Environmental Assessment
Volume A-7
Introduction
EA Methods and Study Area
7
ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT METHODS
AND STUDY AREAS
The Environmental Assessment (EA) has been prepared in accordance with the
Terms of Reference (ToR) for the Ambatovy Project (the project) (Volume H,
Appendix 1). The ToR requires the EA to:
•
identify the environmental and socioeconomic resources potentially
affected by the project;
•
predict positive and negative effects and the extent to which positive
effects can be enhanced and negative effects can be mitigated;
•
quantify and assess the significance of effects where possible; and
•
identify means to monitor the resources that may be affected by the
project.
This section of the EA:
•
provides an overview of the EA methods;
•
describes the use of linkage diagrams;
•
presents the spatial and temporal boundaries for the EA;
•
discusses the impact assessment methods to be used;
•
discusses how effects will be described; and
•
presents the assessment cases.
7.1
OVERVIEW OF ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT
METHODS
The impact assessment complies with Madagascar regulations and guidelines,
and best international practices and includes both environmental and social
assessments (Volume A, Section 5). The EA will use the following tools and
procedures to analyze and address potential effects:
•
quantitative and qualitative information on the existing environmental
and socioeconomic conditions;
•
predictive tools (models) and methods to quantitatively and qualitatively
describe future environmental and socioeconomic conditions;
Ambatovy Project
49
January 2006
