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Environmental Impact
Assessment
Course Code: (WRIE-5146)
Credit Hour:2
Instructor: Tsigabu

Outline and Course Objectives
 Course Objectives:
 Learning objectives can be formulated as:
 The objective of the course is to present the
philosophy and methodology used to assess
environmental impacts of water resources
development and to present methods to integrate
the EIA and water resources planning processes

Outline and Course Objectives
 Course Outline:
 INTRODUCTION
 THE EIA PROCESS
 ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT
TECHNIQUES
 SOCIAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT
 MAJOR IMPACTS OF WATER RESOURCES
DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS

Introduction
 Definitions: EIA may be defined as:
 A formal process to predict the environmental
consequences of human development activities and to plan
appropriate measures to eliminate or reduce adverse
effects and to augment positive effects. (FAO definition)
 A process used to identify and predict the impact on the
environment and on man's health and well
being of
legislative proposals, policies, programs, projects and
operational procedures, and to interpret and communicate
information about the impacts. (Munn,1979)

Introduction
 A technique and a process by which information
about the environmental effects of a project is
collected, both by the developer and from other
sources, and taken into account by the planning
authority in forming their judgments on whether
the development should go ahead. (UK DoE,1989)
 Based on the above definitions, one can observe
that EIA has three basic functions:
• To predict problems,
• To find ways to avoid them, and
• To enhance positive effects.

Introduction
 In an updated view, EIA is understood as an
integrated part of the planning process devoted
to the identification, quantification and
qualification of environmental impacts due to the
development of a pan or a project as well as the
definition of policies and strategies required to
monitor and control such impacts.
As a planning tool, EIA serves
largely to inform interested parties of the likely
environmental impacts
of a project and its proposed alternatives.

Introduction
EIA=
SCIENCE+ART
AS A SCIENCE
has to do with
the methodologies and
techniques for
identifying, predicting and
evaluating the environmental
impacts associated
with particular
development actions.
AS AN ART
has to do with those
mechanisms for ensuring an
environmental analysis of such
actions and influencing
the decision making process.

Introduction
 The terms ‘impact’ and ‘effect’ are
frequently used synonymously.
have both spatial and temporal components
and can be described as the change in the
environmental parameter, over a specified
period and within a defined area, resulting from
a particular activity compared with the
situation which would have
occurred, had the activity not been initiated.

Environmental
parameters
time
Project initiated
ENVIRONMENTAL impact
Without project
With project

Introduction
 Evolution of EIA:
 Initial Belief:
 Initially EIA was seen by some project promoters as a constraint to
development but this view is gradually disappearing.
 Present day understanding:
 environment and development are complementary and
interdependent and EIA is a technique for ensuring that the two
are mutually reinforcing.
 Origin:
 the contemporary usage of “environmental impact assessment”
has its origins in the US National Policy act of 1969 (NEPA)
 Cause of Law Enforcement:
 the wide spread recognition that some environmental problems in
the US resulted from actions by the US government itself.

Introduction
 The most widely known of the law enforcement provisions:
 “All agencies of the federal government shall include in every
recommendation and report on proposals for legislations and
other major federal actions significantly affecting the quality of
human environment, a detailed statement by the responsible
official.”
 This detailed statement comes to be called as an
‘environmental impact statement (EIS)
 Power of an EIA recommendation:
 Redesigning some project components
 Suggest change affecting project viability
 Causing delay in project implementation

Introduction
EIA Procedure’s
Sub-reports
Initial Environmental
Examination
(IEE)
Assessment
(EIA)
•Used for project screening to determine
Which project requires a full scale EIA
•Assess the potential environmental effects
of a proposed project
•Is done with in a very limited budget
Statement
EIS

Introduction
 Purpose and objectives of EIA
 From World Bank Guidelines the main purposes of EIA are as follows:
 Identify and forecast the possible positive and negative impacts to
the environment resulting from a proposed project.
 Provide for a plan, which up on implementation will reduce the
negative impacts of the project resulting in acceptable
environmental changes.
 Assure the level of plan implementation and the degree of
effectiveness of the above environmental protection provisions.
 it provides a systematic examination of the environmental
implications of a proposed action, and sometimes
alternatives, before a decision is taken.
 Underlying such purposes is of course the central role
of EIA as one of the instruments to be used to achieve
sustainable development: development that does
not cost the Earth!

Introduction
 Significance of EIA:
 EIA as a means to:
 To protect and improve the environmental
quality of life
 to discover and evaluate the effects of activities
of humans on the environment- natural and
social.
 EIA does not make decisions, but its findings
should be considered in policy and decision
making and should be reflected in final choices.

introduction
 Projects, Environment and Impact
project
Location
and physical
Presence of
The project
Environment The consequence
Of environmental
Effects of a
project which
Are of significance
To human society
impacts

Introduction
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

Definitions of
Commonly used Terms
 Environmental system:
 A system centered on a defined human community at a certain
time, composed of physical, biological and socio-economic
factors and their multiple links.
 Environmental Effects:
 Changes of environmental factors due to the implementation of
a project
 Environmental impact:
 The consequence of environmental effects of a project which
are of significance to human society.
 Impacts are always measured as a difference between situations
with and without the project.
 Parameters used to quantify impacts are related to
 Magnitude/intensity
 Area of influence
 significance

Definitions of
Commonly used Terms
 Environmental Impact Analysis (EIA):
 a process for identifying the likely consequences for the
biogeophysical environment and for human’s health and
welfare of implementing particular activities and for
conveying this information, at a stage where it can
materially affect their decision, to those responsible for
sanctioning the proposals
 Environmental Impact Statement (EIS):
 The report outcome of an EIA analysis
 Environmental Prevention:
 Maintaining a certain environmental system unaffected by
changes due to human action and activities.

Definitions of
Commonly used Terms
 Environmental conservation:
 Planned changes of the environmental system by human action,
carried out in such a way as to achieve sustainability.
 Environmental Impact Mitigation:
 Measures to control adverse impacts.
 Mitigation involves one or more of the following:
 Minimizing adverse effects by scaling down or
redesigning projects. (e.g. adding fish ladder to
allow fish to reach spawning ground upstream of a
proposed dam)
 Repairing, rehabilitating, or restoring those parts of
the environment that are adversely affected by a
project. (e.g replanting native vegetation in area
cleared for pipeline installation)

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Environmental impact assessmnet Chapter 1

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