ABSTRACT
The Council on Environmental Quality's recommended format for Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) includes three sections that are particularly amenable to a user-oriented approach, and to the use of fiction. These are: the summary, the description of alternatives, and the description of environmental consequences. One form of fiction, called "speculative" fiction, has been developed as a medium for exploring and sharing the possible consequences of technological developments. Combined with more traditional reporting techniques, such fictions can provide the kind of imagistic communication needed for EISs to be most effective. EIS has evolved in response to a nationally felt need for decision makers to consider their actions in terms of possible long-term effects. A particular impact assessment is undertaken in an environment in which a number of changes are being made: a new shopping center as part of a plan to upgrade an area; a new technology as a replacement for one that is dependent on increasingly rare resources.
