> Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)

Environmental Impact Assessment is a requirement associated with certain types of development before they are granted consent to go ahead. The requirement for EIA comes from European Directive (85/33/EEC as amended by 97/11/EC).

  
  As a tool EIA, is becoming increasingly utilised by commercial organisations: “EIA has moved from the fringes of development planning to become a widely recognised tool for sound project decision making” (World Bank).
The term “environmental assessment” describes a technique and a process by which information about the environmental effects of a project is collected, both by the developer and from other sources and taken into account by the planning authority in forming their judgements in whether a development should go ahead.
It is not always readily apparent which projects will trigger the need for an EIA.
Where clients are unsure as to what their obligations may be, EHS Projects can undertake a screening exercise for proposed developments to determine whether or not they will require an EIA to be conducted.
    
 


We offer a broad range of services designed to reflect different stages of the planning and application processes.

  • Initial assessment of proposed development sites to determine likely environmental constraints
  • Screening the need for an Environmental Impact Assessment and going onto scope the likely content of the EIA for the development under consideration.
  • Assessment of site baseline conditions, the cumulative assessment of impacts and their significance.
  • Identification and introduction of mitigation measures, working where possible to introduce sustainable development
  • Presentation of findings in an EIS
  • Post decision monitoring
  • Auditing of predictions and mitigating measures.