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Civil Engineering Topics: Environmental Impact Assessment

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) involves the study of procedures which are involved to assess the impact on the environment due to the construction of infrastructure. This includes the framework, predictions, guidelines and plans for assessment of environmental bodies like nuclear power plants, highways, mining and thermal power project. Due to the construction of any building or infrastructure, the natural habitat around it got affected. This is an important part of the Civil Engineer to ensure that the structure is not causing any negative impact on the environment.

The objective of this assessment is to 

Some of the important topics which is studied in this subject are mentioned below:

  • Management of the EIA process
  • Prediction and evaluation of Environmental Impact
  • Mitigation of Environmental Impact
  • Monitoring and Auditing
  • EIA Practice worldwide
  • Strategic Environmental Assessment
  • EIA report review
  • Decision Making
  • Benefits and cost of EIA systems

These topics provide the general information on how to conduct an environmental impact assessment, its steps, factors to be considered and guidelines to be followed. There are some general stages which are followed to assess the impact on the environment, those are mentioned below:

  1. Screening:

Whether the project or development need an impact assessment study is determined in this stage.

  1. Scoping:

In this stage potential impact are identified which are relevant to assess. Guidelines issued are to be studied in this step.

  1. Assessment and evaluation of impacts and development of alternatives:

Prediction and identification of all the likely environmental impacts are done in this stage which includes the detailed elaboration of alternatives.

  1. Reporting the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) or EIA report:

This step includes the reporting of the environmental management plan (EMP) and non-technical summary for the general audience.

  1. Decision-making:

The decision is made whether to approve the project or not and what are the conditions involved.

  1. Monitoring, compliance, enforcement and environmental auditing:

The project is monitored whether the predicted impacts and proposed mitigation measures occur as defined in the environmental management plan.

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