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Environmental impact assessment: Retrospect and prospect

Authors :
Carys Jones
Stephen Jay
Paul Slinn
Christopher Wood
Source :
Environmental Impact Assessment Review. 27:287-300
Publication Year :
2007
Publisher :
Elsevier BV, 2007.

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.

Details

ISSN :
01959255
Volume :
27
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
Environmental Impact Assessment Review
Accession number :
edsair.doi...........d3dcdc90fec05859b408835fb03e8923
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eiar.2006.12.001