Introduction and principles - Introduction to Environmental Impact Assessment - page 16

such projects tend to be regarded as exceptional, requiring special procedures. In the UK,
these procedures have included public inquiries, hybrid bills that have to be passed
through parliament (for example, for the Channel Tunnel) and EIA procedures.
Major projects can also be defined according to type of activity. They include
manufacturing and extractive projects, such as petrochemicals plants, steelworks, mines
and quarries; services projects, such as leisure developments, out-of-town shopping
centres, new settlements and education and health facilities; and utilities and
infrastructure,
Table 1.2 Characteristics of major projects.
• Substantial capital investment
• Cover large areas; employ large numbers (construction and/or operation)
• Complex array of organizational links
• Wide-ranging impacts (geographical and by type)
• Significant environmental impacts
• Require special procedures
• Extractive and primary (including agriculture); services; infrastructure and utilities
• Band, point
such as power stations, roads, reservoirs, pipelines and barrages. An EC study adopted a
further distinction between band and point infrastructures. Point infrastructure would
include, for example, power stations, bridges and harbours; band or linear infrastructure
would include electricity transmission lines, roads and canals (CEC 1982).
A major project also has a planning and development life cycle, including a variety of
stages. It is important to recognize such stages because impacts can vary considerably
between them. The main stages in a project's life cycle are outlined in Figure 1.4. There
may be variations in timing between stages, and internal variations within each stage, but
there is a broadly common sequence of events. In EIA, an important distinction is
between “before the decision” (stages A and B) and “after the decision” (stages C, D and
E). As noted in Section 1.2, the monitoring and auditing of the implementation of a
project following approval are often absent from the EIA process.
Projects are initiated in several ways. Many are responses to market opportunities (e.g.
a holiday village, a subregional shopping centre, a gas-fired power station); others