Environmental Impact Assessment
(EES 441)
Lectures – 9 & 10
Dr Somil Swarnkar
EES, IISER Bhopal
Office – 208 AB4 Budling
Email –
[email protected] Scoping
• Scoping is the second key sub-stage of action
definition of the EIA process
• Applicable only when the screening process has
concluded that EIA is required to be carried out
for the proposed project
• The objective of scoping is to determine the
detailed scope of the proposed EIA study.
What is Scoping?
Scoping is the process of identifying key environmental
issues, i.e.
1. identification of the environmental issues which are
likely to be relevant and important to address in the EIA
2. elimination of the issues that are of little concern
What is Scoping?
Scoping is an extremely important stage in the EIA process
since it helps to ensure that
1. EIA studies are focused on the significant effects
2. time and money are not wasted on non-important or
unnecessary investigations
Information Needed for Scoping
Contact Details of the Project Proponent
1. Name of the company
2. Postal address, telephone, and e-mail details of the
company
3. Name of the contact person with postal address,
telephone, and e-mail details
Information Needed for Scoping
Characteristics of the Project
1. Brief description of the proposed project
2. Reasons for proposing the project
3. A plan showing the boundary of the development
including any land required temporarily during
construction
4. The physical form of the development (layout,
buildings, other structures, construction materials, etc.)
5. Description of the main processes including size,
capacity, throughput, input, and output
6. Any new access arrangements or changes to the
existing road layout
Information Needed for Scoping
Location of the Project
1. Maps and photographs showing the location of the
project relative to surrounding physical, natural, and
man-made features
2. Existing land uses on and adjacent to the site and
any future planned land uses
3. Zoning or land use policies
4. Protected areas or features
5. Sensitive areas
6. Details of any alternative locations which have been
considered
Information Needed for Scoping
Characteristics of the Potential Impact
• Impacts on people, human health, fauna and flora, soils,
land use, material assets, water quality and hydrology,
air quality, climate, noise and vibration, the landscape
and visual environment, historic and cultural heritage
resources, and the interactions between them
• Nature of the impacts (i.e. direct or indirect/secondary,
short, medium or long-term, permanent or temporary,
positive or negative, cumulative)
• The extent of the impact (geographical area, size of the
affected population/habitat/species)
Information Needed for Scoping
Characteristics of the Potential Impact
• Magnitude and complexity of the impact
• Probability of the impact
• Duration, frequency, and reversibility of the impact
• Mitigation incorporated into the project design to
reduce, avoid, or offset significant adverse impacts
• Trans-frontier nature of the impact
Key objectives of scoping
• A focus on the important environmental issues to be
addressed in the EIA study
• Setting clear boundaries for the EIA with respect to temporal,
spatial, ecosystem, social, jurisdictional, and subject matters
• Setting requirements for the collection of environmental
baseline and other information
• Specifying significant effects and factors to be studied in
detail
• Focusing on the information necessary for decision-making
• Establishing terms of reference for an EIA study
Basic Steps in Scoping Process
• Preparation of an exhaustive list of a wide range of
environmental issues and concerns
• Evaluation of their relative importance and significance
• Preparation of a shortlist of key issues
• Organization of the key issues into the environmental impact
categories for further evaluation
• Establishing the TOR (Terms of References) for the EIA,
including information
• Requirements, study guidelines, and methodologies to be
followed
Scoping Methods
1. Checklists
2. Matrices
3. The component interaction technique
4. Networks
5. Overlay maps
6. Analogs
Scoping Methods – (1) Checklists
The checklists methods are based on the listing of specific
attributes or aspects that might be affected by the proposed
project
• Population
• Flora, fauna
• Air, water, soil
• Architectural and historic heritage
• Landscape and topography
• Designated sites and policies
• Risk of accidents
Scoping Methods – (1) Checklists
The weakness of the “checklists” method is that it
is inherently too simple to identify indirect or
secondary impacts and thus cannot help to identify
all the significant impacts.
Scoping Methods – (2) Matrices
• A simple matrix consists of cells formed by combining
two checklists.
• Based on the effect of a particular activity, a cell is
filled with the level of impact, viz. high, low, or
negligible impact
• This method considers the impacts of different project
activities on different attributes of the environment in a
qualitative manner.
Scoping Methods – (2) Matrices
Scoping Methods – (2) Matrices
• The probability of occurrence of impact is not indicated in
each cell
• The available data may be quantitative or qualitative
• Indirect or secondary impacts cannot be shown
• The importance of different impacts is not reflected in the
absence of an assignment of weights
• The matrix does not itself assist in determining the
significance
Scoping Methods – (3) Component
interaction technique
• This method was developed to incorporate secondary impacts.
• A thorough understanding of the components of ecosystems and
their interactions.
• The environment is modeled as a list of components, ranked in
the order of ability to initiate secondary impacts based on linkages
• chains of dependence between them
• The drawback of this method is that it requires a thorough
understanding of the components of ecosystems and their
interactions.
Scoping Methods – (4) Networks
• The networks method is a further advancement of the component
interaction method
• Recognizes that the environment consists of a complex web of
relationships
• Identification of the secondary impacts along with the estimation
of:
• Magnitude
• Significance
• Probability
Scoping Methods – (4) Networks
• This method helps to trace direct or higher-order
impacts on particular sections of the community.
• It does not establish the magnitude of relationships or
the extent of any change.
• This method involves considerable time and requires
detailed knowledge of different communities in the
environment.
Scoping Methods – (5) Overlay
mapping
• Overlay mapping involves the superimposition of several
thematic maps.
• This method is widely used in environmental planning,
especially for large area developments
• e.g. townships, industrial areas, roads, railways, and
cross-country pipelines, and also for comparing
alternatives.
Scoping Methods – (5) Overlay
mapping
• The Geographical Information System (GIS) has further
facilitated environmental planning
• The limitations of this method are that it does not include
the probability of occurrence of the environmental
impacts
• Secondary impacts are not shown.
• Further, it does not differentiate between reversible and
irreversible impacts.
Scoping Methods – (6) Analogs
• Analogs are used to draw on experiences of similar
projects in other regions or countries with similar
environmental settings.
• However, it needs to be ensured that a sound analogy
gets drawn to the potential impacts.
Importance of Scoping
• Highlights the issues that matter for EIA
• Increases the likelihood of preparing a comprehensive
and good quality EIA report
• Helps in avoiding the problem of an unfocused study,
and voluminous reports resulting in delays and increased
costs
• decision-making, and not wasted in undertaking
excessive studies and unnecessary analysis
Who carries out scoping and when?
Depending upon the applicable EIA framework, the responsibility
of conducting scoping may lie with any of the following:
(a) the project proponent
(b) the competent authority
(c) an independent panel of experts set up for the scoping
purpose
Who carries out scoping and when?
• Typically, scoping begins after the completion of the
screening process.
• However, these two stages may sometimes overlap to
some degree.
• Essentially, scoping takes forward the initial environmental
evaluation for determining which environmental issues
and environmental impacts appear significant and require
further study.
Application of scoping methods
The selected scoping method is expected to make sure that it
captures all the potential environmental issues.
However, it may be appreciated that the use of any scoping
method depends upon
• the availability and accuracy of the information
• the skills of the professionals analyzing and interpreting the
Information
• transparency in the scoping process
Reference
Handbook of Environmental Impact Assessment by
Arjun Kumar Rathi
