Griffith, A (1996) Review of environmental assessment in UK building construction: Current awareness, concerns and issues. Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, 3(3), pp. 205-217. ISSN 0969-9988
Abstract
Environmental Assessment (EA) or Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is the recognized procedure for ensuring that the potential environmental effects of new building or engineering development are considered before planning approval is consented. There is no doubt that all construction projects have a profound effect upon their environs and therefore accurate and reliable environmental assessment is essential. As the concept of environmental assessment perpetuates and experience grows through application, greater attention is being directed towards the evaluation of its effectiveness. This paper focuses specifically on this issue. Drawing upon a series of interviews with respondents from regional planning authorities and local planning department offices, investigation identifies current thoughts, highlights some of the principal concerns and issues that have arisen in early application, and views the likely future orientation of environmental assessment in the UK. The principal intention of this paper is to review current opinion on environment assessment procedures and practice at this time. Many aspects concerning the concept, principles and practices of EA, some of which start to emerge in this paper, remain for future research and investigation.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | environment; environmental impact assessment |
| Index terms: | environmental assessment, regional planning, construction project, drawing, building construction, approval, interview, local planning, environmental effect, effectiveness, investigation, environmental impact assessment |
| Subjects: | building construction, urban design, production management, performance management, technical documentation, environmental impact, data collection methods, contractual role |
| Topics: | Contract Administration, Quality Management, Urban Studies, Design Practice, Sustainability, Construction Technology, Research Practice, Project Management |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCEA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here