Demonstrating the benefits of impact assessment for proponents

Morrison-Saunders, Angus, Bond, Alan ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3809-5805, Pope, J and Retief, Francois (2015) Demonstrating the benefits of impact assessment for proponents. Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal, 33 (2). pp. 108-115. ISSN 1461-5517

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Abstract

This paper is a call for more studies that explicitly demonstrate the benefits of impact assessment to proponents. While the community of impact assessment practitioners generally believe that impact assessment is beneficial (to all stakeholders), empirical demonstration of this, particularly to project proponents, is warranted, and especially in financial terms. While many impact assessment benefits are intangible in nature, learning from the business and management literature shows how such benefits can usefully be measured based upon perceptions of managers within proponent agencies in tandem with archival material. A framework of the nature of impact assessment benefits for proponents, and their relative tangibility is presented along with a five step methodology for determining benefits. We now call upon impact assessment researchers and practitioners alike to use this framework and methodology to structure investigations from practice that will contribute to an empirical database for demonstrating the benefits of impact assessment to proponents.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: impact assessment benefits,proponents,cost-benefit analysis,effectiveness
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences
UEA Research Groups: Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Environmental Social Sciences
Depositing User: Pure Connector
Date Deposited: 01 May 2015 09:52
Last Modified: 21 Oct 2022 00:14
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/53338
DOI: 10.1080/14615517.2014.981049

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