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News and Events

23-29 May 2009
IAIA09 Impact Assessment and Human Well-Being
This conference will assess the relevance of human well-being in impact assessments. IAIA09 will involve discussions with experts from around the globe focusing on how impact assessment assures a healthy enviroment, sustainable development, protected ecosystems and quality of life.

6-9 November 2008
Meeting on Assessing and Managing Cumulative Environmental Effects in Calagary, Canada
The preliminary program is available and submissions for theme forum proposals and papers and posters are now open for the "Assessing and Managing Cumulative Environmental Effects" meeting to be held 6-9 November 2008.

12-24 October 2008
Making Social Impact Assessment Count for Planners and Resource Managers.
This course organized by the Western Washington Universoity in Arlington VA, USA, seeks to provide participants with the knowledge, understanding and technical skills to commission or do social impact assessment (SIA) at the community and project level for a variety of development and policy proposals for both developed and developing countries.

Welcome to the EIA Wiki

This EIA Wiki provides an online platform for the international community to engage in knowledge building on Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).

We invite everyone to login and help build knowledge on EIA. Once you have a login you can start creating, editing, or sharing content on the EIA Wiki. For more information please visit to the Welcome page.

Login and create a New EIA page

The EIA-Wiki contains currently 70 articles.
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What is EIA?

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is a tool used for aid decision making regarding the significant environmental consequences of projects, developments and programmes.

EIA helps the stakeholders with the identification of the environmental, social and economic impacts of a proposed development before a decision is taking on whether or not to proceed.

This normally includes consideration of the need for the project as well as possible alternatives (i.e. siting, designs and layout), and the no-development option.

EIA e-Course Module

EIA Course Module

The EIA e-Course Module is an open educational resource developed by the United Nations University in collaboration with RMIT University and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Economic and Trade Branch for educational and capacity building programmes with an interest on environmental assessment. The e-Course Module is an instructional learning module providing further information on EIA practice and an in depth analysis of the EIA methodology.

Featured Article

International Environmental Agreements

International Environmental Agreements have a significant impact on the institutionalization and implementation of EIA in Practice.

UN Convention on Biological Diversity

There are numerous international environmental agreements of relevance to the application of EIA. They are divided into two broad categories: green and brown lists. The green list refers to international agreements related to the conservation of the natural environment and includes the Convention on Biological Diversity. The brown list includes those agreements designed to control pollution, for example, the Framework Convention on Climate Change.