Literature review
Before the 1st World War, quick industrialization and urbanization in western states was causing the quick deprivation of natural resources. This extended to the time after the Second World War giving rise to concerns for different types of pollution, life quality and environmental stress. In early 60s, shareowners and people noticed that the proposals they were under taking were attacking the environment, natural resources, raw materials and citizens. As a consequence of this, pressure groups emerged with the goal of achieving a mechanism that can be used to protect the environment in any development activity. Twentieth century was the starting point of rise of environmental awareness. As the citizens increasingly worried about the effects these development activities have on the environment, communal pressure is placed on creating the management bodies responsible for the unfavorable reaction appear in the wake of their business. Environmental deterioration and the loss of natural resources caused by human activities have attracted rapidly increasing concerns in the last decades. These concerns made clear the need for the planning authorities to count on sound data about the possible environmental consequences of development activities. One of the tools accessible to fulfil this necessity is represented by the process of Environmental Impact Assessment (Sheail, 2002).
The results of the environmental and social impacts are dissimilar. Along with the environmental impact assessment (EIA), social impact assessment (SIA) has its emergence in the 1970s and has evolved from being a tool to fulfil the regulatory requirements, to a discipline that attempts to contribute proactively to satisfactory project and policy development and to raise the welfare of affected people. This volume, edited by a main authority in the field, gather the classic articles in the history of SIA along with the most remarkable recent papers in this expanding area. EIA is comprehensive study based on environmental assessment (EA) to find the type and level of impacts an existing facility is having, or a proposed project or activity would have, on its environment. The acceptability of an EIA is based on the level to which the environmental effects can be determined, estimated, and mitigated (Vanclay, 2014).
Social Impact Assessment (SIA) involves the processes of examining, monitoring and managing the intended and unintended social consequences, both positive and negative, of planned interventions and any social change processes invoked by those interventions. The analysis should include the use of land, culture, the main economic activities e.g. tourism, agriculture, employment levels and impact on service provision e.g. education, water use, traffic, energy use etc. Its primary purpose is to bring about a more sustainable and equitable biophysical and human environment. Social Impact Assessment assumes that social, economic and biophysical impacts are interconnected. Social Impact Assessment (SIA) is therefore done to ensure that there is no mismatch between the development and socio-cultural and economic of the project area (Welford, 2011).
Environmental Impact Assessment can generally be defined as the systematic identification and estimation of the possible impacts (effects) of proposed activities and project plans, programs or legislative process related to the physical, chemical, biological, cultural and socioeconomic elements of the total environment. . EIA is a planning tool that is now broadly accepted as a constitutional part of sound decision making. The main objective of EIA is to foreknow and address possible environmental issues and problems/concerns at an early phase of the project planning and design. EIA systematically analyze both good and bad consequences of the project or activity and assure that these impacts are taken into consideration during the project design. It helps to evaluate potential environmental effects of the proposed project/activity, proposes control measures to mitigate adverse impacts and predicts whether there will be substantial adverse environmental impacts, even after the mitigation is enforced. (Canter, 1996).
Environmental impacts can be evaluated according to the biophysical environment that may produce from proposed action or activity. (Balbach et al, 2001).
Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) is interdisciplinary analyses of the natural, human health, and socio cultural impacts which are expected to result from public and private sector activities such as development projects. The objective of these studies is to avoid /reduce/mitigate any substantial adverse impact incurred to people by systematically updating decision makers and making known the affected citizens through proposed activity and suggested alternatives (Petts, 1999).
The aim of Environmental Impact Assessment is to protect the environment by assuring that a local planning authority when deciding whether to allow planning permission for a project, which is probably to have significant impacts on the environment, does so in the full information of the possible significant impacts, and takes this into consideration in the process of decision making. The regulations set out a process for identifying those projects which should be subject to an Environmental Impact Assessment, and for assessing, confabulating and coming to a decision on those projects which are possibly to have substantial environmental effects (Robert, 2014).
Environmental Impact Assessment should not be a reason of barrier to growth and development and will only apply to a small proportion of proposed projects considered within the city and country planning regime. Local planning authorities have a well-established responsibility to look at the environmental implications of development activities and projects which are subjected to planning control. The 2011 Regulations integrate Environmental Impact Assessment process into this framework and should only subject to those projects and developments which are likely to have substantial impacts on the environment. Local planning authorities and shareowners should cautiously consider if a project should be subject to an Environmental Impact Assessment. If needed, they should bound the scope of assessment to those facet of the environment that are likely to be largely affected (Sirinivas, 2013).
The use of EIA has been formalized by the involvement of national laws and regulations and, in some other cases, policies which establish systems of institutionalized process to assure that all proposed physical developments, expected to be environmentally damaging, is evaluated prior to authorization and possible implementation of project (Singh, 2007).
EIAs was foremost used in the 1960s as constituent of a rational decision making procedure. It involved a technical analysis that would lead to the objective decision making. Lastly EIA was accepted as a legislation in the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) 1969 of USA. This was the first legislation to give a robust framework for allowing all the recognized environmental issues to be addressed instantly. The work of Lynton Caldwell was an excellent driver of US environmental policy and legislation. He was one of the writer of NEPA. He wrote the Draft Resolution on a National Policy for the Environment that gave the theoretical foundations of NEPA. NEPA was designed so wholeheartedly that it not only complemented other regulations and programs but also not supervene upon any one. Thus EIA procedure was used as a means to incorporate the generation and dispersion of environmental information, and develop collaboration among the various set of public and private sectors and stakeholders which characterize major, environmentally contestation decisions. (Clayton and Sadler, 1998).
This was noticed by the people of United States (US), when such issues had first started impacting the quality of their life. Accordingly, the environmental issues of the present are often attributed to environmental movement that had taken shape in United States, in the early sixties. Popular support apart, the success of the environmental movement in the US is reflected in the forests and wild areas it helped set aside as well as in the laws it got enacted. Having protected big clumps of wilderness from the menace of ‘development’, the American environmental movement had turned its attention to the control of harmful by-products of industrialization, air and water pollution, and the production of toxic or radioactive waste (Guha, 2000).
At this stage, the “Silent Spring†book was written by Rachel Carson (a marine biologist), which took social awareness towards environmental problems to the next stage. Born in the wake of such raised issues about environmental pollution, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency opened its doors in Washington, D.C., on December 2, 1970. Even before this, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA, 1969) of the United States of America was constituted and for the first time, EIA requiring environmental consideration in large-scale projects was enforced as legislation. Since then, EIA has been one of the successful environmental policy innovations of the 20th century. The phrase Environmental Impact Assessment comes from Sec. 102 (2) of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) – 1969, USA. NEPA ushered in a new era of environmental awareness by requiring federal agencies to include environmental protection in all their plans and activities. And it created the environmental impact statement for assessing the likely effects of projects that agencies intend to build, finance or permit. NEPA also provided the interested and affected public with one of its most important tools the right to bring a case to court (Singh, 2007). 222222
The influence of NEPA (1969), which had the idea of ‘EIA system’ as its fundamental principle, was extended elongated beyond the US and aggravated the involvement of EIA policy in many European countries, Asia and elsewhere. By the middle of last decade, EIA had become a need in more than 100 countries of world (Canter 1996).
In many European nations, it came into trend with the involvement of the idea of sustainable development after the World Commission of the Environment in 1987. In India, EIA came into being around 1978-79 and was made compulsory only in 1994 (Singh, 2007).
Following the US initiatives, several countries implemented EIA system, for example Australia (1974), Thailand (1975), France (1976), Israel (1981), Pakistan (1983). This shows Asian countries have begun to take action early on. (Aslam, 2006).
Since being evolved it has been used intensely in many countries around the world. Today EIA is practiced as a decision aiding tool rather than decision making tool. After being passed as Law many international organizations e.g., the European Community, sovereign countries, provinces or states and local governments have passed their own versions of environmental impact assessment legislation. There is growing difference on the use of EIA due to its limited influence on development decisions. People opinioned that it is falling short of its full potential. A continuing research/ strong training for practitioner and guidance on EIA practice is needed for stronger foundation of EIA (OECD, 1994).
ESIA refers to the environmental and social impact assessment. In this way an integrated approach towards environment and society may help in the achievement of goals like to reduce the Project Footprint, zero discharge of oil/chemicals to land, air, water etc. minimize hazardous emissions, resource and use, minimize production of waste, no net loss of sensitive habitat, restoration of habitats and hydrological regimes, no permanent disturbance to the livelihood of the local population and socio-economic betterment of the regions alongside the route. (ESIA, 2001).
Many of these continents are now taking active part in environmental impact assessment and mitigation of adverse effects. Despite a lack of the internationally ordered practice, integrated impact assessment, linking the biophysical and socio-economic impacts, is identified as a basic priority in agenda. As a widely adopted process that already covers other impacts, EIA is recognized as one of the best available mechanisms for implementing an integrated approach. In practice, adopting this approach will require greater attention to be given to the identification of social, health and other impacts in the process of EIA. The main steps involved in EIA process are: project identification and definition, screening, scoping , data collection and analysis, impact evaluation, mitigation, monitoring and control, evaluation of the mitigation measures taken, circulation and review of EIA and public hearing, publication of EIA report, approval with or without the conditions and compliance of monitoring and impact management (Clayton and Sadler, 1998).
EIA helps us in carrying the cost benefit analysis of developmental activities and projects at initial phase. It gives a general outlook of factors involves in the development environmental association. It is an assessment of various factors of environment e.g. population, land, soil, water, animals, plants, air, likely to be impacted by a proposed action (Boyle and Mubuami, 1995). 1
Socio economic effects of a proposed project start the day the project is proposed. Changes in the social structure and the interaction between members of community are in the scenario that cannot be measured directly. In fact real quantifiable and substantial effects on the environment begin to occur as soon as there are changes in the social and economic condition (Georgiades, 1993).
Public involvement in EIA has a vital role to play in helping to incorporate economic, social and environmental objectives as to move towards the sustainable development by performing as a device to fortify and increase public awareness of the delicate balance between the economic and environmental trade-offs. It also protects against bad or politically demanded decisions. Public participation is essential for minimizing or avoiding public disputation, showdown and delay, and can make a good contribution to the EIA process (Clark, 1994).1
The evolution of EIA has been in a more complex method in which the document, the environmental impact statement EIS is an important part. Public participation has also become the part important part. The social effects are also included in environmental impact statement and method developed in systematic way to find a solution with LOW environmental effects that is accepted by all the stakeholders (Baker and Wood, 2001). 1
EIA process in Pakistan started with the promulgation of Pakistan Environmental Protection Ordinance (PEPO) of 1983 (repealed in 1997).EIA became requirement for all the new projects and developments, since 1st July 1994. Documentation of the sectoral guidelines as EIA Package is effective from enactment of Pakistan Environmental Protection Act PEPA, 1997 followed by IEE/EIA regulation of 2000. Finally, the National Environmental Policy in 2005, which describes incorporation of environment into the development planning through implementation of EIA at project level and advancement of strategic environmental assessment (SEA) as a tool for incorporating environment into decision-making process. The Planning and Development Division at federal level and its corresponding departments at provincial level have established Environment Sections or Cells for environmental screening of the project proposals (Flecther, 2015).
EIA is a legal requirement for all the development projects under section 12 of PEPA 1997 which became a choice in year 2000. The regulations also listed the development project categories which need an IEE in its schedule l and projects for which EIA is needed are in schedule ll. For all the projects not listed in schedule l and ll, IEE and EIA is not needed, unless the development project is likely to be a reason of adverse environmental impacts the project for which EPA has issued guidelines for construction and operation, an application for the approval complained by an undertaking affidavit that the aforesaid will be followed is needed (EPA, 1997). 1
The department of planning and development at the federal level and the planning and development at the provincial level are responsible for coordinating with appropriate EPA. All military development projects, Trans provincial projects and cross country projects are within the jurisdiction of federal EPA and rest of project lie within the Provincial EPA jurisdiction (Siddique et al, 2000). 1