Overview and Initiating the Environmental Impact Analysis and Assessment - Environmental Impact Analysis: Process and Methods - page 106

the environmental impact analysis process to environmental practitioners.
It would be a bit presumptuous to compare environmental analysis practi-
tioners to Watson and Crick. But we can learn from their use of the scientific
method, and this chapter and Chapter 5 present methods for environment
impact analysis and assessment analogous to the scientific method for
understanding and explaining phenomena. Similar to the scientific method,
the focus is on the process and not the specific tests and disciplines that are
so critical to the analyses.
As discussed in Chapter 2, environmental analysis is an interdisciplinary
endeavor requiring numerous and often sophisticated scientific, planning,
and engineering expertise. These two chapters, and in fact this topic, make no
attempt to teach such expertise to the environmental practitioner. Experience
shows that a single topic or academic course cannot make an engineer out of
a planner or an anthropologist out of a hydrologist, nor would it be desirable
to do so. Every practitioner comes to the environmental analysis team with
her or his own expertise, and the goal of this topic is to present methods and
approaches to use and incorporate each discipline into an integrated, produc-
tive, and efficient approach to environmental impact analysis.
This chapter presents the environmental impact analysis process used in
planning and establishing the groundwork for the more technical aspects of
the analysis. Specifically, determining the need for environmental analysis,
developing the scope of the analysis, the alternative consideration approach
and the public outreach program are described in this chapter follow-
ing an overview of impact analysis approaches. The subsequent Chapter 5
addresses approaches to predicting; evaluating; and mitigating environmen-
tal impacts for proposed projects, plans, and policies. The major elements of
the environmental impact analysis process, presented under separate head-
ings in Chapter 5 are existing or baseline condition, impact prediction, and
mitigation.

4.1 Environmental Impact Analysis Approach

Environmental impact analysis has been defined as identifying and under-
standing the environmental consequences of human activities before they
occur (Morgan 2001). This certainly is accurate and is the core of the analy-
sis, but it can be much more. It can be used to formulate “better” projects,
plans, and policies and achieve environmental protection and sustainability.
An effective environmental impact analysis can also be used to develop and
enhance stakeholder support for a proposed action. But before these benefits
can be realized, an effective understanding of the consequences of the activi-
ties must be developed, which is the “meat and potatoes” of environmental
impact analysis.