The Role of Risk Assessment in Environmental Impact Assessment: A Review

Environmental impact assessment (EIA) is the core link in environmental decision‐making. However, traditional EIA often lacks structured methods for handling uncertainties and low‐probability high‐consequence risks. Risk assessment (RA) addresses this gap by enhancing the scientific basis of evaluation, supporting more defensible permitting and policy decisions, and improving transparency and public trust. A comparative study of India, Australia, Canada and China shows that due to institutional and methodological differences, there are significant differences in the degree of integration between RA and EIA. Overall, RA should evolve from a supplementary section to a core pillar of EIA, supported by standardized procedures, stronger data systems, and lifecycle monitoring to address increasingly complex environmental risks.