Environmental Impact Assessment Handbook – a Practical Guide for Planners, Developers and Communities, Second Edition

This is an extremely well organised and usable guide, fully updated compared with the first edition. It is potentially suitable for a wide range of users, perhaps principally practitioners in the planning area, but also interested members of local communities affected by planning decisions as well as academics and students. It is probably the kind of book more likely to be used for reference than read as a whole.

The guide is organised into six easy-to-read chapters, which cover most things the typical reader will need to know. Each chapter is illustrated, contains useful facts, detailed information on processes and legal procedures, numerous well-explained case study examples, background to the guiding principles and sources of further information. The chapters are structured to cover all the relevant steps in relation to undertaking environmental impact assessment, from when and why to undertake and the role of the team, through the preparation of environmental statements and submission procedures, to mitigation of impacts.

If I have one criticism it is the final chapter on ‘Strategic environmental assessment’ – I guess in my view, although I can understand the logic for its inclusion, this topic is really worthy of equivalent coverage to that given to ‘Environmental impact assessment’ in the preceding five chapters, and thus sits rather untidily at the end of the guide.

In summary, for those working in the area, the guide is an essential addition to the bookcase.