Introduction and principles - Introduction to Environmental Impact Assessment - page 2

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Introduction and principles
1.1 Introduction
Over the last three decades there has been a remarkable growth of interest in
environmental issues—in sustainability and the better management of development in
harmony with the environment. Associated with this growth of interest has been the
introduction of new legislation, emanating from national and international sources, such
as the European Commission, that seeks to influence the relationship between
development and the environment. Environmental impact assessment (EIA) is an
important example. EIA legislation was introduced in the USA over 35 years ago. A
European Community (EC) directive in 1985 accelerated its application in EU Member
States and, since its introduction in the UK in 1988, it has been a major growth area for
planning practice. The originally anticipated 20 environmental impact statements (EIS)
per year in the UK have escalated to over 600, and this is only the tip of the iceberg. The
scope of EIA continues to widen and grow.
It is therefore perhaps surprising that the introduction of EIA met with strong
resistance from many quarters, particularly in the UK. Planners argued, with partial
justification, that they were already making such assessments. Many developers saw it as
yet another costly and time-consuming constraint on development, and central
government was also unenthusiastic. Interestingly, initial UK legislation referred to
environmental assessment (EA), leaving out the apparently politically sensitive, negative-
sounding reference to impacts. The scope of the subject continues to evolve. This chapter
therefore introduces EIA as a process, the purposes of this process, types of development,
environment and impacts and current issues in EIA.
1.2 The nature of environmental impact assessment
1.2.1 Definitions
Definitions of EIA abound. They range from the oft-quoted and broad definition of Munn
(1979), which refers to the need “to identify and predict the impact on the environment
and on man's health and well-being of legislative proposals, policies, programmes,
projects and operational procedures, and to interpret and communicate information about
the impacts”, to the narrow UK DoE (1989) operational definition: “The term
'environmental assessment' describes a technique and a process by which information
about the environmental effects of a project is collected, both by the developer and from
other sources, and taken into account by the planning authority in forming their