EIA-Learning from Experience: Changes in the Quality of Environmental Impact Statements for UK Planning Projects

This paper draws on a research report recently produced (1996) by the authors for the UK Department of the Environment. The principal aim of the research was to establish clearly what changes, if any, there have been in the quality of Environmental Impact Statements (EISs) since the inception of mandatory EIA in 1988, and to explain reasons for the changes. The paper provides a critique of the meaning of 'quality' in an area such as this. Quality relates both to the EIS and to the EIA process. EIS quality can be assessed against various review frameworks in a structured and systematic way; quality can also be assessed according to the perspective of the individual participant in the EIA process. The findings of both macro and micro studies of quality are discussed. The macro study uses a range of review frameworks (minimum regulatory requirements, an EU framework, and comprehensive frameworks developed by EIA academics at UK universities, including Oxford Brookes University) for a large sample of EISs. The micro study uses a structured questionnaire of the participants (local planning officers, developers, consultants and others) involved in a smaller set of detailed case studies. The findings reveal that there has been a learning from experience and an improvementin quality, but they also highlight a number of problems in the EIA process. The paper outlines some of the determinants of the changes in quality, and concludes with recommendations for developments in EIA in response to particular issues raised. These recommendations are set in the context of European Commission amendments to the EC EIA Directive.     

EIA application in China's expressway infrastructure: clarifying the decision-making hierarchy

China's EIA Law came into effect in 2003 and formally requires road transport infrastructure development actions to be subject to Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). EIAs (including project EIA and plan EIA, or strategic environmental impact assessment, SEA) have been being widely applied in the expressway infrastructure planning field. Among those applications, SEA is applied to provincial level expressway network (PLEI) plans, and project EIA is applied to expressway infrastructure development 'projects' under PLEI plans. Three case studies (one expressway project EIA and two PLEI plan SEAs) were examined to understand currently how EIAs are applied to expressway infrastructure development planning. Through the studies, a number of problems that significantly influence the quality of EIA application in the field were identified. The reasons causing those problems are analyzed and possible solutions are suggested aimed at enhancing EIA practice, helping deliver better decision-making and ultimately improving the environmental performance of expressway infrastructure.     

Using Land-use Planning to Manage Transport Demand: a survey of Scottish experience

Recent concerns surrounding the growth of mobility and associated increases in journey length and number of motorised journeys for an increasingly diverse pattern of trips have placed demands on the planning system in terms of the need to consider the land use-transport interaction. This paper first provides a review of relevant national planning policy in Scotland in particular. It then goes on to report findings from a recent survey which highlights the attitudes held by Scottish planning professionals to managing transport demand through land-use planning. The paper outlines the trade-offs encountered in practice between competing policy objectives. In Scotland there is no planning guidance equivalent to Planning Policy Guidance Note 13, which applies to England and Wales, around which there has been much debate on its impact on development control decisions and planning strategy. Draft guidance for Scotland was produced in 1996 for consultation and again in 1998, but at the time of writing has yet to be finalised. The findings from this study are timely in that they enable an assessment of the extent to which the planning system is being used to manage transport demand. Recent local government reorganisation in Scotland has resulted in significant changes to ways in which strategic planning and development control policy are likely to proceed. The paper focuses on the extent to which local authority policy emphasises the need to reduce travel through planning.     

Leadership in sustainability planning: propagating visions through empathic communication

Despite their lack of decision-making power, planners frequently prevail in advancing strong sustainability agendas. A review of leadership and planning literature suggests that they employ collaborative practice. Using an ethnographic methodology that draws from the stories and actions of six planners with sustainability mandates, supplemented with a survey of their staff and colleagues, this research examines how they do it. Findings suggest that despite variety in their organisational contexts, the planners relied on strong visions and on forging and maintaining relationships to set and implement sustainability mandates. The planners deployed participative and collaborative values selectively in support of their mandates.     

产业园区规划环评工作亟须解决的若干问题及对策建议

本文从应开展规划环境影响评价工作的产业园区类型和规划类型、园区扩区后的规划环评范围、规划环评审查主体和审查权限、规划环评主体责任，以及规划环评与“三线一单”和项目环评联动等方面，系统梳理了当前园区规划环评实际工作中面临的问题和困惑，并分析了这些问题和对园区规划环评工作造成的影响。结合当前规划环评面临的形势和要求，针对当前规划环评管理存在的问题，从管理要求、技术要求和衔接要求等方面逐一提出了相关的对策建议。为推进解决当前规划环评工作面临的主要问题，提出了做实园区规划和规划环评工作、细化园区规划环评相关要求、动态调整“三线一单”成果三个方面的建议。     

Using Land-use Planning to Manage Transport Demand: A survey of Scottish experience

Recent concerns surrounding the growth of mobility and associated increases in journey length and number of motorised journeys for an increasingly diverse pattern of trips have placed demands on the planning system in terms of the need to consider the land use-transport interaction. This paper first provides a review of relevant national planning policy in Scotland in particular. It then goes on to report findings from a recent survey which highlights the attitudes held by Scottish planning professionals to managing transport demand through land-use planning. The paper outlines the trade-offs encountered in practice between competing policy objectives. In Scotland there is no planning guidance equivalent to Planning Policy Guidance Note 13, which applies to England and Wales, around which there has been much debate on its impact on development control decisions and planning strategy. Draft guidance for Scotland was produced in 1996 for consultation and again in 1998, but at the time of writing has yet to be finalised. The findings from this study are timely in that they enable an assessment of the extent to which the planning system is being used to manage transport demand. Recent local government reorganisation in Scotland has resulted in significant changes to ways in which strategic planning and development control policy are likely to proceed. The paper focuses on the extent to which local authority policy emphasises the need to reduce travel through planning.     

Discretionary Judgement in Local Planning Authority Decision Making: Screening Development Proposals for Environmental Impact Assessment

Screening is a critical decision-stage in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process and involves the determination of whether or not a development proposal will require EIA. This decision requires a discretionary judgement on whether the development has the potential to cause ‘significant environmental effects’, and consequently there is potential for diversity to exist in formal requests for EIA. Drawing upon a comprehensive survey of Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) in England and Wales, this paper explores the characteristics of LPA screening decision making since the introduction of revised EIA regulations in March 1999. The paper starts with a theoretical overview of rationality, decision making and planning theory, followed by a brief review of the regulatory context of EIA screening. The research approach is then outlined and the survey findings are presented, including a detailed consideration of organizational and individual level analyses set within the context of planning theory judgement debates. Comparisons with other European countries are briefly made, before drawing conclusions and recommendations.     

Policy design,spatial planning and climate change adaptation: a case study from Australia

There are gaps in the existing climate change adaptation literature concerning the design of spatial planning instruments and the relationship between policy instruments and the sociopolitical barriers to adaptation reform. To help address this gap, this article presents a typology of spatial planning instruments for adaptation and analyses the pattern of instrument choice in Australian planning processes in order to shed light on contextual factors that can impede adaptation. The analysis highlights how policy design can amplify the barriers to adaptation by arranging policy actors in ways inimical to reform and stripping decision makers of the instruments necessary to make and sustain desired policy changes.     

The European Directive on environmental impact assessment: Implementation at last?

Summary The Commission of the European Communities' directive on environmental impact assessment (EIA) finally came into force in July 1988. The main provisions of the Directive are described, together with the objectives it is intended to achieve and the key areas where member state legislation will need to be effective if the principal requirements of the Directive are to be properly implemented. These include adequate coverage of projects, sufficient information in EIA studies, and effective consultation and public participation. Most European countries have some experience with EIA but, as illustrated by the UK Channel Fixed Link reports, the quality of the studies undertaken is very variable. Recommendations are made for improvements in practice through more effective diffusion of best practice, better provision and use of EIA guidance, more focused EIA research, more effective consultation and closer collaboration between the different parties involved in the EIA process, and both quantitative and qualitative improvements in EIA training. The results of a recent survey of European EIA training activity indicate growing interest, but further progress in improving the provision of EIA training is needed before the Directive can be effectively implemented.Drs Christopher Wood and Norman Lee have both been involved on various Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) studies for the European Commission and have written widely on EIA and related topics. Both are Senior Lecturers at the University of Manchester and they are co-Directors of its EIA Centre. Christopher Wood teaches mainly in the Department of Town and County Planning, Norman Lee in the Department of Economics.     

Monitoring and Post-auditing in Environmental Impact Assessment: A Review

Environmental impact assessment (EIA) is a procedure for predicting environmental impacts of projects prior to their development, while post-auditing seeks to assess the accuracy of such predictions. A literature review examines the need for post-auditing, highlighting several benefits to EIA performance that could arise if the results were effectively used. This reveals that, in practice, post-auditing activities are not widespread, and suggests reasons why this is so. An overview of post-audit findings from a survey of published studies is then presented, and it is concluded that there is much scope for raising the profile of post-auditing in EIA world-wide. Preliminary results from a recent UK post-auditing study based on eight projects are described. Information on impact predictions was gathered and compared with actual impacts. A total of 366 impact predictions were made of which 78% were qualitative in nature; 57% of the predictions were auditable and of these nearly three-quarters were accurate. Reasons for inauditability were ascertained including, for all cases, a lack of data or unsuitable information.     

Procedural Integration in Support of Environmental Policy Objectives: Implementing Sustainability

Translating sustainability policy goals into concrete action has proven to be a complex challenge for government agencies, municipalities and businesses. Existing planning and decision-making methods, such as Comprehensive Planning, Environmental Impact Assessment and Environmental Management Systems, are being used to address this focus on sustainability. United States Army policy requires the use of these three procedures by installation planners and managers, providing a unique opportunity for innovation. This paper examines the applicability of these procedures for implementing the Army's sustainable operations policy goals, and explores how the current independent and disconnected implementation can be improved through integration. Included in this analysis is a review of organizational barriers to integrated planning and management. The analysis is applicable outside the Army as these three decision-making procedures are used in many contexts, and installation management shares many characteristics with local government land use planning, federal land management, and corporate business operations.     

Guatemala strives for environmental and economic sustainability in the Rio Dulce region

Conditions in Guatemala's Rio Dulce National Park (RDNP) present an immediate decision-making challenge concerning the reversal of current destructive environmental trends, and in establishing policies for restoration, protection, and sustainable use. This article summarises results of environmental assessment activities undertaken at three levels: an environmental impact assessment (EIA) of a proposed industrial forestry activity, an environmental assessment of management options for the Rio Dulce National Park, and water management planning for the Rio Dulce/Lago Izabal watershed. A key result of the EIA was to prohibit construction of a barge terminal within the boundaries of the park because it could set a precedent for future development. Management options for the park focused on establishing land-use controls, dealing with river transport more effectively, and identifying funding mechanisms to implement solutions. At the watershed scale, a strategic approach was recommended to identify priority issues for initiating change toward sustainability in the region.     

Planning for the Human Dimensions of Oil Spills and Spill Response

Oil spill contingency planners need an improved approach to understanding and planning for the human dimensions of oil spills. Drawing on existing literature in social impact assessment, natural hazards, human ecology, adaptive management, global change and sustainability, we develop an integrative approach to understanding and portraying the human dimensions impacts of stressors associated with oil spill events. Our approach is based on three fundamental conclusions that are drawn from this literature review. First, it is productive to acknowledge that, while stressors can produce human impacts directly, they mainly affect intermediary processes and changes to these processes produce human impacts. Second, causal chain modeling taken from hazard management literature provides a means to document how oil spill stressors change processes and produce human impacts. Third, concepts from the global change literature on vulnerability enrich causal models in ways that make more obvious how management interventions lessen hazards and mitigate associated harm. Using examples from recent spill events, we illustrate how these conclusions can be used to diagrammatically portray the human dimensions of oil spills.     

Local 'Barriers' to Environmentally Sustainable Transport Planning

Rapid changes are occurring in the rhetoric and practice of transport planning in the UK. Driven by ever increasing road congestion and growing awareness of the impact of road transport on the environment, a consensus is said to be emerging over the implementation of a new approach to UK transport planning centred on managing the demand for road travel rather than catering for it. This paper explores the depth and breadth of the penetration of this new consensus in relation to policy making in central government and in three local case-study areas. The paper charts the factors that have shifted transport policy direction and are contributing to and inhibiting the adoption of a new demand management approach. It concludes by stating that whilst definitive shifts in transport-planning rhetoric and practice have occurred in recent times, shifts toward demand management have been slow due in particular to local cultural and political difficulties. These persist in many localities and in similar policy areas and an awareness of these is useful in highlighting difficulties in the adoption of environmental sustainability agendas in other policy fields.     

An approach to integrate impact scoping with environmental impact assessment

Impact scoping is the process of identifying important issues of a proposal and focusing the environmental impact assessment (EIA) on the high-priority issues. Although impact scoping in one form or another has been inherent to EIA for some time, documentation of its development and discussion of refinements to impact scoping processes have not been forthcoming. This article traces the development of impact scoping through time and highlights the need for such processes in EIA. A focused environmental assessment (FEA) approach to impact scoping that is suitable for implementation in an EIA is presented here and advantages of its use are delineated. FEA is a three-staged process that encourages impact scoping through progressive steps including impact identification, assessment and management planning. FEA combines a suite of EIA methods including: issues matrices, impact hypotheses, valued ecosystem components, and stakeholder participation sessions to effectively integrate impact scoping with EIA.     

PROFILE: Integrating Sustainability and Environmental Impact Assessment

/ Environmental impact assessment (EIA) has been identified as an important instrument for facilitating sustainability. However, to do so requires the integration of sustainability into EIA theory and practice. The sustainability concept is a valid and important environmental management perspective. However, many issues and obstacles need to be addressed further if the concept is to be translated into practical strategies. Sustainability can potentially infuse EIA with a clearer sense of direction, an ethical foundation, a mechanism for establishing priorities and assessing choices, and a means of linking EIA to other environmental management instruments. Conceptually, EIA and sustainability can be integrated, but frameworks should be refined, adpated to context, and linked to related initiatives. Sustainability should be explicitly incorporated into EIA legislation, guidelines, and institutional arrangements. An experimental approach to testing, assessing, and sharing experiences is suggested.A framework is first presented that defines and characterizes the sustainability concept. A further framework is then described for integrating sustainability into EIA at the conceptual level. The integration of sustainability and EIA at the regulatory level is next addressed through an overview of sustainability initiatives in EIA requirements in Canada. The Canadian examples include many promising initiatives but these and other experiences will need to be monitored, shared, and integrated into comprehensive environmental management strategies. Finally, means of incorporating sustainability into each activity in the EIA planning process are identified.KEY WORDS: Sustainability; Environmental impact assessment     

Local 'Barriers' to Environmentally Sustainable Transport Planning

Rapid changes are occurring in the rhetoric and practice of transport planning in the UK. Driven by ever increasing road congestion and growing awareness of the impact of road transport on the environment, a consensus is said to be emerging over the implementation of a new approach to UK transport planning centred on managing the demand for road travel rather than catering for it. This paper explores the depth and breadth of the penetration of this new consensus in relation to policy making in central government and in three local case-study areas. The paper charts the factors that have shifted transport policy direction and are contributing to and inhibiting the adoption of a new demand management approach. It concludes by stating that whilst definitive shifts in transport-planning rhetoric and practice have occurred in recent times, shifts toward demand management have been slow due in particular to local cultural and political difficulties. These persist in many localities and in similar policy areas and an awareness of these is useful in highlighting difficulties in the adoption of environmental sustainability agendas in other policy fields.     

Barriers and guidelines for public policies on climate change adaptation: A missed opportunity of scientific knowledge‐brokerage

Progress in formulating and implementing effective adaptation policies is often hampered by a wide variety of barriers that are well documented in the literature. Among the barriers are lack of awareness, certainty, resources and political commitment. Since these and other barriers can be overcome (e.g., by raising awareness, closing knowledge gaps, and increasing resources), numerous decision‐support frameworks (mainly written guidelines) have been developed for this purpose. The present paper takes stock of both the barriers in adaptation policymaking, as documented in the literature, and the guidelines that aim to facilitate public policies on climate change adaptation. It then compares to what degree selected adaptation guidelines serve as knowledge‐brokerage tools that provide guidance on how to overcome the barriers addressed in the scientific literature. The comparison shows that adaptation guidelines address barriers of adaptation policymaking neither comprehensively nor systematically. Since most adaptation guidelines focus on (subjective) experiences with good practices than on empirical research findings, we conclude that they represent a missed opportunity of scientific knowledge‐brokerage in climate change adaptation.     

From Poole to Fulham: A Changing Culture in UK Environmental Impact Assessment Decision Making?

This paper examines the role of environmental impact assessment (EIA) in project authorization decision making and the way in which the courts have interpreted its role. The purpose of the paper is to establish whether or not that role has changed over the period between the introduction of EIA in 1988 and 2001. From the evidence reported here, it is argued that while the procedural stages of EIA have been very much strengthened over that period, the importance of EIA as a tool to aid planning authorization decision making remains largely peripheral.     

论综合型休闲娱乐场所环境影响评价的工作重点

娱乐及餐饮业近年来发展迅速，开展这类项目的环境影响评价工作首先应确保其环保审批手续的前置性。环评单位应在项目筹划初期介入，工作中应以项目合理选址和提出具有可操作性的污染防治措施这两个侧重面开展工作，作出准确的评价结论，给出可行的污染防治措施及方案。只有这样，才能编制出较为完善的环境影响评价文件，才能达到预防或减轻不良环境影响的最终目的。