Suchergebnisse

The environmental impact assessment (EIA) was first required by the U.S. National Environmental Policy Act, which require environmental impact assessment of all major development projects to determine their potential for adverse effects on the environment. The environmental outlook for the Nile basin remains quite hazy. In the future there will be new environmental challenge stemming from population growth, increasing demands on agriculture, and climate change. This will put a huge burden on the environment. This research initiated to compare the international EIA guidelines in order to enhance the Nile Basin Countries experience to improve its practice in managing the environmental resources. This is due to the fact that Nile Basin Countries experiences face many challenges such as lack of capacity, data, proper guidelines, enforcement, and most importantly awareness of the environment protection sector or its effectiveness. Moreover; it requires reviewing and tools improvements to produce effective environmental management of development and engineering projects. Therefore, provision of detailed guidelines for EIA can help to improve the practice in the management of environmental resources. This paper reviews the EIA legislation in the Nile Basin Countries in comparison with international legislation and guidelines with emphasis on the EIA practice. The paper also intends to present selected international EIA guidelines in a comparative form and this is expected to raise awareness, professional experience of EIA issues, enhance EIA carrying capacity, and lead, ultimately, to improvements in available EIA legislations and guidelines and increase compatibility among them.

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is a key aspect of many large-scale planning applications. It is a technique which is meant to help in understanding the potential environmental impacts of major development proposals. Unfortunately, the process and the outcome of EIA can be complex and confusing, leaving local communities unsure as to how a development might affect them. The objective of this research is to provide a strategic environmental framework for the environmentally sustainable development of the Nile River Basin, to improve the understanding of the relationship between water resources development and environmental conservation in the Basin, and to provide a forum to discuss development paths for the Nile with a wide range of stakeholders. Focusing on transboundary issues provides the riparian countries with a major opportunity to make significant progress towards their economic and environmental goals in ways that have proved difficult to achieve independently. In addition, the paper analyzes some EIAs carried into Egypt, which share the Nile as a common environmental resource with the other Nile basin countries, and discusses how improvements of guidelines and unification of legislation can improve cooperation among these countries. Finally, the paper recommends an EIA process revision to be implemented for effective EIA practice in the Nile Basin Countries.