Environmental

Sciences – CHY1002
Module 5

Dr. Krishnendu Biswas

krishnendu.biswas@vit.ac.in
#2, 1st floor annex
Off : [044
[044--3993]1245
Module Environmental Impact
-5 Assessment
Introduction to environmental
impact analysis. EIA guidelines,
Notification of Government of India
(Environmental Protection Act – Air,
water, forest and wild life). Impact
assessment methodologies. Public
awareness. Environmental priorities
in India and sustainable development.
Environmental Impact Assessment

Industries – major source of pollution

Cheap discharging methods – low price, high
profits – benefits both

Environment – lack of care - public pay indirect
cost associated with industrial pollution – Eg.
paying more for drinking treated water - in
terms of increased sickness and decreased
aesthetic quality.

Industries not wholly responsible – need to
include commercial and residential sources too.
Solution ?

Balance is required between development and
environment protection

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) – refers to the
evaluation of the environmental impacts likely to raise from
a major project significantly affecting the environment.

EIA guidelines - aim at giving practical guidance for
environmental assessments to all parties involved in
development activities in the particular areas, but especially
to local authorities, developers and local people

Raise universal issues that are particularly important in that
area such as public participation and the use of traditional
knowledge

These guidelines are not intended to replace existing
procedures adopted by international, national or provincial
laws, land claim agreements, regulations.

Aim at providing suggestions and examples of good practice
to enhance the quality of EIAs and the harmonization of EIA
in different parts of the place.
EIA procedure

Project Proposal - submission start of process

Screening - whether a project requires environmental clearance
as per the statutory notifications in consultation with IAA

Scoping and consideration of alternatives - process of detailing the
terms of reference of EIA – quantifiable and non-quantifiable
impacts to be assessed

Base line data collection - describes the existing environmental
status of the identified study area

Impact prediction and Assessment of Alternatives - way of
mapping the environmental consequences of the significant
aspects of the project and its alternatives

EIA Report - should provide clear information to the decision-
maker on the different environmental scenarios without the
project, with the project and with project alternatives

Public hearing - public must be informed and consulted on a
proposed development

Decision-making - involve consultation between the project
proponent and the impact assessment authority

Monitoring the clearance conditions - to be done during both
construction and operation phases of a project.

The critical issues focused in all these guidelines are:
◦ Can the local environment cope with the additional waste
and pollution that the project will produce?
◦ Will the project location conflict with the nearby land use
or preclude later developments in surrounding areas?
◦ Can the project operate safely without serious risk of
accidents or long- term health hazards?
◦ How will the project affect economic activities that are
based on natural resources?
◦ Is there sufficient infrastructure to support the project?
◦ How much of the resources (such as water, energy etc)
will the project consume, and are adequate supplies of
these resources available?
◦ What kind of human resources will it require or replace
and what will be its social impacts in the short/long-run?
◦ What damages will it inadvertently cause to the
national/regional assets such as natural resources, tourist
areas, or historic or cultural sites, etc? (UNEP 1988).

Indian context - It is identified that EIA is an important
management tool for ensuring optimal use of natural resources for
sustainable development.

Though EIA of river valley projects was started in 1978 -79, the
scope has subsequently been enhanced to cover other
developmental sectors such as industries, thermal power projects,
mining schemes etc.

To facilitate EIA collection of environmental data and preparation
of management plans, guidelines have been evolved and circulated
to the concerned Central and State Government Departments.

Environmental Appraisal Committees:

For the purpose of EIA, to ensure multi-disciplinary input
required, Expert Committees have been constituted for the
following sectors:

Mining Projects

Industrial Projects

Thermal Power Projects

River Valley, Multipurpose, Irrigation and H.E. Projects

Infrastructure Development and Miscellaneous Projects

Nuclear Power Projects
 Notification of Government of India
• India is the first country in the world to have
protection and conservation of environment in its
Constitution.
• The Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.
• The Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act,
1974.
• The Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980.
• Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981.
• The Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.
• Constitutional provisions
• Article 48-A - protect environment, forest and wildlife.
• Article 51A(g) - duty of every citizens to protect
environment and natural resources.
• Our constitution includes environmental protection and
conservations as one of our fundamental duties.

The Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974

The Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Rules, 1975

The Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Cess Act, 1977

The Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Cess Rules, 1978

The Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981

The Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Rules, 1982

The Environment (Protection) Act, 1986

The Environment (Protection) Rules, 1986

Hazardous Wastes (Management and Handling) Rules, 1989

Manufacture, Storage and Import of Hazardous Chemical Rules, 1989

The Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980

The Forest (Conservation) Rules, 1981

The Wildlife Protection Act, 1972

The Wildlife (Transactions and Taxidermy) Rules, 1973

The Wildlife (Stock Declaration) Central Rules, 1973

The Wildlife (Protection) Licensing (Additional Matters for
Consideration) Rules, 1983

The Wildlife (Protection) Rules, 1995

The Wildlife (Specified Plants - Conditions for Possession by Licensee)
Rules, 1995

The Public Liability Insurance Act, 1991

The Public Liability Insurance Rules, 1991

The National Environment Tribunal Act, 1995

The National Environment Appellate Authority Act, 1997
Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972
• Defines wildlife related terminology
• Lists endangered species and prohibits
hunting of endangered species.
• Protection to some endangered plants,
pitcher plant, blue vanda etc.
• The Act provide for setting National Park
and Wildlife sanctuaries etc.
• There is a provision for trade and commerce
of some wildlife species with license for sale,
possession, transfer etc.
• The Act impose ban on the trade or
commerce some animals
• Provides captive breeding program for
endangered species.
• Conservation projects for endangered species
under the Act – Lion (1972), Tiger (1973),
Crocodile (1974) brown antlered deer (1981).
• Major draw backs of the Act:
• Mild penalty to the offenders, illegal wildlife trade
• Personal ownership certificate for tiger and leopard
skins
• No coverage for foreign endangered wildlife
• Pitiable condition of wildlife in mobile zoos
• little emphasis on protection of plant genetic
resources.
Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980
• Conservation of all types of forests.
• Salient features of the Act:
• State government-have to seek Central government
permission for mining and other activities in forest.
• Any illegal non-forest activity within a forest area can
stopped by this Act.
• Amendment of Forest Act, 1992
• Prior permission from Central government is needed
for activity involving cutting of trees such as
transmission lines, seismic survey, exploration, drilling
and hydroelectric projects.
• Wildlife sanctuaries and National parks are totally
prohibited for any exploration or survey under this
Act.
• Cultivation of tea, coffee, spices, rubber, cash crops
are not allowed in reserve forest.
• Even cultivation of fruit-bearing trees, oil-yielding
plants, medicinal plants needed approval from
Central govt. Because, it may cause ecological
imbalance.
• Tusser cultivation (silk yielding insect) is allowed as
long as it doesn’t involves monoculturing (Asan or
Arjun trees). But, plantation of mulberry is
prohibited.
• Mining, removal of stones, bajri, boulder etc are
prohibited in forest area.
• Any proposal on non-forestery activity must have a
cost-benefit analysis and EIA with reference to its
ecological and socio-economic impacts.

• Forest Act brings in conservation and protection of

forest and prevent deforestation.
Water (Prevention and Control of
Pollution) Act, 1974
• It provides maintenance and restoring of ground and
surface water by preventing and controlling
pollution.
• Salient features of the Act:
• Provides establishment of Central and State Board
pollution control and power to control pollution.
• Act has provision to fund, budgets, accounts and audit
the Central and State pollution control board. It can also
penalize defaulters.

• Duties of Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB):

• It advice Central Government – prevention and
control of water pollution.
• Provides technical assistance and guidance to State
Pollution Control Board.
• Organize training programs and nation-wide program
for prevention and control of pollution.
• Collects, compiles and publishes technical and
statistical data related to pollution.
• Prepares manual for treatment and disposal of
sewage and trade effluents.
• Mention the parameters of good quality water
• Establish and recognizes laboratories for analysis of
water, sewage or trade effluent sample.
• It advices State govt. on location of industry that
might pollute stream or well.
• It is empowered to take samples from any stream,
well or trade effluent or sewage passing through an
industry.
• The Board suggests efficient methods for utilization,
treatment and disposal of trade effluents.

• The Act details the power of the Board to obtain

information on trade samples, restrict new outlets,
expansion and entry, inspect the units and sanction or
refuse consent to the industry after effluent analysis.

• Installation and proper functioning of effluent

treatment plants is all polluting industries is a must for
checking pollution of water and land.

• Development is necessary but not at the cost of

pollution.
Air (Prevention and Control of
Pollution) Act, 1981
• The Act provides for prevention, control and
reduction of air pollution.
• Pollution Control Boards at the Center and State
have power to check the emission standard or air
pollutant and accordingly it can grant or refuse to
the industry.
• Act has provision to fund, accounts and audit the Central
and State pollution control board. It can also penalize
defaulters.
• The Act has provision for ensuring emission standards from
automobiles.
• State government can declare after consultation with SPCB
an area within the state as “air pollution control area”.
• The Head of the State, The Governor can appoint Appelate
Authority to hear grievance of aggrieved party (industry).
Environment (Protection) Act, 1986
• The Act, powers the Central government to protect
environment.
• The Act include setting up of
• Standards of quality of air, water or soil
• Maximum permissible limits of pollutant in the
environment.
• The prohibition and restriction on the handling of
hazardous substances.
• The prohibition and restriction on the location of
industries.
• The procedures and safeguards for the prevention of
accidents and remedial measures for such accidents.
• It provides power to entry, inspect and analyze the
samples.
• Permissible pollution limit varies.
• Guidelines for SPCB – Emphasize industries
for waste management, reduce waste, 3R,
co-friendly technology.
• While permitting discharge of effluent and
emission SPCB must take into account the
assimilative capacity of receiving medium.
• Monitor the quality of discharging water.
• EIA report, risk analysis, NOC from SPCB,
source of water, electricity, summary of
project report etc. should be obtained for
the development projects.
• Hazardous Wastes Rules, 1989 – Proper
handling, storage, transportation, treatment
and dispose off without adverse effects.
Impact assessment methodologies

Approaches developed to identify, predict and value
changes of an action.

The process of calculating projected effects that a

proposed action or construction project will have on
environmental quality is called environmental assessment.

A methodical, reproducible, and reasonable method is

needed to evaluate both the effect of the proposed
project and the effects of alternatives that may achieve the
same ends but that may have different environmental
impacts.

A number of semiquantitative approaches, among them

the checklist, the interaction matrix, and the checklist with
weighted rankings, have been used.

Video on EIA

The development of methodologies to assess impacts
depend on
◦ The relationships between territorial elements (or
characteristics) and the actions
◦ The specific measurements and the necessary information
to estimate the impacts
◦ The mitigation measures, compensation and follow-up

Objectives of methodologies
◦ Understand the nature and location of the project and
possible alternatives
◦ Identify factors of analysis and assessment objectives
◦ Preliminary identification of impacts and scoping
◦ Baseline studies and evolution in the absence of projects
◦ Prediction and assessment of impacts and alternatives
comparison
◦ Mitigation
◦ Monitoring and impacts management

Example of methods
◦ Experts judgement

◦ Checklists and matrices

◦ Flowcharts and decision trees

◦ Multicriteria analysis

◦ Case comparison

◦ Simulation Models

◦ GIS and map overlays

◦ Contingency analysis

◦ CBA, CEA, other economic evaluation

Check lists

Simple : no
information needed
on magnitude or
importance of
impacts"

Descriptive, require
information on
magnitude or
importance of
impacts as well as
indication on
prediction methods
and indicators."

Questionnaires,
three types of
answer: ‘yes’, ‘no’,
‘may be’
Advantages

Structured list of key potential factors for
analysis or key impacts

Often result from experts judgement published
by public / international organizations

Enable interdisciplinary discussions

Preparatory stage for matrix assessment
(checklist of actions /activities and checklist of
environmental components);

Disadvantage

Guided tour - standard analysis, misses specific
issues
Checklist with weighted rankings
c1 x + c2 y + c3 z = C1

x, y, z are chosen factors of impacts or the magnitudes and c1, c2 and
c3 are the weighting factors or quantification of importance and C1
is the assessment

Example of EIA - Project: Highway construction (Checklist)

Content: EIS prepared for the project according to EIA guidelines

Time frame: Has three phases; planning, construction and operation

Space frame: has considered, the highway route and the acquisition
and condemnation of property
Other factors:

In construction phase: displacement of people, noise, soil erosion, air
& water pollution, and energy use

In operation phase: direct impacts owing to noise, water pollution
resulting from runoff, energy use, etc. and indirect impacts owing to
regional development, housing, lifestyle, and economic development
For the sake of assessment –
importance (c1, c2, c3, ….) = integer -5 ≤ m ≤ 5
magnitude (x,y,z…) = integer 0 ≤ n ≤ 5
Potential Impact
Displacement of people
Noise
Soil erosion
Air & water pollution
Energy used
Regional Development
Housing

Lifestyle
Economic Development
Total

EIA may consider the project a balanced one

Matrix method

Double entrance tables, permit establishment of
relationships:
◦ Project actions or activities (causes)
◦ The environmental factors (effects)

Functions:
◦ Preliminary identification of impacts (scoping)
◦ Comparative analysis of alternatives
◦ Impact assessment
◦ Presentation of evaluation results

• In this method interactions, as in the checklist technique, are

measured in terms of magnitude and importance.
• Values may then be assigned to the interaction, with 1 being a
small and 5 being a large magnitude or importance
• Appropriate blocks are filled in, using a great deal of judgement
and personal bias, and then are summed over a line, thus giving
a numerical grade for either the proposed action or
environmental characteristics.

Leopold matrix method

EIA should consist of
three basic elements:

a) a listing of the effects
on the environment that
the proposed
development may induce,
including the estimate of
the magnitude of each of
the effects

b) an evaluation of the
importance of each of
listed effects (e.g., regional
vs. local) and
Magnitude (left-hand corner) and

c) a summary evaluation,
Importance or significance (right-hand
which is a combination of corner). Scale 1 to 10.Values can still
magnitude and importance be signaled as positive ( “+”) or
estimates. negative (“-”).
EXAMPLE: Lignite (brown) coal is to be surface-mined in the
Appalachian Mountains and it is assessed by the method.
 Environmental Impact Unit (EIU)

Environmental Quality Index (EQI) - ratio of the expected
condition to the ideal condition, after estimating ideal natural
level of environment quality.

Example: If the ideal dissolved oxygen (DO) in the stream is 9
mg/L, and the effect of the proposed action (Project) is to
lower the dissolved oxygen to 3 mg/L, the ratio would be 0.33.

Parameter Importance Unit (PIU) - Weights may be attached
to the items, usually by distributing 1000 parameter
importance units (PIU) among the items.

Assigning weights is a subjective exercise and is usually done
by the decision makers

The product of EQI and PIU, called the environmental impact
unit (EIU), and the relationship is mathematically
EIU = PIU × EQI
Some common parameters for EIA:

The listing of environmental parameters that could
be impacted by the proposed project and grouping
them into logical sets, might be
1. Ecology - Species and populations, Habitats and
communities, Ecosystems, Wetlands
2. Aesthetics - Land, Air, Water, Biota, Human-made
objects, Objects of historical or cultural significance
3. Environmental Pollution and Human Health –
Water, Air, Land, Noise
4. Economics - Jobs created or lost, Property values
Public Environmental Awareness
• Public awareness about environment in its
infancy stage.
• Development created equivalent amount or
more pollution.
• Maintaining balance between needs and supply is
very important.
• Some main reasons for environmental ignorance
• Early education doesn’t include environmental
education in academic curricula.
• Our planners, decision-makers, politicians and
administrators not trained so as to consider the
environmental aspects with their plans.
• Development projects and employment overshadows
the environmental issues.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has
outlined several key ways to increase awareness of
environmental issues worldwide.

Targeted Efforts - environmental awareness campaigns
are most successful when targeted to specific groups or
populations

Local Outreach - a government organization or non-
governmental organization (NGO) educate the people on
environmental issues - Community leaders can help ease
communication problems and bridge the cultural divide
that often stands in the way of outreach efforts

The Media - In developed countries and urban areas, the
use of print, broadcast, and Internet media can be a great
way to increase education and awareness

Classroom Education - Thirty percent of the world's
population is under the age of eighteen, according to
UNEP, which is why educating children and young adults
about environmental problems is crucial to long-term
success
Methods to Propagate Environmental
Awareness
• ‘Environment belongs to all’ and ‘every
individual matters’ when it comes to
conservation and protection of environment.
• Methods to create environmental awareness
• Through formal and informal education
• Through mass-media
• Through planners, decision-makers and
leaders.
• Through publication of environmental-related
resources through pamphlets or booklets
etc.
Environmental priorities in India and
sustainable development

The view to be among top 10 industrialized
nations is fulfilled but environment degradation
neglected

12 major areas in which priority is needed for
sustainable development.
◦ Population stabilization – population growth should
be stopped as we cannot exceed our carrying
capacity – various policies to be implemented
◦ Integrated land use planning – remote sensing can
assign appropriate land for both industry and
agricultural use – watershed management – river
valley projects, proper irrigation methods
◦ Healthy cropland and grassland – to cater to the
growing population - reduction of loss of top soil,
over-grazing problem
◦ Woodland and revegetation – conservation of
forests
◦ Conservation of biodiversity – proper conservation
strategies to be observed depending on the species
◦ Air and water pollution control – maintenance of
water and air quality through control of domestic
waste from point and dispersed sources
◦ Development of non-polluting renewable energy
systems – Eg. Biogas usage to be encouraged in
villages, conserving non-renewable sources and
using more renewable source of energy
◦ Recycling of waste and residues – to be given
immense importance - Eg. 10 % paddy crop used
remaining can be burnt for energy use
◦ Economically compatible human settlements and slum
improvement – urban usage hampers rural
development – R & D needed for environmentally
compatible human settlements
◦ Environmental education and awareness –
appointment and training of environmental advisors in
various ministries.
◦ Updating environmental law – more effects of
pollutant to be given importance to make the laws
more effective
◦ New dimensions to national security – physical and
economic access to food to all at all times
◦ General considerations – like economic development,
environmental protection for sustainable
development need to be deeply integrated in the
planning process
Priorities in the Twelfth Five Year Plan (2012-17),
planning commission , Govt. of India
1. Macro-Economic Framework (to avoid global crisis like 2008-09)
2. Energy (to supply large sections of the population for rapid
growth in GDP)
3. Transport
4. Sustainable Management of Natural Resources
5. Rural Transformation
6. Farm Sector (crop agriculture, horticulture, animal husbandry or
fisheries)
7. Manufacturing Sector
8. Health
9. Education & Skill Development
8. Social and Regional Equity
9. Challenge of Urbanisation
10. Science and Technology
11. Services: Tourism, Hospitality & Construction
12. Governance
13. Innovation
End of module 5