ABSTRACT
This chapter explains how environmental and social considerations play an important role in the planning and design work for engineering projects. It presents Environmental considerations and assessment programs. Prior to the 1970s, engineers focused primarily on the technical and economic aspects of projects, without giving due concern to the social and environmental impacts of their work. The term, sustainability, has been adopted in the business world to connote the principles of social and environmental responsibility. Environmental Impact Assessment is now an integral part of the planning of an engineering project, just as economic, financial and social issues and technical analyses are. The environmental impact statement usually includes social impacts as well as effects on the physical and biological components of the environment. The time dimension is a key component of sustainability. Sustainability has thus been explained as being the state for which all social well-being and development are within the Earth's biological capacity.
