This Progress Report reviews implementation of Albania’s National Strategy for Socio-Economic Development (NSSED) during 2003. The report is primarily orientated toward the vitalization and harmonization of mid-term and long-term development objectives; the principle of further...

Modernization and construction of new transport infrastructure is a key element of economic and social development, on which depends the sustainability of economic growth in the regional and local scale. The development of transport infrastructure, however, has the negative effects. The...

The European Union (EU) Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Directive which was introduced some 25 years ago has had a major impact on decision-making practices in EU member states. In the professional literature, this impact has mostly been discussed under the heading of "effectiveness", with...

In this paper we establish how effectively EIA is currently utilised in the deployment of onshore and offshore wind energy in the United Kingdom (UK) and Germany. In this context, the quality of EIA documentation and the coverage of a range of key EIA aspects of 20 developments are evaluated....

Biomass is expected to play an increasingly significant role in the ‘greening’ of energy supply. Nevertheless, concerns are rising about the sustainability of large-scale energy crop production. Impacts must be assessed carefully before deciding whether and how this industry should be...

Following the intent of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, many states have adopted policies and procedures directing state agencies and local government units to evaluate the potential environmental impacts of development projects prior to their undertaking. In contrast to a rich...

The Socioeconomic Impact Assessment (SIA) specialists face a host of challenges in interpreting the importance of social and economic impacts. Evidence is abundant in the literature about the serious implications resulting from incomplete or prejudiced SIA analyses during execution of the...

This paper documents the experience of teaching environmental impact assessment (EIA) to undergraduate students at Escola Politécnica, an engineering school in Brazil, where EIA was first introduced as a graduate course in 1990, evolving to be taught as an undergraduate course. Learning...

Automobiles are a major source of CO₂ emissions. Because there is no immediate technological fix to reduce these emissions, the most promising current strategy is to promote less automobile use. In the United States, this is difficult because federal programs such as the interstate highway...