A review of the quality of environmental impact statements with a focus on urban projects from Romania

An evaluation of air quality impact prediction performance undertaken as part of environmental impact assessment (EIA) in India

Effective implementation of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is recognised as a global issue, in particular the impact prediction stage, which is the 'core' of EIA. Consisting of four stages: impact identification, impact assessment, significance evaluation, and mitigation measures on the possible environmental repercussions of project developmental activities, the efficacy of impact prediction can define the quality of the EIA process, which will better align environmental decision-making to sustainable development. The weakness of impact prediction in EIA demands more study to enhance practice. Although this is widely explored in the context of developed countries such as the UK, it is particularly concerning in India. A specialised review package built from several sources is utilised to assess the efficacy of air quality impact prediction, based on Lee & Colley (1991). 20 EIA reports of Category A (mega-scale projects causing significant environmental impacts) are reviewed. This study's evaluation indicates that significance evaluation and mitigation actions are the weakest phases and a major concern while assessing air quality studies conducted as a part of EIA. Recommendations to improve the process include prioritising the cumulative impact assessment within the regulatory framework, enhancing capacity building, embedding public participation and instilling accountability among stakeholders, which can be adopted globally. Additional recommendations specifically for India are revising the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), restructuring the EIA review mechanism by EAC and improving mitigation measures by adopting GIS and remote sensing technologies.

The Performance of Environmental and Health Impact Assessment Implementation: A Case Study in Eastern Thailand

Environmental impact assessment (EIA) performance has remained of interest, and over the past ten years, the evaluation technique has evolved. Thailand implemented an EIA with a health impact assessment (HIA) as an environmental health impact assessment (EHIA), which necessitated investigating and developing these instruments; however, its implementation performance has been questioned. The main goal of this study is to comparatively assess how well EIAs and EHIAs are performed in projects in an area in Thailand. Six projects in various sectors that were implemented in Eastern Thailand were studied. The 162 residents (nine local authorities and 153 villagers) closest to the project completed a survey and evaluated the performance according to three aspects (i.e., substantive, procedural, and transactive), using a rating scale and evaluation checklists. The results were presented as a percentage of the total scores and interpreted according to the five scales. The overall performance reached a satisfactory level, albeit not significantly different between cases; however, it was pointed out that the shortcomings of EHIAs and EIAs, particularly their dependability, lack of public involvement, and the need for more transparency, could be addressed through the establishment of an open access database, which would help to simplify the assessment of all stages of EIAs and EHIAs.

Past local industrial disasters and involvement of NGOs stimulate public participation in transboundary Environmental Impact Assessment

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) emerged as a regulatory procedure and is now implemented worldwide. EIA aims to increase the sustainability of economic activities by decreasing the impact on environmental components. Transparency of the evaluation process is a key feature of the procedure, and this is achieved predominantly by encouraging participation in public debates. Public participation is essential for EIA's effectiveness, particularly in transboundary projects. This study evaluates whether media coverage of certain projects with transboundary environmental impacts increases public participation during EIA. We analyzed how online media covered the stories about four major projects subject to the EIA procedure in Romania (i.e., reactors 3 and 4 of Cernavoda Nuclear Power Plant, Oltenita used oil recycling facility, Certej mining project, management of Moldova Noua tailing ponds). We focused on articles published between 2010 and 2020, covering stories about the four projects. We further extracted the stakeholders involved in the projects using social network analysis. We extracted the main topics of articles discussing the four projects using deep categorization tools. The polarities of titles and contents of the articles were assessed using sentiment analysis tools. Our findings indicate that EIA is a media subject only when NGOs become important actors in the process and the industry generated local industrial disasters in the past; otherwise, the media rarely debate the environmental impact of projects. Without NGO reactions, Romanian readers are fed with political and economic aspects driven by large projects rather than environmental issues. The outcome of the current study is significant for understanding what triggers NGOs and the media to take a stand against major projects. Projects involving activities that generated ecological disasters in Romania's recent history are strongly opposed by NGOs and the public. In such cases, environmental and EIA topics are more often included in media stories. However, projects with undeniable environmental impact but without a negative background in Romania do not reach the public agenda, and the media stories do not focus on environmental aspects either, leading to limited public participation within the EIA procedure.