Environmental Impact Assessment and Decisionmaking for Infrastructure Management

Abstract

Due to the growing recognition of the importance of natural resources to a healthy economy as well as a safe living environment, environmental impact assessment (EIA) has become an essential tool for wise governmental decisionmaking at the international, national, and local levels. Natural resources are as essential as man-made infrastructure is in maintaining a vibrant, sustainable economy. Even ‘environmental infrastructure’ (i.e.; waste water treatment facilities, water supply purification, solid waste disposal, and air pollution control), which is typically thought to be environmentally friendly, needs to undergo a thorough EIA process in conjunction with benefit cost analysis (BCA). The EIA process can be thought of as simply as a parallel or complementary BCA for environmental goods and services. The National Environmental Policy Act of the United States in 1969 was the first example of a framework for integrating EIA into the decisionmaking process. NEPA is well intentioned, but it has spawned an assessment process that is unstructured, incomplete, inconsistent, and not well integrated with all facets of the governmental decisionmaking process. Other models of integrating environmental impact assessment into multiobjective decisionmaking are available and should be drawn upon in order to develop the means for integrating EIA into an overall infrastructure management framework. These models include the U.S. Water Resources Council’s Economic and Environmental Principles and Guidelines for Water and Related Land Resources Implementation Studies, multiobjective and multiattribute utility theory analytical techniques, and the ecosystem management approach. EIA should be an integral element of the infrastructure management toolkit, and a well-structured framework is needed to assure its coherent implementation, particularly in view of the need to evaluate alternative strategies for watershed and ecosystem management and sustainable development options.