An Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is an evaluation of the possible effect a given plan, project or policy proposal could have on the environment. They are used primarily by public bodies and governments in order to make well informed decisions on whether a project should go forward.
An EIA is a way of ensuring that the environment enters into the cost/benefit analysis of a proposal in the same way economic considerations do. An EIA may approve a plan, recommend that it be amended in some way, or even may suggest it be abandoned altogether if the projected environmental impact is too great to be justified.
In the United Kingdom and Canada, EIAs have become a statutory requirement for planning decisions across many sectors.
The importance of consultations in Environmental Impact Assessments
As one would expect, a thorough Environment Impact Assessment involves a great deal of input from experts and regulators. Technical assessments of habitats, in-depth reporting on pollution levels and ongoing monitoring of various bio-markers form the largest part of an EIA. When conducting an assessment, local governments must reach out to a wide range of bodies in order to ensure a comprehensive analysis has been completed.
However, another important part of running a compliant EIA is consultation. In the UK, it is explicitly stated that:
“The aim of Environmental Impact Assessment is also to ensure that the public are given early and effective opportunities to participate in the decision making procedures.”
– UK Government Environmental Impact Assessment Guidance.
By conducting consultations as part of an EIA, decision-makers ensure two things above all. First, that they aren’t missing any key information that local knowledge alone could clarify. Communities often have a detailed understanding about nearby areas, relevant ecosystems, flooding patterns and pollution issues that may not be fully captured through data alone.
While environmental experts may do their best to give a thorough assessment, it is difficult to develop the same understanding of an area that one gains by walking through it everyday. For example, the local population may be aware of the location of the nests of specific species or the growth patterns of specific flora. This deeper understanding can significantly improve outcomes and more comprehensively protect the environment.
The second benefit of conducting a consultation is to give an EIA proper legitimacy. Developments subject to an EIA are almost always large in scale and contentious, including new infrastructure projects and major housing developments. If these decisions are perceived to be happening behind closed doors, this can quickly undermine public confidence. Meaningful consultation helps demonstrate that environmental concerns have been heard and considered as an important part of the decision-making process.
Legal frameworks for EIA consultations
The legal frameworks that govern environmental assessment consultations vary significantly by country and region. However, most share some common principles and requirements, such as:
- Providing eligible participants with access to all pertinent background information.
- Ensuring engagement happens early in the assessment process.
- Making sure the EIA is fully taken into account during the planning stage, not completed after it is a “done deal”.
If EIA consultations do not properly adhere to these principles, this can lead to delays, legal challenges, and the need to repeat the consultation or even EIA as a whole. Compliance is therefore essential to facilitators running environmental assessments.
Environmental Impact Assessments in the United Kingdom
In the UK, an EIA is only required for large projects that exceed a certain scale and potential for environmental impact. In order to decide whether an EIA is necessary, projects undergo a screening process that is set out in schedule 1 and 2 of The Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2017. This provides developers and local authorities with the types of projects and thresholds that a given proposal must meet in order for an EIA to become a legal obligation.
When it is determined whether an EIA is necessary, the next stage is to “scope” the project. This is where the environmental impacts that need to be specifically considered in the assessment are decided. For example, a large housing development on a floodplain may have to assess the impact on local waterways and the wildlife of those waterways. A motorway passing through an established woodland may need to consider the polluting effect of tree removals alongside a loss of biodiversity in the area.
An important note here is that these stages – both screening and scoping – are not required to undergo a public consultation. However, they must be publicly available information. It is often useful for an applicant to conduct some consultation with relevant stakeholders at this stage, in order to prevent future delays if the scope is not appropriate.
When the parameters of the EIA are established, a report called an Environmental Statement must be published alongside the planning application. This must be prepared by qualified experts, usually with accreditations from relevant bodies like the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management. At this stage, the statement must receive a public consultation and also engage statutory consultees like Natural England.
The time to develop an EIA – including undertaking a public consultation – is at least 16 weeks. Complex cases can sometimes take longer, however. In this time, the consultation must adhere to all the requirements of any statutory consultation in the UK. In particular, an EIA must ensure that all relevant contextual information is provided within the environmental statement and supporting documents.
Impact Assessments in Canada
In Canada, EIA’s sit under the broader legislation of the Impact Assessment Act 2019. This legislation covers not only environmental assessment, but also the “positive and negative environmental, economic, health, and social effects of proposed projects”. It also specifically outlines a requirement to assess the impact of proposals on the indigenous population.
There are various provincial bodies within Canada that have responsibility for environmental protection, like British Columbia’s Environmental Assessment Office or Quebec’s BAPE. However, impact assessments are not carried out by provincial or Local Planning Authorities alone, but rather alongside the national-level Impact Assessment Agency of Canada (IAAC).
The Impact Assessment Act contains statutory duties to consult that apply throughout the environmental assessment process. During the planning phase, the IAAC must offer to consult with any jurisdiction that has a say or a stake in relation to the assessment. This provision includes the public, who must be provided with meaningful opportunities to participate throughout the process. Particularly during the planning phase, the Agency must invite citizens to comment on a proposal including whether an impact assessment is required.
Public consultation is also required during the impact assessment itself, including opportunities to comment on official statements, reports, and sometimes participate in public hearings. These public consultation requirements are statutory and operate alongside the Act’s distinct consultation obligations towards indigenous groups.
Environmental assessments in the European Union
Environmental assessments in the EU vary between member states. However, all EU members must adhere to the EU’s Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Directive. This states that major developments – particularly new motorways, railway lines, and energy generation projects – must be assessed for their environmental impact.
For less major developments, such as housing developments or new industrial works, it is up to the individual state to judge whether an EIA is required.
Where an EIA is required under EU legislation, the state must follow the standard requirements of a statutory consultation. As stated in the legislation, “The results of consultations and information gathered must be taken into consideration in the development consent procedure.”
Where a proposal is likely to affect a neighboring state, the applicant must both share EIA information and conduct a separate consultation in that state.
Challenges in EIA consultations
EIA consultations have various challenges, many of which are context specific. However, there are some common challenges that arise when consulting on environmental risk:
- Contextual information can be highly technical and therefore difficult to make accessible to the public.
- They can be highly resource-intensive for facilitators, involving large volumes of responses, and multiple consultation stages. Legal requirements around data handling and reporting back can all add to administrative burden.
- Projects that require EIAs are often highly controversial, commonly resulting in a lot of negative responses from the public that can sometimes become antagonistic.
- It can be difficult to demonstrate how consultation input has been used, particularly in circumstances where there is low trust between the public and planning authority.
These issues mean it is rare for consulting on a large infrastructure project to be straightforward. However, there are ways the process can be made easier.
Using citizen engagement software for EIA consultations
Although a large scale and sometimes controversial public consultation will always involve a great deal of work, the existence of specialised GovTech tools have considerably reduced the burden for those facilitating them.
Conducting consultations online
The most obvious benefit to citizen engagement software is the ability to consult all affected parties on a single, online platform. Purpose-built engagement platforms like Citizen Space allow all supporting documents and contextual information to be uploaded in the same place. Surveys and other consultation methods are then also conducted on the platform, making it easier for the public to access and understand. This is particularly important in an environmental assessment, where there is usually a lot of documentation that must be made available.
Using Citizen Space ensures that the consultation will adhere to all legal requirements around accessibility, as well as giving facilitators the ability to go above and beyond with metrics like demographic tracking and the ability to monitor responses throughout. In countries like Canada – where there are statutory duties to consult specific underrepresented populations – this is a vital resource.
Using geospatial tools
Often extremely useful to environmental assessments, geospatial tools have significantly improved the ability of ordinary citizens to both provide and receive information about their surroundings. Using GIS data, Citizen Space Geospatial allows participants to view the affected area spatially. It also can be used to allow participants to map specific areas themselves, such as marking particular animal habitats or areas prone to flooding.
Feedback and building trust
Once a consultation has been completed, and the Environmental Impact Assessment is ready to publish, citizen engagement platforms can and should be used to provide feedback.
This is not simply publishing the results, but also showing how public input influenced the assessment. If a particular issue was common, this should be flagged and responded to by the relevant planning authority on how this is likely to be addressed or mitigated. Mitigation is one of the most common results of an issue flagged in an EIA. Having what mitigation will be implemented and why in an accessible format can show that a given issue has not been ignored.
Providing feedback is essential to building trust with the community. Before digital platforms simplified ongoing interaction with respondents, feedback was often deprioritised or ignored altogether. Now, digital platforms can be used to show transparency in what should be a process that everyone can understand and participate in.
Citizen Space is the go-to govtech platform for engaging with citizens, managing environmental assessment consultations and simplifying statutory processes. If you’d like to learn more about how our software can be used to support regulatory compliance in statutory consultations, book a free demo today.
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