ID: 1574
Presenting Author: Jackie Lerner
Session: 529 - Strategic, Not Generic: The Next Generation of Regional Assessments
Status: pending
This presentation reviews 33 Canadian and international regional assessment case studies, deriving broad lessons learned as well as best practices / guiding principles for implementation.
Regional assessments are analyses undertaken where there are existing or proposed human developments, which can be used as aids in planning and decision-making (including informing project-level assessments) and to support cumulative effects management. Broadly, regional assessments address the need to consider a wider geographic area beyond a single project's location, and may be done to consider (1) the cumulative influence of past, present, and future projects within that larger area, or (2) to compare different development scenarios within a plan or project, or series of projects, and to assess these through the lens of specific goals and objectives. This presentation summarizes our review of regional assessment case studies, focusing on Canada and a few additional international studies published in English. A total of 33 case studies were ultimately selected for detailed exploration in a literature review: 31 Canadian examples and 2 international, published over twenty years (from 2003 to 2023). These included regional assessments conducted primarily as part of coastal and land use planning programs (particularly in western and northern Canada (19 case studies); and assessments conducted as part of a strategic response to specific industries, which primarily came from oil and gas and energy developments (14 case studies). From the foundations built in the review, the research team then derived broad lessons learned as well as best practices / guiding principles for implementation of regional assessment.
Dr. Jackie Lerner has nearly 30 years’ experience in the execution of impact assessments for resource development Projects in Canada, primarily mines and energy projects in British Columbia.
Coauthor 1: Dana James
Coauthor 2: Mohammad Nasir Tighsazzadeh
Coauthor 3: Jordan Tam