Abstract
Environmental Impact Assessment has gained a prominent position as a tool to evaluate the environmental effects of economic activities. However, all approaches proposed so far use a burden-oriented logic. They concentrate on the different environmental impacts in order to ascertain the overall environmental damage caused by economic activity. This paper argues that such a burden-oriented view is (a) hampered by a series of methodological shortcomings which hinders its widespread use in practice; and (b) is analytically incomplete. The paper proposes a value-oriented approach to impact assessment. For this purpose an economic analysis of the optimal use of environmental and social resources is conducted from both a burden-oriented and a value-oriented standpoint. The basic logic of a value-oriented impact assessment is explained, as well as the resulting economic conditions for an optimal use of resources. In addition, it is shown that value- and burden-oriented approaches are complementary to achieve optimality. Finally, the paper discusses the conditions under which the use of burden- or value-oriented impact assessments is appropriate, respectively.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 921-941 |
Number of pages | 21 |
Journal | Journal of Environmental Planning and Management |
Volume | 47 |
Issue number | 6 |
Publication status | Published - Nov 2004 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Fluid Flow and Transfer Processes
- General Environmental Science
- Ecology
- Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law
- Water Science and Technology
- Geography, Planning and Development