Environmental Impact Assessment

Chapter 3: Methodology of EIA

December 1997 EIA for Developing Countries

3.0 Methods for Environmental Impact Assessment
Changes in the practice of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and advances in information technology have greatly expanded the range of tools available to the EIA practitioner. For example, map overlay methods, originally pioneered by McHarg (1971), have evolved into sophisticated Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Expert systems, a branch of artificial intelligence, have been developed to help in screening, scoping, developing terms of reference (TOR), and conducting preliminary assessments. These systems use comprehensive checklists, matrices, and networks in combination with hundreds of impact rules developed by EIA experts. The global embrace of sustainable development has made the analysis of costs and benefits an integral part of EIA. This has forced the expansion of factors to be considered in traditional cost benefit analysis. The following chapters describe some of these more specialized approaches and methods that have evolved to meet the changing needs of EIA: 1) predictive methods (Chapter 4); 2) environmental risk assessment (Chapter 5); 3) economic analysis (Chapter 6); and expert systems (Chapter 8). This chapter describes some of the simplest techniques and methods for EIA, and gives information to help choose the most appropriate method for a given situation. Ad hoc methods (section 3.1) are useful when time constraints and lack of information require that the EIA must rely exclusively on expert opinion. Checklists and matrices (section 3.2) are good tools for organizing and presenting information. Sectoral guidelines are becoming widely accepted as an appropriate technique for conducting initial environmental analysis. Section 3.3 presents an overview of the sectoral guidelines developed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the World Bank, and the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). The

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