Page 104 - DMGT302_FUNDAMENTALS_OF_PROJECT_MANAGEMENT

Unit 5: Environmental Appraisal of Projects

Cost Notes

The amount allocated and spent for preparation of EIA by the project proponents are usually
abysmally low compared to the overall project costs (often less than 1% of over all projects).
Main EIA: After “scoping” the main EIA begins. The EIA attempts to answer five questions
basically:
1. What will happen as a result of the project?
2. What will be the extent of the changes?

3. Do the changes matter?
4. What can be done about them?
5. How can decision makers be informed of what needs to be done?
The EIA becomes a cyclic process of asking and further asking the first four questions until
decision makers can be offered workable solutions.
Identification: Identification means the answer to the first question, i.e. “what will happen as
result of the project?” If a preliminary assessment has been done it will have broadly reviewed
the projects effect, also scoping will have focused the study on the most important issues for
decision makers. Taking these findings in to account the full EIA study now formally identifies
those impacts which should be assessed in detail. This identification phase of the study may use
these or other methods
1. Compile a list of key impacts (e.g. changes in air quality, noise levels, wild life habitats,
species diversity, landscape views, social and cultural systems, settlement patterns and
employment levels from other EIA s for similar projects).
2. Name all the projects sources of impacts (e.g. smoke emissions, water consumption,
construction jobs) using checklists of questionnaires, then list possible receptors in the
environment (e.g. crops, communities using same water for drinking, migrant of labour)
by surveying the existing environment and consulting with interested parties.
3. Identify impacts themselves through the use of checklist, matrices, networks, overlays,
models and simulations.

5.6 Drawback in the Indian System

1. The detail method used for the prediction and evaluation of the project is not mentioned
in the report. Limited explanations are given both to quantitative estimation of magnitude
of impact and to the assumptions and judgments used in the evaluation of impacts.
2. The limited coverage of scoping is confined mainly to direct impacts.
Evaluation: The third question addressed by the EIA – do the changes matter is answered in the
next step. Evaluation is so called because it evaluates the predicated adverse impacts to determine
whether they are significant enough to warrant mitigation. Thus judgment of significance can
be based on one or more of the followings.
1. Comparison with laws, regulations or accepted standards.
2. Consultation with the relevant decision makers.
3. Reference to pre set criteria such as protected sites features of species.

4. Acceptability to the local community or the general public.

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