The Importance Of Environmental Impact Assessment

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is a key aspect of many large scale planning applications. It is a technique which is meant to help us understand the potential environmental impacts of major development proposals. Unfortunately as often as not both the process and the outcome of EIA can be complex and confusing leaving local communities unsure as to how a development might affect them. This guide is intended as a broad introduction to the Environmental Impact Assessment .It is an useful aid for decision making based on understanding of the environment implications including social, cultural and aesthetic concerns which could be integrated with the analysis of the project costs and benefits. This exercise should be undertaken early enough

EIA can be made into a useful tool to defend the environmental quality of localities but only if local people feel able to engage with the process effectively.

Key words: screening, scoping, base line data, impact identification, prediction, evaluation, mitigation, EIS preparation

Introduction

The term environmental impact assessment, or variations of it, has come to have a variety of meanings over the last several years (for example, see Rosenberg and others 1981, Bean lands and Duinker 1983, Hirst 1984, Larkin 1984). Here, we adopt the following, simple definition: environmental impact assessment (EIA) is the process of doing predictive studies on a proposed development, and analyzing and evaluating the results of this development .The present era of fast development and growth is aimed at raising the quality of human life by providing greater opportunities for employment, better provisions of basic

Screening

It is done to see whether the project needs an EIA for clearance or not. Further, there are some prohibited areas where generally development projects are not allowed e.g., Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ), DahanuTaluka in Maharashtra, Aravalli range, Reserve forests etc.

Scoping

It involves determination of the extent of EIA required for the project. Depending upon the project, basically two types of ETA may be carried out. When the ETA report is based on a single season data (other than monsoon period), it is called rapid EIA. When the EIA report is based on detailed seasonal data, it is called Comprehensive EIA.

Baseline data It gives a holistic picture of the overall environ¬mental setting of the project location showing any significant environmental items prior to initiation of the action; any potentially critical environmental change and information about the site to the decision makers and reviewers, who might be unfamiliar with the general location of the project