imposed on a MINK region forty years into the future, by which time climate change may actually be felt, to assess whether technological and societal change would alter the region's vulnerability to climate change. Another premise of the study was that people would not suffer the impacts of climate change passively, but would use availabe tools to ease the stress. The rising atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide, expected to be the major cause of greenhouse warming, also works to improve plant growth and reduce plant water use. So the effects of this `Co2 fertilization' were also considered in the analysis. The results, some of them surprising, of this first, fully-integrated analysis of climate change impacts and responses are reported in this book.

This book considers the process of impact assessment and shows how and why it needs to be integrated into all stages of development programmes. In-depth case studies are included and show a variety of approaches.

First Published in 1994. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This text shows why we need to develop an integrated approach to health and environmental impact assessment of development projects, and how this might be achieved. Case studies and examples are provided