Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)
Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is the systematic process of identifying the future consequences of a current or proposed action. EIA is one of the major instruments integrated with a goal of making development project environmentally sound and sustainable. EIA can be described as the process of identifying, predicting, and evaluating and managing the biophysical, social, and other relevant effects of development proposals before major decisions are taken or commitments made for their implementation. A typically institutionalized EIA is applied primarily to minimize the adverse effects that large-scale development projects has on natural resources and ecosystem, and to deliver the development project towards sustainability. The scope of EIA includes consideration of all potentially significant effects of a development project - direct, indirect, and cumulative.