ABSTRACT
An important form of impact assessment focuses on cities, or communities or neighbourhoods, or sometimes on minorities like immigrants or indigenous people. At the citywide level these impact assessments may make use of the quantitative, computer-assisted regional multiplier programs. At the more local level they are usually quantitative and qualitative case studies, examining economic, social, political and cultural change. In 1980 the British journal Built Environment devoted an issue to the concept of urban impact assessment. Social impact assessment (SIA) is often concerned with a tension between preservation and change. SIA often involves the assessment of impacts on populations different from the core or majority populations of a country, such as native people in North America, or migrant workers in Europe. The exclusion of autonomous local community or tribal input to the environmental impact statements reflects aninstitutional framework which creates an environment inimical to good environmental impact assessment and useful scientific analysis.
