Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
data; lack of mandatory legal framework requiring HIA; and bias amongst EIA
professionals towards engineering and ecology backgrounds. However, he also concludes
that there are many benefits to be gained from closer integration, in terms of shared
experience, procedures, data and values. With regard to the last, HIA can bring to EIA
'values such as equity, transparent use of evidence and the consideration of differential
impacts of the policy or project on various population subgroups' (Ahmad 2004). The
SEA Directive 2001/42/EC provides an important milestone on the desirable path to a
more integrated approach—a concept which is developed a little further in the following
section.
11.3.6 Integrated environmental assessment
Hopefully such widening of scope will lead to IEA, with decisions based on the extent to
which various biophysical, social and economic impacts can be traded (Figure 11.2). For
example, decision-makers might be unwilling to trade critical biophysical assets (e.g. a
main river system and the quality of water supply) for jobs or lifestyle, but willing to
trade less critical biophysical assets. Integrated environmental assessment or IEA (Bailey
et al. 1996, Davis 1996) differs from traditional EIA in that it is consciously multi-
disciplinary, does not take citizens' participation or the ultimate users of EIA for granted
and recognizes the critical role of complexity and uncertainty in most decisions about the
environment. Hence it tolerates a much broader array of methods and perspectives
(quantitative and qualitative; economic and sociological; computer modelling and oral
testimony) for evaluating and judging alternative courses of action. However, integration
is not without its problems, including limitations on the transferability of assessment
methods (see Project
Figure 11.2 Integrated environmental
assessment.
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