Addressing significant impacts coherently in environmental impact statements

• Published in: Environmental impact assessment review 2020-05, Vol.82, p.106373-9, Article 106373
• Main Authors: Duarte, Carla Grigoletto, Sánchez, Luis Enrique
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Biodiversity; Coherence; Credibility; Environmental assessment; Environmental impact; Environmental impact assessment; Environmental impact statement quality; Environmental impact statements; Finance; Impact prediction; International finance; International Finance Corporation; International financing; Mitigation; Quantitative analysis; Reliability; Significance determination
• ISSN: 0195-9255; 1873-6432
• DOI: 10.1016/j.eiar.2020.106373

Determining if and why an impact is significant is a key task to inform decisions on the acceptability of a project through Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). Hence, an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) should be coherent in reaching conclusions about impact significance and in reverberating them in recommendations about mitigation. In this paper we present a procedure to analyze whether significant impacts are addressed coherently in an EIS, by analyzing if significance determination is grounded in information presented in the baseline and project description, supported by prediction of impact magnitude and if it unfolds into mitigation measures. In order to test the procedure, we applied it to two EIS selected from the International Finance Corporation's database. Results show that all impacts classified as significant were supported by information presented in the baseline and project description, as well as connected to corresponding mitigation measures. However, prediction of impact magnitude was not substantiated either on qualitative or quantitative methods. We argue that coherence in addressing significant impacts is one measure of EIS quality. If an EIS does not address its impacts coherently its reliability and credibility are impaired. Addressing significant impacts coherently means providing relevant information in appropriate EIS sections. [Display omitted] •This paper presents a procedure to analyze coherence in an EIS.•Significant impacts should be related to descriptive sections and impact prediction.•Mitigation or enhancement proposals should be developed for each significant impact.•The procedure was applied to reports prepared to meet to IFC's performance standards.•If an EIS does not address impacts coherently, its reliability is impaired.