Evaluating Environmental and Social Impact Assessment in Developing Countries - Hardcover

Momtaz, Salim; Kabir, Zobaidul

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0124081290 ISBN 13: 9780124081291

Publisher: Elsevier, 2013

Synopsis

Evaluating Environmental and Social Impact Assessment in Developing Countries is a valuable reference book for practitioners and researchers conducting research in and developing studies on environmental science and management and environmental and social impact assessment. The book’s authors have developed and tested a new framework to evaluate environmental impact assessment (EIA) systems that may be adopted by most developing countries with EIA experience. Application of this framework will help determine if the EIA is achieving its intended goal of sustainable development in these countries. It also explains the reasons behind the strengths and weaknesses from which the development practitioners and international development partners can take lessons. This book will help the reader answer such questions as "What are the best forms of public participation?" and "How do we measure contributions to EIA procedure?" since it is based on direct experiences from a developing country that is struggling with many of these issues. Evaluating Environmental and Social Impact Assessment in Developing Countries provides further understanding of appropriate tools to evaluate environmental and social impacts of development initiatives especially in developing countries.

• Demonstrates the development of an integrated holistic method that presents new research in the field
• Offers a thorough analytical assessment of an EIA system in a developing country
• Presents valuable insights into how developing countries are coping with the new phenomenon of public participation and involvement in environmental decision making and what methods and techniques have been successful
• Includes a chapter on social impact assessment in developing countries with special focus on Bangladesh, providing valuable information applicable to developing countries

About this title

About the Authors

Dr. Salim Momtaz is an Associate Professor, School of Environmental and Life Sciences at the University of Newcastle, Australia. He teaches in the area of Sustainable Resource Management. He received his BSc and MSc degrees in Geography from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. He obtained a PhD in Sustainable Development from the University of London under a Commonwealth Scholarship. Salim migrated to Australia in 1994. From 1995 to 1998 he taught Geography at Central Queensland University, Australia. He joined the University of Newcastle in 1999 where he has been teaching since. He had a stint in the US as a Visiting Professor at Georgetown University, Washington DC. He received Rotary International Ambassadorial Fellowship to teach and conduct research in Bangladesh. Salim’s current research interests include climate change adaptation, environmental governance and social impact assessment. Salim led the team that conducted one of the first social impact assessment studies in Australia ‘Independent Social Impact Assessment, RSERC, Rockhampton, 1998’. Salim published six books and many articles in international journals. He was a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee, Netherlands Government Research Organization, between 2007 and 2010 and is currently on the panel of international reviewers with the Swiss National Science Foundation.

Dr. S.M. Zobaidul Kabir is currently working at the Centre for Environmental Management (CEM), CQUniversity, Australia, as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the area of environmental and social impact assessment. In addition to research, he teaches social and economic impact assessment at CQUniversity under Environmental Management program. Recently, he has obtained Doctor of Philosophy on Sustainable Resource Management from the University of Newcastle, Australia, under the prestigious Endeavour Postgraduate Award. Earlier, he obtained Master of Environmental Management and Master of Diplomacy from the Australian National University under AusAID scholarship.

Dr. Kabir has more than 7 years of research experience in the area of ex-post evaluation of environmental performance of development projects, environmental policy analysis, environmental and social impact assessment of development projects, and social appraisal of mine closure plan. He worked for the Government of Bangladesh as a civil servant and held various positions. He also worked for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Bangladesh, as a National Project Professional Personnel (NPPP).

He has more than 12 publications as scholarly journal articles and peer-reviewed conference proceedings. His research interests include impact assessment, greening business, community engagement, liveability assessment, environmental governance and sustainability assessment. He is a member of International Association of Impact Assessment (IAIA) and Environmental Institute of Australia and New Zealand.

From the Back Cover

Evaluating Environmental and Social Impact Assessment in Developing Countries uses a novel and integrated approach to evaluate the effectiveness of environmental and social impact assessment systems, especially in developing countries. Bangladesh is presented as a case study. Application of this framework and lessons learned from Bangladesh will help determine whether the environmental impact assessment (EIA) is achieving its intended goal of sustainable development in developing countries.

Key features:

• Presents valuable insights into how developing countries are coping with the new phenomenon of public participation and involvement in environmental decision making and which methods and techniques have been successful
• Critically analyzes all aspects of the EIA procedure, including legislative and administrative status, implementation of EIA, and post-EIA follow-up
• Explains the reasons behind the strengths and weaknesses of EIA and SIA from which development practitioners and international development partners can learn lessons

Edition details

• Publisher: Elsevier
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0124081290
• ISBN 13: 9780124081291
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224