The new EIA Directive and UK water impact assessment practice

How does the recent transposition of the EIA Directive (2014/52/EU) into UK legislation affect impact assessment practice related to the water environment?

Steve Mustow, Head of Environmental Planning, shares his research in a paper entitled “The new EIA Directive and UK water impact assessment”, published by Taylor & Francis in Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal.

Watch the short video abstract below:

After identifying the elements of the new Directive, such as requirements relating to monitoring, climate change (including adaptation), biodiversity, human health and co-ordination with Water Framework Directive Assessment, Steve Mustow assesses the extent to which existing guidance and practice already meet these new requirements.

He then identifies key areas where Water Impact Assessment (WIA) practice needs to be adapted to take account of the new requirements.

The paper concludes that substantial changes in practice are needed to incorporate human health assessment into WIA and to demonstrate that competent experts are used to conduct WIA. It also considers that new guidance will be required relating to competent experts and improved guidance will be required for Water Framework Directive (WFD) Assessment.

Dr Steve Mustow is a Fellow of the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM), and is the author of several articles tackling current environmental issues, including a study of EIA in the context of space exploration, and the implications of Artificial Intelligence on the environmental sector.  

Visit Steve Mustow’s LinkedIn page to read all his recent articles.