Wold Ecology

Environmental Impact Assessments

The term 'environmental impact assessment' (EIA) describes a procedure that must be followed for certain types of project before they can be given 'development consent'. The procedure is a means of drawing together, in a systematic way, an assessment of a project's likely significant environmental effects. This helps to ensure that the importance of the predicted effects, and the scope for reducing them, are properly understood by the public and the relevant competent authority before it makes its decision.

Environmental impact assessment enables environmental factors to be given due weight, along with economic or social factors, when planning applications are being considered. It helps to promote a sustainable pattern of physical development and land and property use in cities, towns and the countryside. If properly carried out, it benefits all those involved in the planning process.

Wold Ecology does more than just provide a formal assessment to satisfy planning requirements.  By assessing potential ecological impacts at an early stage, we help to save time, money and potential conflicts, and provide cost-effective ecological enhancements post-developments.

There are five principal steps in the environmental assessment process, all followed by Wold Ecology:

  1. The Scoping Stage
  2. Baseline Studies
  3. Assessment Studies
  4. Mitigation Options
  5. Production of the Environmental Statement, including a non-technical summary.

Wold Ecology have been comissioned to produce Environmental Statements and conduct supporting baseline surveys from Yorkshire to the Boreal Forest of Russia. Please contact us for more information on this service