Development projects are main couses of environmental problems such as nature destruction. Environmental Impact Assessment or EIA as a tool for public participation is one of the most effective and strong environmental conservation policy tool to achieve "Sustainable Development, SD", "SDGs", ESG investing and "Nature Positive". And it depends on policies on ”mitigation hierarchy” in EIA systems. However mitigation policies vary by government and even worse EIA system itself is not well known in our societies. The goal of this course is to understand what EIA system is and how EIA can integrate environmental consideration to development projects by observance of "mitigation hierarchy" .
This course focuses on nature/biological issues such as ecosystems, habitats, endangered species, flora & fauna. You will learn fundamentals of EIA including purpose, procedure, methodology, mitigation measures, public participations in EIA procedure.
As an ecological impact assessment tool, Habitat Evaluation Procedure (HEP) and Habitat Suitability Index Models (HSI models), the most popular quantitative habitat assessment methods are also learned. “Biodiversity offset” and its market-oriented economic instrument “biodiversity banking” are discussed as the forefront of strategic ecological mitigation measures. We may also discuss relationship between newly introduced policies/mechanisms such as "Nature Positive", "TNFD, "30 by 30".