RIAM - an Environmental Impact

Assessment Tool
Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)

• EIA is a tool used in planning development strategies

and projects,
projects, and its use has been adopted into planning
regulations in a number of countries,
countries, and by a number of
regional groupings and multilateral agencies (CEQ,
1978;; CEU, 1985
1978 1985,, 1997
1997;; World Bank, 1988
1988;; DANIDA,
1994;; EBRD, 1996
1994 1996)).

CEQ - Council of Environmental quality

CEU - Council of the European communities
DANIDA - Danish International Development Agency
EBRD - European bank of Reconstruction and Development
Review: Phase 1 of the EIA Process

Understand Screen the Conduct a

Phase I Phase II
proposed activity Preliminary
activity Assessment
Based on the ACTIVITY IS SIGNIFICANT BEGIN
Why is the nature of the OF MODERATE ADVERSE FULL
activity being activity what OR UNKNOWN IMPACTS EIA
proposed? level of RISK A rapid, POSSIBLE STUDY
environmental simplified EIA SIGNIFICANT
What is being review is study using ADVERSE
proposed? indicated? simple tools IMPACTS
VERY UNLIKELY

ACTIVITY IS LOW
RISK (Of its nature, STOP
very unlikely to have the EIA
significant adverse process
impacts)

ACTIVITY IS
HIGH RISK (Of its
nature, likely to have
significant adverse
impacts)
Limited focus

Remember. . .!
! Screening and
preliminary
assessment are
straightforward
processes requiring
only basic analysis! Therefore, we focus
Therefore,
on the simpler tools and
more limited information
required by Phase 1.
Tools for Screening and Preliminary
Assessments

Four basic tools:

1. Checklists
2. Matrices
3. Networks
4. Overlays

When many people hear “EIA” they think of these

tools.. All are useful in full EIAs, but they are rarely
tools
used for preliminary assessments
assessments.. . .
Relationship between information and tools

What is a tool?
Your Tools are simply
Information Critical ways of organizing
Judgment and analyzing
information.The
information. The
outputs of a tool
are only as good
as the information
Analysis Tool that goes in.

Tools don’t provide

automatic answers.
Your critical
Identification and judgment is
evaluation of impacts always required.
Types of information required

 Screening & Preliminary Focus, please!

Assessment requires three Only the most basic
basic types of information: biophysical and
economic/social
1 2 data is required for
Biophysical screening.
Economic and Before you gather
characteristics
social data more detailed
of site(s)
information,
research likely
impacts of the
3
proposed activities.
Maps Focus information-
information-
gathering on these
likely impacts!
Information requirements

Biophysical  climatic information

characteristics  Soils, topography, watersheds
of site(s)  land use
 habits/ecosystems
 protected areas
Economic and
social data

! Again, not all information is relevant

to each activity. Focus your
Maps
information--gathering on likely
information
impacts!
Information requirements

Biophysical  agricultural practices

characteristics  water resources, sanitation
of site(s)  demographics
 land ownership, community
organization, other cultural
aspects that affect resource use
Economic and
social data
Economic and social data is usually required
for activity design. (It is necessary to identify
development needs & characterize
beneficiaries)
Maps Therefore, your organization should
already have much useful data. USE IT!
Information requirements

 Maps
Biophysical (Topographic, land use,
characteristics even sketch maps)
of site(s)  Plans and sketches of the
proposed site and activity

Economic and Why are maps essential for

social data preliminary assessments?
Impacts are often significant because of
location. E.g.:
• are latrines near a water supply?
• Is construction near a protected area?
Maps Maps make these relationships clear.
Include maps in final documents
Why direct observation?

 Environmental review
should not be a desk exercise:
You need
to SEE You need to LISTEN
• Are latrines close to
water supplies?
Talk to men AND
• Is there a land tenure
!
• Is there a drainage problem?
women.
problem? Women’s
• How often does the
perceptions on
Visual inspection is the river flood?
environmental
quickest and best way Stakeholders and local
matters are
to check issues of communities have local
location, scale and knowledge that you
critical and
proximity that need. distinct.
determine many And, impacts depend on
impacts..
impacts what those affected
value and need!
RIAM (Rapid Impact Assessment Matrix)

 DHI Water & Environment has developed a tool called

the Rapid Impact Assessment Matrix (RIAM
RIAM)) that
helps to organize an Environmental Impact
Assessment..
Assessment

 The Rapid Impact Assessment Matrix (RIAM) method is

based on a standard definition of the important
assessment criteria as well as the means by which semi-
semi-
quantitative values for each of these criteria can be
collated to provide an accurate and independent score
for each condition
Environmental issues

 RIAM allows full transparency of the decisions made in an

EIA.. RIAM provides a holistic investigation covering four
EIA
categories of environmental issues
issues::
 physical and chemical issues
 biological and ecological issues
 sociological and cultural issues
 economic and operational issues
Physical/Chemical

 Covering all physical and chemical aspects of the

environment,
 including finite (non
(non--biological) natural resources,
and
 degradation of the physical environment by pollution.
pollution.
 Flooding, erosion, waste disposal, soil fertility
fertility…
…
Biological / ecological

 Covering all biological aspects of the

environment, including
 renewable natural resources,
 conservation of biodiversity,
 species interactions, and
 pollution of the biosphere.
biosphere.
 Biota, eutrophication, pests, vectors
vectors…
….
Sociological / cultural

 Covering all human aspects of the environment,

including
 social issues affecting individuals and
communities;; together with cultural aspects,
communities
including conservation of heritage, and human
development..
development
 Human health, aesthetic values,
infrastructure,employment…
infrastructure,employment …
Economic / operational

 To qualitatively identify the economic consequences of

environmental change, both temporary and permanent,
as well as the complexities of project management
within the context of the project activities
activities..
 Income, livestock, field structure
structure…
…
RIAM Requires

 a scoping exercise to determine the important

environmental components in each of the four
categories, and

 allows for decisions on these components to be made

and recorded, by assessing the beneficial or negative
impacts against defined criteria and scales
scales..
Assessment Criteria

 The important assessment criteria fall into two

groups::
groups
 (A) Criteria that are of importance to the condition,
and which can individually change the score
obtained..
obtained
 (B) Criteria that are of value to the situation, but
individually should not be capable of changing the
score obtained.
obtained.
Assessment Criteria

1. Group (A) Criteria

A1 – Importance of the condition
A2 – Magnitude of the change / Effect
2. Group (B) Criteria
B1 – Permanence
B2 – Reversibility
B3 - Cumulative
Importance of condition (A1)

 A measure of the importance of the condition

condition,, which
is assessed against the spatial boundaries or
human interests it will affect.
affect. The scales are
defined::
defined
 4 - important to national/international interests
 3 - important to regional/national interests
 2 - important to areas immediately outside the
local condition
 1 - important only to the local condition
 0 - no importance
Magnitude of change/effect (A2)

 Magnitude is defined as a measure of the scale of

benefit/dis--benefit of an impact or a condition:
benefit/dis condition:
 3 - major positive benefit
 2 - significant improvement in status quo
 1 - improvement in status quo
 0 - no change/status quo
 -1 - negative change to status quo
 -2 - significant negative dis-
dis-benefit or change
 -3 - major dis
dis--benefit or change.
change.
Ranges-- Group (A) Criteria
Ranges

 Positive and negative impacts can be demonstrated by

using scales that pass from negative to positive values
through zero for the group (A) criteria.
criteria.
 Zero thus becomes the ‘no
no--change’ or ‘no-
‘no-importance’
value..
value
 The use of zero in this way in group (A) criteria allows a
single criterion to isolate conditions which show no
change or are unimportant to the analysis.
analysis.
Scoring System - Group (A) Criteria

 The scoring system requires simple multiplication of the

scores given to each of the criteria in group (A)
(A)..

 The use of multiplier for group (A) is important for it

immediately ensures that the weight of each score is
expressed, whereas simple summation of scores could
provide identical results for different conditions.
conditions.
Permanence (B1)

 This defines whether a condition is temporary or

permanent, and should be seen only as a measure of
the temporal status of the condition condition..(e.
(e.g.: an
embankment is a permanent condition even if it may one
day be breached or abandoned
abandoned;; whilst a coffer dam is a
temporary condition, as it will be removed)
removed)..
 1 - no change/not applicable
 2 - temporary
 3 - permanent
Reversibility (B2)

 This defines whether the condition can be changed and

is a measure of the control over the effect of the
condition.. It should not be confused or equated with
condition
permanence.. (e
permanence (e..g.: an accidental toxic spillage into a
river is a temporary condition (B (B1
1) but its effect (death
of fish) is irreversible (B
(B2
2); a town’s sewage treatment
works is a permanent condition (B1 (B1), the effect of its
effluent can be changed (reversible condition) B2)) ))..
 1 - no change/not applicable
 2 - reversible
 3 - irreversible
irreversible..
Cumulative (B3)

 This is a measure of whether the effect will have a single

direct impact or whether there will be a cumulative effect
over time, or a synergistic effect with other conditions
conditions..
 The cumulative criterion is a means of judging the
sustainability of a condition, and is not to be confused
with a permanent/irreversible situation.
situation.
 1 - no change/not applicable
 2 - non
non--cumulative/single
 3 - cumulative/synergistic
Ranges-- Group (B) Criteria
Ranges

 Zero is a value avoided in the group (B) criteria

criteria..
 If all group (B) criteria score zero
zero,, the final result of the
ES will also be zero
zero..
 This condition may occur even where the group (A)
criteria show a condition of importance that should be
recognized..
recognized
 To avoid this, scales for group (B) criteria use ‘1’ as the
‘no--change/no
‘no change/no--importance’ score.
score.
Scoring System - Group (B) Criteria

 Scores for the value criteria group (B) are added

together to provide a single sum.
sum.
 This ensures that the individual value scores cannot
influence the overall score
score..
 The sum of the group (B) scores is then multiplied by
the result of the group (A) scores to provide a final
assessment score (ES
ES)) for the condition
Environmental Score (ES)

 (a1) x (a2) = aT
 (b1)+(
)+(b
b2)+(b
)+(b3) = bT
 (aT) x (bT) = ES
 where
 (a1) and (a2) are the individual criteria scores for group
(A)
 (b1) to (b3) are the individual criteria scores for group
(B)
 aT is the result of multiplication of all (A) scores
 bT is the result of summation of all (B) scores
 ES is the assessment score for the condition.
condition.
Project option (Physical
(Physical / chemical components

P/C P/C P/C P/C . . . . . . . . . . . —>

A1 A1 A1 A1 . . . . . . . . . . . —>
A2 A2 A2 A2 . . . . . . . . . . . —>
B1 B1 B1 B1 . . . . . . . . . . . —>
B2 B2 B2 B2 . . . . . . . . . . . —>
B3 B3 B3 B3 . . . . . . . . . . . —>
ES 0 ES 0 ES 0 ES 0 . . . . . . . . . . . —>
RV RV RV RV . . . . . . . . . . . —>
Biological / ecological components

B/E B/E B/E B/E . . . . . . . . . . . —>

A1 A1 A1 A1 . . . . . . . . . . . —>
A2 A2 A2 A2 . . . . . . . . . . . —>
B1 B1 B1 B1 . . . . . . . . . . . —>
B2 B2 B2 B2 . . . . . . . . . . . —>
B3 B3 B3 B3 . . . . . . . . . . . —>
ES 0 ES 0 ES 0 ES 0 . . . . . . . . . . . —>
RV RV RV RV . . . . . . . . . . . —>
Sociological / cultural components

S/C S/C S/C S/C . . . . . . . . . . . —>

A1 A1 A1 A1 . . . . . . . . . . . —>
A2 A2 A2 A2 . . . . . . . . . . . —>
B1 B1 B1 B1 . . . . . . . . . . . —>
B2 B2 B2 B2 . . . . . . . . . . . —>
B3 B3 B3 B3 . . . . . . . . . . . —>
ES 0 ES 0 ES 0 ES 0 . . . . . . . . . . . —>
RV RV RV RV . . . . . . . . . . . —>
Economic / operational components

E/O E/O E/O E/O . . . . . . . . . . . —>

A1 A1 A1 A1 . . . . . . . . . . . —>
A2 A2 A2 A2 . . . . . . . . . . . —>
B1 B1 B1 B1 . . . . . . . . . . . —>
B2 B2 B2 B2 . . . . . . . . . . . —>
B3 B3 B3 B3 . . . . . . . . . . . —>
ES 0 ES 0 ES 0 ES 0 . . . . . . . . . . . —>
RV RV RV RV . . . . . . . . . . . —>
Range Value used for RIAM

RIAM Range Value (RB) Range Value Description of range band

Environmental (Alphabetic) (RB)
Score (ES) (Numerical)
108 to 72 E 5 Major Positive change / Impact

71 to 36 D 4 Significant Positive change / Impact

35 to 19 C 3 Moderate Positive change / Impact

18 to 10 B 2 Positive change / Impact

9 to 1 A 1 Slight Positive change / Impact

0 N 0 No change / not applicable

-1 to -9 -A -1 Slight Negative change / Impact

-10 to -18 -B -2 Negative change / Impact

-19 to -35 -C -3 Moderate Negative change / Impact

-36 to –71 -D -4 Significant Negative change / Impact

-72 to -108 -E -5 Major Negative change / Impact

Physical and chemical components (PC)

Components ES RB A1 A2 B1 B2 B3

PC1 Air pollution -9 -A 1 -1 3 3 3

PC2 Water Pollution -7 -A 1 -1 2 2 3

PC3 Soil/Land Pollution -7 -A 1 -1 2 2 3

PC4 Noise Pollution -9 -A 1 -1 3 3 3

PC5 Waste generation -8 -A 1 -1 3 2 3

Biological and ecological components (BE)

Components ES RB A1 A2 B1 B2 B3

BE1 Effect on flora 0 N 0 0 1 1 1

BE2 Effect on Fauna 0 N 0 0 1 1 1

BE3 Endangered species/Protected habitats 0 N 0 0 1 1 1

BE4 Bio diversity 0 N 0 0 1 1 1

BE5 Human health -9 -A 1 -1 3 3 3

Sociological and cultural components (SC)

Components ES RB A1 A2 B1 B2 B3

SC1 City dwellers' access to facilities 9 A 1 1 3 3 3

SC2 Traffic congestion/clutter 9 A 1 1 3 3 3

SC3 Housing pattern/spread 9 A 1 1 3 3 3

SC4 Social functions/religious rituals 0 N 0 1 2 1 2

SC5 Sense of distance redefinition 0 N 0 1 1 1 3

Economical and operational components (EO)

Components ES RB A1 A2 B1 B2 B3

EO1 Employment 0 N 0 0 1 1 1

EO2 State/City's Economy/Growth 0 N 0 1 1 1 3

EO3 Revenue aspects 0 N 0 1 1 1 3

EO4 Individual's income 0 N 0 1 1 1 3

EO5 Speculation trends 7 A 1 1 1 3 3

Summary of scores

Range -108 -71 -35 -18 -9 0 1 10 19 36 72

-72 -36 -19 -10 -1 0 9 18 35 71 108

Class -E -D -C -B -A N A B C D E

PC 0 0 0 0 5 0 0 0 0 0 0

BE 0 0 0 0 1 4 0 0 0 0 0

SC 0 0 0 0 0 2 3 0 0 0 0

EO 0 0 0 0 0 4 1 0 0 0 0

Total 0 0 0 0 6 10 4 0 0 0 0
Summary of scores (4 lane option)

Range -108 -71 -35 -18 -9 0 1 10 19 36 72

-72 -36 -19 -10 -1 0 9 18 35 71 108

Class -E -D -C -B -A N A B C D E

PC 0 1 0 1 3 0 0 0 0 0 0

BE 0 0 0 1 0 4 0 0 0 0 0

SC 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 4 0

EO 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 2 0

Total 0 1 0 2 4 4 0 1 2 6 0
Summary of scores (6 lane option)

Range -108 -71 -35 -18 -9 0 1 10 19 36 72

-72 -36 -19 -10 -1 0 9 18 35 71 108

Class -E -D -C -B -A N A B C D E

PC 0 1 0 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

BE 0 1 0 1 0 3 0 0 0 0 0

SC 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 3 1

EO 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 2 2

Total 0 2 0 5 1 3 0 1 0 5 3
Option 1 (Histogram)
10

-E -D -C -B -A N A B C D E

PC BE
5 5

4 4

3 3

2 2

1 1

-E -D -C -B -A N A B C D E -E -D -C -B -A N A B C D E

SC EO
5 5

4 4

3 3

2 2

1 1

-E -D -C -B -A N A B C D E -E -D -C -B -A N A B C D E
Option 2 (Histogram)

4 Lane option

-E -D -C -B -A N A B C D E

PC BE
4 4

3 3

2 2

1 1

-E -D -C -B -A N A B C D E -E -D -C -B -A N A B C D E

SC EO
4 4

3 3

2 2

1 1

-E -D -C -B -A N A B C D E -E -D -C -B -A N A B C D E
Option 3 (Histogram)

6 Lane option

-E -D -C -B -A N A B C D E

PC BE
4 4

3 3

2 2

1 1

-E -D -C -B -A N A B C D E -E -D -C -B -A N A B C D E

SC EO
4 4

3 3

2 2

1 1

-E -D -C -B -A N A B C D E -E -D -C -B -A N A B C D E
Option Summary

Option summary
OP1 OP2 PC
10 10
BE
9 9
8 8 SC
7 7
EO
6 6
5 5
4 4
3 3
2 2
1 1

-E -D -C -B -A N A B C D E -E -D -C -B -A N A B C D E

OP3
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1

-E -D -C -B -A N A B C D E
Conclusions

 For most of the industrial as well as major development

projects, it is mandatory to conduct EIA.
EIA.
 In any EIA, the judgment will be subjective, either in
whole or in part due to various reasons viz.
viz.
 inadequacy of baseline data,
 the time frame for the analysis, and
 the capacity of assessors to cover a wide range of
issues..
issues
 But it is necessary to ensure some degree of
transparency and objectivity in the qualitative
assessment and evaluation of the impacts on projects.
projects.
Conclusion

 Rapid Impact Assessment Matrix (RIAM) method seeks to

overcome the problems of recording subjective judgments
by defining the criteria and scales against which these
judgments are to be made;
made; and by placing results in a
simple matrix that allows for a permanent record of the
arguments in the judgment process.
process.