This training will give participants an introduction to a new approach and tool improving the quality and efficiency of the environmental and social impact assessment process and report. Since the 1970s, the basic methodology of ESIA has already much evolved to include social and health dimensions and lately global issues such as biodiversity and climate change, but it is still too focused on sector compartments. Even though the discourse is claiming to take into account the issues related to projects, plans, programs, and policies, it is often poorly done and with consequences on the ability of authorities to make informed decisions about their achievement. Innovation with new methodology and tools is necessary. The structuring of the issues related to project assessment, the development of multi-criterion analysis grids with descriptors and specific impacts of variability thresholds, and aggregation of results using methods of multi-criterion decision support (MCDA) in a multi-stakeholder context constitute measures to improve the situation.

First, we draw a diagnosis of the current ESIA practice from its origins. Then we identify two key shortcomings of EIA methods currently in use. Third, we illustrate the practical consequences of these gaps. Finally, we advance two proposals to improve the current practice. Through this course, participants will be able to proceed from issues to impacts, and they will also learn how to aggregate impacts of alternatives while taking into account both expert knowledge and stakeholder values and preferences.

Level:	Intermediate
Prerequisites:	An undergraduate or graduate course in impact assessment
Language:	French
Duration:	1 day (3 April)
Price:	US$475
Min/Max:	10-30
Instructor(s):	Jean-Philippe Waaub, GEIGER, GERAD, Geography department, UQAM (Canada) Gilles Côté, Director, Secrétariat international francophone pour l’évaluation environnementale (Canada)
Special Note:	Each participant should have a laptop and must install (in advance or on-site) the academic version of the VISUAL PROMETHEE software (http://www.promethee-gaia.net/software.html). This program runs on Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8 and later. It is possible to run it on MacOS, but such participants should contact the instructors in advance for installation instructions.

 

Jean-Philippe Waaub. Full professor, Geography department, UQAM. Member of Group for Interdisciplinary Studies in Geography and Regional Environment (GEIGER-UQAM). Member of the Québec FRQNT research strategic cluster Group for Research in Decision Analysis (GERAD; HEC, Polytechnique, McGill, UQAM). Codirector of team Energy and Environment at GERAD. His research in Quebec, Canada, Europe, Caribbean and Africa deals with environmental assessment (strategic environmental assessment, public participation, capacity building), multicriteria and mulit-stakeholders decision aid tools (knowledge based decision, deliberation, negotiation) applied to public policies related to natural resource management, land-use planning, development, and modeling of industrial systems related to climate change.

Gilles Côté is Director of the Secrétariat international francophone pour l’évaluation environnementale (SIFÉE). SIFÉE a non profit organisation created in 1997 with the support of the Quebec and French governments. Its mandate is to promote environmental assessment (EA) in countries members of the Francophonie. Mr. Côté has a multidisciplinary training in legal sciences, environment, geography and regional development. His research topics at the graduate and post doctoral level are related to environmental assessment, public participation, multicriteria and multi-stakeholders decision aid tools applied to natural resource management, land-use planning and development. He also worked in the private sector and as such participated to the realization of many environmental impact studies of projects in Canada and abroad. Finally, he taught in several universities in Quebec as part-time lecturer.