Comparison of the current and desirable status of public participation in environmental impact assessment

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Environmental Planning, Management and Education, Graduated Faculty of Environment, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

2 University of TehranDepartment of Environmental Planning, Management and Education, Graduated Faculty of Environment, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran nohegar@ut.ac.ir

Abstract

Public participation is an integral part of environmental impact assessment (EIA) in order to achieve sustainable development principles. The aims of public participation in EIA vary from improving the quality of plans and projects, improving implementation by preventing litigation and costly delays and meeting legal requirements, to improving active citizenship, complementing democracy, protecting individual rights and creating acceptance for the project’s outcome. Thus, this study was aimed at investigating the current status of public participation in EIA of Iran and compare it with desirable state. This study applied the fuzzy Delphi method In order to map the desired situation and compare it with the current status of public participation in the Iran. The results show that lack of adequate attention to the public participation, leads to major shortcomings in the levels and methods of public participation in EIA reports. Effective factors in achieving the desired status are: revision of policies, procedures, determination of frameworks and standards of public participation and continuous training and awareness among all stakeholders of environmental impact assessment.

Keywords

Journal of Environmental Science Studies
Volume 5, Issue 2
June 2020
Pages 2544-2553

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