Environmental Impact Assessment (Eia)
Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA): * A formal process to predict the environmental consequence of human development activities and to plan an appropriate measure to eliminate or reduce the adverse impacts and to augment positive impacts. * EIA is an attempt to identify measure and evaluate the environmental impacts of a course of actions. Here, actions mean any development, strategy which will change an existing system. * According to LGED, assessment of beneficial and adverse change in the environmental resources or values, resulting from any proposed project.
Methods available for conducting EIA study are: * Checklist method * Matrix method * Overlays method * Network diagram method * Baseline studies * Mathematical modeling * Simulation modeling
Matrix
Matrix methods identify interactions between various project actions and environmental parameters and components. They incorporate a list of project activities with a checklist of environmental components that might be affected by these activities. A matrix of potential interactions is produced by combining these two lists (placing one on the vertical axis and the other on the horizontal axis). One of the earliest matrix methods was developed by Leopold et al. (1971). In a Leopold matrix and its variants, the columns of the matrix correspond to project actions (for example, flow alteration) while the rows represent environmental conditions (for example, water, temperature). The impact associated with the action columns and the environmental condition row is described in terms of its magnitude and significance.
Most matrices were built for specific applications, although the Leopold Matrix itself is quite general. Matrices can be tailor-made to suit the needs of any project that is to be evaluated. They should preferably cover both the construction and the operation phases of the project, because sometimes, the former causes greater impacts than the latter. Simple matrices are
Methods available for conducting EIA study are: * Checklist method * Matrix method * Overlays method * Network diagram method * Baseline studies * Mathematical modeling * Simulation modeling
Matrix
Matrix methods identify interactions between various project actions and environmental parameters and components. They incorporate a list of project activities with a checklist of environmental components that might be affected by these activities. A matrix of potential interactions is produced by combining these two lists (placing one on the vertical axis and the other on the horizontal axis). One of the earliest matrix methods was developed by Leopold et al. (1971). In a Leopold matrix and its variants, the columns of the matrix correspond to project actions (for example, flow alteration) while the rows represent environmental conditions (for example, water, temperature). The impact associated with the action columns and the environmental condition row is described in terms of its magnitude and significance.
Most matrices were built for specific applications, although the Leopold Matrix itself is quite general. Matrices can be tailor-made to suit the needs of any project that is to be evaluated. They should preferably cover both the construction and the operation phases of the project, because sometimes, the former causes greater impacts than the latter. Simple matrices are