Evaluating Environmental and Social Impact Assessment

Improving the quality of environmental impacts assessment reports: effectiveness of alternatives analysis and public involvement in JICA supported projects

“…The total number of EIARs was not given. The sample size was decided with reference to past case studies, which showed 112 samples were used in European countries (Wood et al 1996), 72 in Greece (Cashmore et al 2002), 50 in Estonia (Peterson 2010), 46 in Portugal and Spain (Canelas et al 2005), 45 in Egypt (Badr et al 2011), 39 in Cambodia (Chanthy & Grünbühel 2015), 30 in Bangladesh (Momtaz & Kabir 2013), and 28 in South Africa (Sandham & Pretorius 2008). The sample size exceeded the largest size of any previous study and was judged sufficient for the study.…”

“…Increasing the number of evaluation criteria may be one concrete benefit of public involvement. baseline data and access to data, the attitudes of consultants and proponents, a lack of EIA experts, defective service procurement processes, a lack of adequate funds, weak terms of reference, and a lack of EIA team members were identified in Bangladesh (Momtaz & Kabir 2013). A proposed solution for improving the quality of EAIRs was more quality review research in South Africa.…”

“…The quality of the environmental impact assessment reports (EIARs) is one of the three major dimensions of an effective environmental impact assessment (EIA) system, which consists of: (1) adequate institutional arrangements for EIA; (2) the quality of EIARs; and (3) implementation of mitigation measures (Ortolano et al 1987;Sadler 1996;and Momtaz & Kabir 2013). The quality of EIARs is very important for the effectiveness of the EIA system and for making good decisions.…”

“…2008; Badr et al 2011;Momtaz & Kabir 2013;Sandham et al 2013;and Chanthy & Grünbühel 2015). Previous studies used the summary tables to illustrate grades and the portion of grades that were satisfactory and unsatisfactory, and then went on to discuss the improvement in quality.…”

Critical challenges to consultants in pursuing quality of Environmental and Social Impact Assessments (ESIA) in Cambodia

“…Regulations require total impartiality; however, affiliating with or acting in favour of the proponents may be inevitable (ELAW 2010, p. 20;Machaka et al 2013). Macharia (2005) has investigated consultants' challenges in ESIA; for instance, limited time, insufficient expertise, inadequate financial resources for assessments and political influence affect quality and process (Nadeem & Hameed 2006, p. 437;Momtaz & Kabir 2013). The quality of the assessment depends on the work of the consultants, i.e., their technical judgment and the process of interaction with stakeholders (Zubair 2001, p. 476;Nadeem & Hameed 2006).…”