ID: 1900
Presenting Author: Maria Partidario
Session: 520 - Connecting infrastructure and IA – Assessing impacts in contested planning
Status: pending
Big picture impact assessment enables setting development contexts for multiple or individual infrastructure projects by using strategic thinking
Impact assessment has been a tremendously useful decision support instrument in assessing infrastructure projects for decades. It prevented that many right projects would be developed in the wrong site and adjusted projects to fit the right site. More frequently it has helped to adjust projects to environmental conditions with mitigation measures that avoid some impacts, minimize others, restore, compensate or off-set negative impacts. Less often it aimed to enhance positive impacts of projects, in their own setting. In doing this, different forms of Impact Assessment have generally analyzed and evaluated the project impacts in its location and area of influence, from the projects’ perspective. Fewer cases follow an impact assessment on a more general (regional or sectoral) development triggered by a project or multiple projects, or development concept. Even less take a broad strategic, motivational, approach founded on the question “why this development concept, or this project, why here, what positive change will it bring to the wider collective beings”. In this paper I want to argue that this is possible and beneficial to set the development contexts for multiple or individual major projects, sharing my experience on two examples with using strategic thinking in the assessment of infrastructure projects. I want to show that using strategic thinking can be done in concrete cases: the questions asked, the focus adopted, the needed engagement and sharing of views, the nature of outcomes and the benefits for subsequent development
Professor of Planning, Urbanism and Environment, ISTUL.International consultant on strategic assessment for sustainability, Author of the methodology Strategic thinking for sustainability (ST4S).