Help
scoping — English
The process of impact identification. This process follows on the screening process (see “screening”) and it involves the identification of the impacts that should be included in the impact assessment and which impacts need not be included. A proposed development project – as a whole – might potentially pose a significant impact on the environment, but all aspects or actions involved in the project might not pose equally severe impacts. All the potentially serious impacts must be thoroughly investigated during the impact assessment phase, but it would be a waste of money and time to investigate relatively harmless and insignificant impacts. The purpose of scoping is to decide which impacts must be investigated and which need not be investigated. Scoping should identify the key issues that the impact assessment should focus on. Note that all possible impacts are considered in the scoping process, but the more harmless ones are then eliminated from further investigation. There are various methods that could be used to identify the potentially serious impacts. The scoping process produces a very important document, namely the terms of reference (ToR) for the environmental assessment phase. The ToR forms the “blue print” for the impact investigation phase. A poor or incomplete ToR could result in insufficient investigation of key issues which might eventually result in serious, expensive or even irreversible harm to the environment. Many environmental consultants and practitioners regard the scoping as the most important phase of the entire integrated environmental management procedure. Scoping is a very complex process, but there are numerous guideline documents on how it could or should be carried out. It is imperative that all stakeholders have to be involved and that the process should be well-planned and well-managed.
