Environmental Assessment for Sustainable Development

Quatrième de couverture

Argumentaire

TARGET MARKET
This book targets professors and university students interested in environmental assessment (EA), and particularly in environmental impact assessment (EIA), as well as all actors involved in the environmental scene including practitioners, members of non-governmental organizations, decision makers and citizens who wish to know more about managing their environment more effectively.

NEED
Multiple environmental problems afflict our contemporary world and have been the subject of discussions during many international meetings. All declarations resulting from these meetings insist on including environmental problems and on EA as an important tool to achieve this. This book aims to reach three objectives. First, it introduces EA to people from different disciplines, and therefore it opens up the perspective of new disciplinary horizons. Second, the authors discuss EA as a socio-political process rather than emphasizing methodologies. Third, this book draws mainly on the experience in Francophone countries which is still poorly disseminated.

SUBJECT
Since this book is aimed at a multidisciplinary clientele with multiple interests, the authors decided to approach the subject by focussing on process and actors. Thus, the subject matter is divided into five major parts: the history and major issues of EA from a sustainable development perspective (Chapters 1 to 3); the actors, i.e. the Project Proponent and consulting firms, the public, the decision maker and international actors (Chapters 4 to 7); methods and tools including public participation (Chapters 8 and 9); processes in practice through step by step processes in pratice and cas studies (Chapters 10 and 11); and, finally, recent and upcoming developments in EA, including elements of strategic environmental assessment (Chapters 12 and 13). An index facilitates searching for information. The reader is also invited to consult the book's website.