Designing and adapting the EIA planning process

The planning process in environmental impact assessment (EIA) plays a central role in structuring the application of knowledge to assist environmental decision making. This article is intended to facilitate planning process design at the regulatory and applied levels. The elements and scope of EIA planning processes, instituted and the federal and provincial levels in Canada, are first explored, as a basis for planning process design and the regulatory level. The choices available to planning process designers at the applied level are then reviewed. Consideration is given to the stages, components, and activities of the EIA planing process, critical interrelationships, the role of scoping, recent shifts in emphasis, the roles of theory and practice, and relationships to the broader environmental management context.