ABSTRACT

Environmental impact assessment was first formally established in the USA in 1969 and has since spread, in various forms, to most other countries. In the UK, EIA was initially an ad hoc procedure carried out by local planning authorities and developers, primarily for oil-and gas-related developments. A 1985 European Community directive on EIA (Directive 85/337) introduced broadly uniform requirements for EIA to all EU Member States and significantly affected the development of EIA in the UK. However, 10 years after the Directive was agreed, Member States were still carrying out widely diverse forms of EIA, contradicting the Directive’s aim of ‘levelling the playing field’. Amendments of 1997, 2003 and 2009 aimed to improve this situation. The nature of EIA systems (e.g. mandatory or discretionary, level of public participation, types of action requir - ing EIA) and their implementation in practice vary widely from country to country. However, the rapid spread of the concept of EIA and its central role in many countries’ programmes of environ - mental protection attest to its universal validity as a proactive planning tool.