Identifying and Evaluating Impacts - Mining and the Environment: From Ore to Metal - page 414

checklists exist for certain project types, commonly modii ed to rel ect project or site-
specii c characteristics.
Checklists record important issues, particularly useful for the initial scoping effort. The
simplest form is arguably the one with project-specii c questions. One must be careful of ' yes '
or ' no ' questionnaire-type checklists, which discourage thinking and provide a false sense
of assessment. Open questions such as ' to what extent? ', ' under what conditions? ' or ' in what
way ?' are preferable. Checklists are often structured according to potential environmental
issues, but they can also be designed to capture impacts during various project phases.
Regardless of their structure, checklists do serve as a good starting point for impact
assessment, providing a simple way to identify where impacts are likely to occur.
Checklists also help to focus on critical environmental issues, and to create an increased
awareness of potential environmental impacts of mine development.
The main disadvantage of generic checklists is that important site-specii c factors may be
omitted. They may be incomplete in their coverage, omitting important effects, or too broad
in their coverage, making them difi cult to manage. Checklists may also provide little help in
quantifying impact signii cance. They tend to compartmentalize the environment, without
regard for nature's complexity or the particular attributes of the subject project.

Regardless of their structure,
checklists do serve as a good
starting point for impact
assessment, providing a simple
way to identify where impacts
are likely to occur.

Consultation

Consultation with people that are directly or indirectly affected by the proposed mine
development is particularly useful in determining their views and concerns. It also assists
in dei ning the scope of impact assessment and identifying how and where impacts may
occur, and who will be impacted. Because of this, consultation is often used at the scoping
stage; however, it should be maintained throughout the project life. While consultation
may identify other activities that can impact on the project, it is not always feasible during
the early stages of a project when coni dentiality may be an issue.
Consultation should be designed to provide answers to questions such as: What are sen-
sitive resources/environmental receptors in the project area? What is the threshold beyond
which there will be signii cant environmental impacts for a particular environmental com-
ponent? What activities (past, present or future) may inl uence project impacts? Are there
community members who are particularly disadvantaged by the project? Who will be
unlikely to cope with the project's impacts?
It is necessary to consider carefully which respondents would be helpful in providing
meaningful answers to the questions above. Questionnaires, which are particularly useful
in obtaining socio-cultural and socio-economic information, should be designed to gen-
erate data suitable for use in the assessment. Practice shows, unfortunately, that while
impressive quantitative socio-economic data are often collected, little, if any, subsequent
interpretative analysis is carried out.

Practice shows, unfortunately,
that while impressive quantitative
socio-economic data are
often collected, little, if any,
subsequent interpretative
analysis is carried out.

Matrices

In the context of evaluating environmental impacts, the term 'matrix' refers to a style of
presentation rather than any mathematical implication. Matrices relate project activities to
environmental components so that their intersection can be used to indicate a possible effect.
Matrices are somewhat similar to checklists but present information in a tabular format, or
a two-dimensional checklist. Matrices may vary according to the type and detail of infor-
mation required, but all matrices are designed to present potential impacts in response to
project activities.