A New Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) Methodology: Reducing Adverse Effects at the Site Scale for Oil and Gas Projects

English Abstract:

This paper establishes a structure for a new Environmental and Social Impact Assessment methodology for environmental and site assessment, based on experience as the hydrologist within international EIA and ESIA teams on oil and gas pipeline projects and sites in the UK, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Russia. The paper identifies several limitations in current international practice (some EIAs still fail fitness-for-purpose checks), before developing a new, 12-component framework for improved EIA, i.e: (1) interdisciplinary (vs multidisciplinary) impact evaluations; (2) specialist pre-scoping to include all key hydrological issues and sites; (3) improving links between EIA and Strategic Environmental Assessment; (4) strengthening the ‘social’ in Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA); (5) using local and ‘imported’ hydrologists to improve impact mitigation with integration of differing experiences and datasets; (6) investigations of recent and future hydrological and environmental changes to test assumptions of environmental stasis; (7) compulsory post-project appraisal and monitoring phases to validate EIA predictions of system response against actual site incidents later; (8) integration of oft-neglected site decommissioning impacts; (9) recognition of ‘reverse’ effects of hydrological processes on projects; (10) incorporation of new generations of assessment methods appropriate to local data availability, e.g. to include numerical modelling, ‘pre-build’ monitoring tests, formalised sets of field indicators of system instability, and combined remote sensing, GIS and DEM approaches and historical data sources; (11) internet publication of full ESIAs, Oil Spill Response Plans vs later site accident data; (12) external Peer Review of EIAs and EISs. The paper aims to stimulate wider international debate on the future of EIA, ESIA and SEA among hydrologists, environmental specialists, consultancies, energy companies, policy makers, legal teams and communities.