Identifying and Evaluating Impacts - Mining and the Environment: From Ore to Metal - page 434

TABLE 9.9
Community Analysis - Community impact analysis considers how the mining project will affect people, communities,
institutions, and larger social and economic systems

Social impacts
Relocation
Population characteristics
Community institutions
Community stability and cohesion

Economic impacts
Change in employment
Change in land ownership
Income gain or loss
Secondary business opportunities

Land use and growth
Land use changes
Induced development
Consistency of project with existing regional planning
Shift in location where growth will occur

Public Services Impacts
Education and health systems
Sanitary systems
Police and security
Accessibility
Public utilities

course, are not mutually exclusive. Social change in local population caused by reloca-
tion may also have an effect on the local economy, and vice versa. For example, a mining
project that would result in the displacement of a signii cant number of people would have
more than just social effects. There are also economic effects because relocation will affect
the local labour market and existing sources of household income at the same time.
Community impact analysis is encumbered by a lack of rigorous quantitative analyti-
cal methodologies. There are few clear thresholds, standards, or formulae for identifying
potential community impacts or for evaluating their signii cance. The signii cance of a
potential impact is usually determined by professional judgement on a case by case basis.
Much of the information on communities is considered 'soft data', involving such areas
as people's perceptions, feelings, and attitudes. Soft data typically makes the acceptance of
social analyses more difi cult. Credibility is improved, however, through clear and concise
explanations as to study objectives, methodology, and data sources.
Predictive tools do exist but most, created in the 1970s, are now seldom used because of
their high cost, their questionable validity, and the frequent controversy that surrounds
conclusions drawn from such methodologies (Caltrans 1997). Today's community impact
analyses are context-based, in line with most environmental regulations that increasingly
emphasize signii cance and context. Context implies that project impacts should be viewed
within the framework of what the project locality contains.

Community impact analysis
is encumbered by a lack of
rigorous quantitative analytical
methodologies.

Community impact analyses are
context-based.