ABSTRACT
Social impact assessment (S.I.A.) is a tool to aid decision making by determining the full range of consequences of alternative proposed courses of action. A baseline S.I.A. is occasionally used to identify issues, potential impacts including impacted and affected publics. Thus, S.I.A. can provide an agenda for meaningful public involvement (P.I.). S.I.A.s fall heir to all the measurement problems of the social sciences generally, with the addition of having to estimate future as well as existing impacts. Improvement in the scientific quality of S.I.A. will nacessarily depends upon major improvements in measurement. S.I.A. and P.I. also share common concepts and tools. Survey use is becoming increasingly popular for both P.I. and S.I.A. Issues generated by P.I. are an expression of local values which are used both in S.I.A. as well as form the basis for land management and allocation in the planning process.
