Environmental impact assessment

• Jay S et al (2009) Environmental Impact Assessment: Retrospect and Prospect. Environmental Impact Assessment Review. 27:287-300.

ABSTRACT: “The widespread experience of environmental impact assessment (EIA) as an anticipatory environmental management tool has generated a considerable debate over the extent to which it is achieving its purposes. This has been measured in terms of EIA ‘effectiveness’, especially as discussion has moved away from issues of procedural implementation, to the more substantive goals of EIA and its place within broader decision-making contexts. Empirical studies have revealed the relatively weak degree of influence on planning decisions that is being exerted by EIA, which is increasingly being attributed to its rationalist beginnings. This article seeks to direct this debate towards the founding political purposes of EIA which, it is argued, provide a neglected, yet strong, basis for EIA reform. A number of illustrative suggestions are made as a result of this redirection, to enable EIA to adopt a more determinative role in decision making and to contribute to more sustainable patterns of development planning.” 

• Report from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament under Article 12(3) of Directive 2001/42/EC On the assessment of the effects of certain plans and programs on the environment.

ABSTRACT: “This second implementation report on Directive 2001/42/EC on the assessment of the effects of certain plans and programmes on the environment (‘Strategic Environmental Assessment Directive’, or ‘SEAD’) presents the experience gained in applying the SEAD between 2007 and 2014…. The SEAD implements the principle of environmental integration and protection laid down in Articles 11 and 191 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. It provides for a high level of protection of the environment and helps integrate environmental considerations into the preparation and adoption of certain plans and programmes. To this end, the Directive requires an environmental assessment of plans and programmes which are likely to have significant effects on the environment. The SEAD does not lay down any measurable environmental standards. It is essentially a process directive, which establishes certain steps that Member States must follow when identifying and assessing environmental effects. The strategic environmental assessment (SEA) process is about helping policy makers take well-informed decisions, based on objective information and the results of consultation with the public/stakeholders and relevant authorities.”