PUBLIC INVOLVEMENT IN ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT

✍ Scribed by Dickinson, Janet

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1996
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 742 KB
• Volume: 6
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0961-0405
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-0976(199601)6:1<14::aid-eet56>3.0.co;2-j

✦ Synopsis

As EC Directives are intended to produce changes in practice, they bring forward not only changes in legislation, but also changes in professional activity. This paper arises from a study of UK professional activity which seeks to implement one aspect of EC policy, namely public consultation in environmental assessment (EA). Evidence collected during 1994 and 1995 from a questionnaire survey and interviews with planning and landscape architect practitioners involved in EA is reported. Different concepts of public consultation and the problems encountered are examined through a consideration of practitioners' experience of public consultation with respect to landscape and visual impacts. There are specific problems relating to the assessment of landscape and visual impacts, but the implications are similar for other areas of EA. The picture that emerges is one of professionals accepting or even being enthusiastic about public consultation while being involved in a process in which both sides experience confusion and frustration. The results have important implications for consultation methodologies and EC policy. CCC 0961 -0405 / 96 / 01001pO7 0 1996 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.