Project Alternatives and Other EIA Principles

Abstract

In analyzing the need for a project, there are numerous themes requiring consideration. Many present-generation EIAs fail to give adequate and appropriate attention to the matter of alternatives, flow-on, indirect, off-site, cumulative and strategic environmental impacts. There is the temporal nature of impacts to consider—some are immediate (when the bulldozers start work), some are short term (as in the construction stage) and some are long term (involving the life-cycle of the project). Cumulative impact assessment is best undertaken as a form of Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA). The initial consideration is whether or not there are prudent and feasible alternatives to the proponent’s pet project? While a proponent has no incentive to consider alternatives, the environmental practitioner needs to undertake this analysis. Ask the proponent why his or her project is the appropriate one to meet the need, that is, the goal or the objective for which the project has been developed.