Abstract

Improving Public Participation in Environmental Impact Assessments with GIS
Track: Environmental Management
Authors: Lei Lei

An Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) can be both a document and a decision making process that evaluates the possible significant effects that a proposed project may exert on the natural, social, and human environment of a geographic area. Although the importance of engaging public citizens in the EIA process has long been recognized, participation is often regarded as ineffective due to information, material, technical, and procedural complexity. This paper presents a spatially intelligent framework to improve the effectiveness of public participation in the EIA process. The framework proposed five components that integrate GIS, data mining and mobile technology. The research selected Southern California Edison's Tehachapi Renewable Transmission Project as the pilot study and developed a Web-based system as a proof-of concept. Survey questionnaires were designed for feedback collection and system evaluation. Results suggested that the system promotes environmental awareness, improves system usability, and enhances user willingness to participate in EIA.