The Importance Of Environmental Impact Assessments

Introduction

The environment is something being taken for granted and handled as a business instead of being preserved .Environmental Impact Assessments are implemented to distinguish whether activities are merely profitable and destructive or sustainable(Aucamp, 2014). With global summits on environmental problems and how to rectify it, some might say EIA’s came too late to be effective. In this essay we will focus on Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA’s) and why they are crucial in this day and age, as well as what types of EIA’s there are, legislations controlling it and environmental impacts in South Africa that required an EIA.

Environmental Impact Assessment

There are many ways to describe what an EIA is and what it defines. A EIA

IA’s have been implemented to promote the environment during the planning stages of a project. In South Africa EIA’s has become a necessary measure for any project being undertaken(Aucamp, 2010)

The goal of these methods is one of taking socio-economic and the bio-physical environmental factors into thought which in the process of development is a tool of cost benefit analysis and risk assessment (saidi, 2010). EIA’s raise awareness to the affected areas as well as that of the developers and the administrative. In short EIA’s are there to make sure standards are met when protecting the environment as well as not deliberately destroy the environment.

Promoting environmentally friend and cost effective ways

Regulations set by the IEM and EIA are necessary to ensure planners and designers consider all alternatives when working on a project. This will include location , scale and terms of projects design to ensure sustainability. This will ensure the outcome of the projects will be desirable by considering all the alternatives

This is due to it being implemented at local and international levels. The main goal is to use it as a system with a global standard, as the EIA is the only EM tool that has obtained this legal status over the world unlike other assessments. The other is also important but EIA’s easier to enforce due to legislations and guidelines in place. LCA (Life Cycle Assessments) and SEA’s (Strategic Environmental Assessments) are also important in projects but cannot be legally enforced to a higher level. (Aucamp, 2014)

EIA principles

EIA’s would not be effective if they were not governed by a set of principles. The following principles as stated by Saidi (2010):

• “Purposive: EIA seeks to meet its aims of informing decision-making and ensuring an appropriate level of environmental protection and human health. “

• “Focused: EIA seeks to concentrate on signifi cant environmental effects, taking into account the issues that matter."

• “Adaptive: EIA seeks to adjust to the realities, issues and circumstances of the project proposals under review. “

• “Participative: EIA seeks to provide appropriate opportunities to inform and involve the interested and affected parties, and their inputs and concerns should be addressed explicitly”.

• “Transparent: EIA seeks to be a clear, easily understood and open process with early notification procedures, access to documentation and a public RoD taken, and reasons