anticipated environmental impacts prior to a
proposed project, policy, programme or plan
being implemented. The identification of
significant negative impacts may prevent the
proposal (which is usually a project) from
going ahead. This is very unusual. More likely,
it results in the modification of the original pro-
posal, or the introduction of measures to ameli-
orate the anticipated negative environmental
impacts. A proposal may generate positive
environmental impacts, particularly if the site
is already severely degraded, and these must
be considered in the process.
Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)
was introduced in the USA in 1969 under
the National Environmental Policy Act
(NEPA). It is now a legal requirement in many
countries, provinces/states and in some cities.
International institutions such as the World
Bank and international aid agencies also
require an EIA process on particular develop-
ment proposals. Initially, assessments were
limited to federal departments in the USA,
but EIA has expanded to include provincial/
state and private development proposals, and
developed from environmental protection to
includesustainable development, a concept
that emerged after EIA began.
There are numerous definitions of EIA.
One succinct definition is ‘an assessment of
the impact of a planned activity on the envir-
onment’ (in Glasson, Therivel and Chadwick,
2005, p. 4). The terminology varies between
countries, and often causes confusion.
For example, in some places EIA is simply
known as ‘Impact Assessment’, because it is
broader than a narrow definition of the phys-
ical environment. Elsewhere it is known as
Environmental Assessment (EA) because of
the perceived negative connotations of
‘impact’. In the USA, an EA is a preliminary
study undertaken within the EIA process to
identify the likelihood of significant impacts,
which then require the preparation of a full
EIS (Burris and Canter, 1997).
The process of EIA has become standard-
ized and incorporated into planning and
development processes in many countries.
Under some legislative frameworks, the EIA
document may be required to address issues
such as sustainable development, biodiversity,
social impacts and economic considerations.
There are also legal requirements for public
participation. Some jurisdictions include Social
Impact Assessment (SIA) within EIA, while
in other places it is a separate activity (see
Glasson, Therivel and Chadwick, 2005;
Thomas and Elliot, 2005).
Environmental Impact Assessment is some-
times seen as an important process that pre-
vents the worst aspects of proposals from
being implemented. It does not necessarily
guarantee high-quality development. In con-
trast, other people perceive the process to be a
way of legitimizing controversial development
proposals. In their view, it does very little to
maintain environmental quality. They argue
that many of the key decisions have already
been taken at the policy level, and that
the individual character of EIA often fails
to consider the cumulative impacts of each
development. In some locations these con-
cerns are partly being addressed by Strategic
Environmental Assessment (SEA) at the policy
and programme level (see Caratti, Dalkmann
and Jiliberto, 2004) and Cumulative Impact
Assessment (CIA). Glasson, Therivel and
Chadwick (2005) and others advocate that an
Integrated Environmental Assessment (IEA)
addresses all of these considerations. pmenvironmental justice The right of everyone
to enjoy and benefit from a safe and healthy
environment,regardlessofrace, class, gender
orethnicity. More specifically, environmental
justice is asocial movementthat takessocial
justiceand environmental politics as funda-
mentally inseparable. The movement has many
divergent roots, such as the labour struggles of
Cesar Chavez and Delores Huerta, and their
crusade against the use of pesticides, in the
1960s; the community-based struggles of Lois
Gibbs and others that arose from the dumping
of toxic chemicals in lower-middle-class neigh-
bourhoods at Love Canal, New York, in the
1970s; and in the responses of various offshoots
of the civil rights movement to placing of
toxic waste dumps, most famously in Warren
County, North Carolina, in the early 1980s.
Others contend that the most accurate date for
the founding of the North American environ-
mental justice movement is 1492. Whenever its
origins, the movement currently stresses three
major tenets. First, it gives attention to unequal
exposure tohazardsthrough specific policies
and practices that intentionally or unintention-
ally discriminate against individuals, groups or
communities based on race, ethnicity, class or
gender (Bullard, 1994). Second, it has become
more broadly attentive nationally and inter-
nationally to the ways in which these same
communities are differentially denied access to
and control over bothresourcesand decision-
making processes by institutions, corpor-
ationsand individuals both in the USA and
abroad (Neumann, 1998). Third, it hasGregory / The Dictionary of Human Geography 9781405132879_4_E Final Proof page 201 1.4.2009 3:17pmENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE