Systematic Approaches to Environmental Impact Assessment: An Evaluation1

Increased public awareness of the environmental effects of large‐scale projects and concomittant public participation in the environmental impact assessment process demand that assessment methods and procedures fulfill a wide range of desirable characteristics. These are developed and offered as specific criteria against which currently proposed environmental assessment procedures should be judged. Such procedures as checklists, matrices, networks (stepped matrices), overlays, linear vector analyses, and nonlinear evaluation systems are presented and judged in light of the proposed criteria. It is concluded that the use of checklists, the most common assessment format used to date, does not constitute a viable assessment procedure. Use of the matrix or stepped matrix techniques in conjunction with the linear vector or nonlinear evaluation systems, with the latter modified slightly, is seen as an approach to environmental assessment that will achieve most of the established criteria.