Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is a planning tool to identify, predict and evaluate potential environmental impacts and mitigation measures in the early stages of proposed projects. Although EIA has been implemented in Malaysia for over 25 years, the EIA practices have yet to achieve the parameters of effective environmental management and sustainable development. Hence, this research aims to improve the EIA process in Malaysia. Three objectives were utilised in this research which are to recognise the fundamentals of EIA process and procedures applied in Malaysia, to analyse the issues in relation to the EIA preparation and submission conducted in Malaysia and to propose a set of recommendations to further improve the current EIA process in Malaysia. Mixed methods approach was embarked composed of qualitative instruments via document review and semi-structured interviews and quantitative instrument utilising questionnaire survey. Key issues on the EIA process in Malaysia were gathered from qualitative data collected. Analysis of data collected resulted to recommendations on the key issues regarding EIA. 25 proposed recommendations to improve the EIA process were contextualised and validated via questionnaire survey. Ergo, this research established an improved EIA process in Malaysia towards sustainable development to ameliorate the EIA practices in Malaysia.

No abstract

The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) has become an essential tool in promoting sustainable development and environmental protection since it was formally introduced by National Environmental Policy (NEPA) in 1969. The acceptance and application of EIA as a key tool in ensuring green development was overwhelming and has reflected positive feedbacks since its first introduction to the world community. The implementation of the EIA in various countries differs from one another as each country customised their own EIA process to cater their local development. This paper highlights the essentials of Environmental Impact Assessment and the EIA processes that have been adapted in four countries namely, Malaysia, West Australia, New Zealand and Canada. The three developed countries have been chosen because they share the same legal system as Malaysia which is the common law. The objective of this paper is to analyse the differences and the similarities between the EIA processes in the four chosen countries. The analysis was carried out by utilising a comparative study which was achieved via literature review. The comparative study reveals the similarities and differences of each EIA process implemented in the four countries. Conclusively, the four countries possessed few similarities such as each country has their own legal instrument, a governing body responsible in administering their local EIA process and incorporates public participation in the EIA process. However, the Canadian EIA process has a more notable EIA process between the four EIA processes, whereby, it possesses the most elaborate process which involves public participation at every level and takes up to 365 days for the EIA assessment.

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) has been introduced in Malaysia as an interactive planning tool since 1976 through the Environment Quality Act (EQA) 1975. The implementation of the EIA process in Malaysia has played a significant role in cultivating environmental protection and sustainable development practice in Malaysia. This paper focuses on the EIA process that is being implemented in Malaysia in ensuring effective application of EIA. The purpose of this paper is to present the research findings that have contributed in the analysis of the existing EIA process that is currently implemented in Malaysia. An application of qualitative research was incorporated which utilises in-depth semi-structured interviews in the data collection process.  The research findings on the EIA guidelines, policies and the current EIA process are presented to provide a thorough understanding of this study.

Construction is one of the industries that able to generate wealth to the country and also contributes to the development of social and economic infrastructure. Lack of implementation of waste management practice in construction site is one of the problems to the construction industry in reducing environmental impacts and dumping areas. A higher demand for new developments causes the increase of construction activities which results in a significant impact on the environment. Hence, the aim of this paper is to highlight the Malaysian government strategies in the implementation of initiatives on construction waste management in Malaysia. In accordance with the stated aim, this paper intends to explore the initiatives implementation by the governing authorities to manage construction waste in Malaysia. This paper presents the implementation of Malaysian government initiatives in managing construction waste. The qualitative research method was applied to explore the existing implementation by the government in order to manage construction waste. Results indicates that the obligations of governing authorities in implementing the initiatives pertaining to construction waste management is inconsistent.