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Contents:
1 - General information; 2 - Projects and impacts; 3 - Criteria; 4 - Information for EIA; 5 - Techniques for environmental appraisal; 6 - EIA and urbanization; Appendices.
Review:
The need to assess impacts has been around for a long time. In the beginning this was a piecemeal, unsophisticated affair often linked specifically and directly to a range of economic parameters. The advent of Environmental Impact Analysis/Statements meant that there was some opportunity of getting uniform practice between projects and even nations. As such analyses and techniques have broadened their scope so there is a need to keep up-to-date with new ways of assessing projects. The aim of this book is to provide the planner, stakeholder etc. with a way of assessing the impact of a project using mainly (but not exclusively) multicriteria methods (as the author argues this gives a more complete picture of the impact).
We start with an overview of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). This means an outline of the basic ideas behind EIA (and related methodologies), the theory of carrying capacity and the decision-making process. There is also discussion about development, sustainability and EIA. To assist further, a wide range of internet sites are given. Chapter two looks at the initial stages in defining objectives, making baseline studies and looking at impacts and their effects. Chapter three moves on in the project to consider finding, defining and calculating the criteria which seems to be most useful. It's a small chapter but a useful one because these are the foundations upon which the quality of the work depends. Next we need to put information into this analysis and chapter four gives examples of the sort of information (both positive and negative) that should be found. To help, there are a range of case studies and examples. Chapter five describes the range of techniques that can be used to gather data such as GIS, cost-benefit analysis, life cycle analysis and, of course, the main focus - multicriteria assessment. This is a particularly useful chapter because of the breadth and depth of the techniques analysed. Finally, there's a look at the role of EIA in urbanisation settings. In addition to descriptions of techniques there's an range of examples and a checklist of ideas. The appendices deal with a number of items of which the most outstanding are the theory (maths) of EIA and a 'road map' acting as a complete checklist to guide the project along the right path.
Just because there's a market for this expanding field of study doesn't mean that every book will add to the knowledge base of the topic. However, this text manages to pull together a range of ideas in new ways and makes the resultant material useful in both theory and practice. Although aimed at undergraduate and professional markets, the author has made the work very accessible and many items e.g. internet resources, checklists, flow charts etc. could be used easily by senior students. As such, it deserves a wide readership.