introduction

The need for a systematic method of evaluating the environmental effects of a project or a plan has been recognized for several decades. Environmental impact assessment, EIA, was introduced as a means to accomplish this in the USA in the early 1970s. Since then the use of EIA has spread throughout the world and the methodology has been developed and adapted to various purposes connected to decision making at different levels in enterprises and society. EIA has been applied to projects and plans of various scales. It is used in local projects and development, but also for regional and even global issues.

Ad Hoc Method Ad hoc methods are not really methods as they do not structure the problem so it is more amenable to systematic analysis. A good example of an ad hoc method is a team of experts assembled for a short time to conduct an EIA. Each expert's conclusions are based on a unique combination of experience, training and instruction. These conclusions are assembled into a report. Sometimes this is the only required or possible approach. In other instances, when more scientific methods are available, it is not sufficient to rely on ad hoc methods.

Checklists Checklists are standard lists of the types of impacts associated with a particular type of project. Checklists methods are primarily for organizing information or ensuring that no potential impact is overlooked. They are a more formalized version of ad hoc approaches in that specific areas of impact are listed and Instructions are supplied for impact identification and evaluation.

There are four general types of checklists: 1. Simple Checklist: a list of environmental parameters with no guidelines on how they are to be measured and interpreted. 2.Descriptive Checklist: includes an identification of environmental parameters and guidelines on how to measure data on particular parameters. 3.Scaling Checklist: similar to a descriptive checklist, but with additional information on subjective scaling of the parameters.

4.Scaling Weighting Checklist: similar to a scaling checklist, with additional information for the subjective evaluation of each parameter with respect to all the other parameters.

Advantages they are useful in summarizing information to make it accessible to specialists from other fields or to decision makers who may have a limited amount of technical knowledge; scaling checklists provide a preliminary level of analysis; and weighting is a mechanism for incorporating information about ecosystem functions.

DISADVANTAGES 1. they are too general or incomplete; 2. they do not illustrate interactions between effects; 3. the number of categories to be reviewed can be immense, thus distracting from the most significant impacts; and 4. the identification of effects is qualitative and subjective.