This course is aimed at individuals who may have recently started to work with some form of impact assessment, or will be doing so in the near future, and need to learn more about the nature of the process.  One key purpose of the course is to broaden participants’ understanding of the impact assessment process as a whole and to appreciate the breadth of application and what constitutes good practice impact assessment.  In particular it aims to show that the basic principles of impact assessment are shared across all forms of the approach and in different decision-making contexts (policies through to projects). 

A second important aim is to highlight significant emerging trends in impact assessment, both in specific forms of impact assessment but also in newer applications of impact assessment. The latter category would include, for example, the consolidation of the Equator Principles among private sector financial institutions, the increasing recognition of human rights impact assessment, and the steady expansion of climate change impact assessment.

The first part of the course sets the scene, addressing the purposes and benefits of well grounded impact assessment. A generic model of impact assessment is then employed to explore the broad methods and approaches of IA.  That model emphasizes an integrated perspective of impact assessment and underpins the consideration, in the second part of the course, of the various forms of impact assessment: from social, cultural, and health, to ecological/biophysical; and from strategic assessment of policies to project level IA.  This platform is then used to explore some of the more important trends in impact assessment.

Level:	Foundation
Prerequisites:	None
Language:	English
Duration:	2 days (2-3 April)
Price:	US$475
Min/Max:	10-25
Instructor(s):	Richard Morgan, Professor, Department of Geography, University of Otago (New Zealand)

 

Dr. Richard Morgan is a Professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Otago, New Zealand, with teaching and research interests in environmental impact assessment, environmental management, and the scientific study of human impacts on soil and vegetation systems. He is the author of an international text, "Environmental Impact Assessment: a methodological perspective", published by Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1998/1999 (currently being revised for a second edition, for Springer), and many other papers and reports on impact assessment implementation and practice.   Invited author of “EIA: the state of the art” in the March 2012 special issues of IAPA (now most cited, and most downloaded paper in the journal). Current chair of the New Zealand Association for Impact Assessment (NZAIA), an affiliate of IAIA. President of IAIA 2003-4, President elect 2002-3, Past President 2004-5.