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Environmental Impact Assessment Exam Guide

This document provides instructions and questions for an exam on Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). The exam consists of two sections. Section A contains three questions about the European EIA Directive, the EIA process for determining if a project requires assessment, and defining baselines and data sources for assessing project impacts. Section B contains three additional questions discussing how EIA addresses climate change impacts, issues that reduce EIA effectiveness, and ways to improve EIA through legislation, process, and public consultation.

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362 views3 pages

Environmental Impact Assessment Exam Guide

This document provides instructions and questions for an exam on Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). The exam consists of two sections. Section A contains three questions about the European EIA Directive, the EIA process for determining if a project requires assessment, and defining baselines and data sources for assessing project impacts. Section B contains three additional questions discussing how EIA addresses climate change impacts, issues that reduce EIA effectiveness, and ways to improve EIA through legislation, process, and public consultation.

Uploaded by

rudiskw456
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

HERIOT-WATT UNIVERSITY

MSc in
School of Engineering and Physical Sciences

Module Code: Environmental Impact Assessment

Exam Date
Exam time

Instructions to Candidates: Answer 2 questions from Section A


and 1 question from Section B

Module code

SECTION A
1.
a) Explain the purpose of Annex I (1) and Annex II (2) from the European Directive
(Directive 85/337/EEC, as amended by 97/11/EC)
(6 marks)
b) Using an example project, explain how planning authorities in Scotland decide
whether that project requires an EIA
(14 marks)

2.
a) Explain how an effective scoping stage can benefit the overall EIA process
marks)

(10

b) Explain the responsibilities of Competent Authorities in terms of scoping

(4 marks)

c) Describe two methods or tools that can be used in the scoping process

(6 marks)

3. Using an example Project of your choice (please give very brief Project description),
choose one key impact of that project. For this key impact:
a) Explain how the current and future baseline would be defined
b) Describe the sources of secondary data that might be available
c) Explain the problems associated with using secondary baseline data sets

(6 marks)
(6 marks)
(8 marks)

Module code

SECTION B
1. Discuss the extent to which Environmental Impact Assessment can
provide solutions to the following:
a) Climate change mitigation (the impacts that a project has on climate change) (30
marks)
b) Climate change adaptation (the impacts that climate change can have on a project)
(30 marks)
2. Evaluate the extent to which the two following issues reduce the success of EIA in
achieving sustainable development:
a) The failure to scope out unimportant impacts (30 marks)
b) The inability of Environmental Statements to communicate key impacts clearly (30
marks)
3. It can be argued that EIA has become a process focused on producing an Environmental
Statement rather than a process focused on improved environmental decision-making.
Discuss how EIA could be improved:
a) Through legislation (20 marks)
b) Through process
(20 marks)
c) Through public consultation (20 marks)

End of Paper

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