ABSTRACT
In Norway there are no general or special requirements in any Act on performing cost-benefit analysis (CBA) of projects or regulatory actions. However, impact analysis (IA) in general is mentioned in several Acts and/or in the provisions of the Acts. The regulations and provisions concerning IA of these Acts differ with respect to explicit requirements on:
(1) The contents of the IA, which include: (a) types of effects analysed (economic, environmental,
sociological effects etc.); (b) analysis of impacts during the construction period; (c) analysis of alternative actions; (d) outline plan to be worked out (i.e. evaluation of effects
in relation to County Plans, Municipal Master Plans, etc.);
(e) counter-measures to be analysed (i.e. what measures can reduce/eliminate damages or disadvantages caused by the project)
Other aspects include: (2) the drawing up of a detailed scheme/programme for the
construction of the IA; (3) stepwise performance of the IA (i.e. preliminary--{;omplete
analysis, etc.); ( 4) broad co-operation and early participation of all affected
interests (i.e. public information about the project, IA submitted for affected interests' opinion etc.);
(5) use of IA in the process of choice of location, choice and
framing of regulations etc.; (6) lA as a specified document, suited for public presentation and
debate; (7) evaluation of the need for follow up-studies and ex post factso
evaluation in lA.
