objectives
description of proposal
description of existing environment
description of likely environmental effects
environmental safeguards
discussion of alternatives
conclusions/ recommendations

According to a United Nations Environment Program Training Resource Manual:

By the time that a project proponent or initiator has applied for an approval, it may be that a significant number of studies on financial, economic and technical matters have been undertaken. A series of 'internal' decisions will have been taken and, at each point, a decision made on whether the proposed project should be abandoned, amended or proceed directly to the next stage. Projects may be abandoned, after pre-feasibility or feasibility studies, before any formal application for an authorization is submitted. It is important that environmental issues are considered, fully and appropriately, at these stages. It is unwise for any proponent to undertake such studies, omitting environmental issues, and be told, subsequently, to prepare an EIA report. At this stage a site and project design may have become 'fixed' and it is time-consuming and expensive to have to alter, or even abandon, a project if an EIA shows that significant adverse impacts will occur and cannot be mitigated to make them acceptable. This is a waste of time and money for all participants in the authorization procedure.

EIA, therefore, is a process which has influence at many stages and over a considerable period of time. It is not an activity which is aimed at producing one set of results for use at one specific decision-making stage. However, there is no doubt that the role of the results of this process (in report form) at the permitting/authorising stage is very important because it is at this point that EIA often enters formal, statutory decision-making systems.

The overall effectiveness of EIA and related studies is enhanced if they incorporate a systematic analysis of reasonable alternatives. Basically,development objectives can be achieved, often, in a variety of ways. There are two types of alternatives, although the distinction between them is not always clear. There are alternatives to a proposed action, for example changing sites for a conventional power station or, as in the case of a flood control proposal, structural and non-structural options. Additionally, there are alternatives within a proposed action, such as alternative processes, layouts on site or other design aspects. The former type of alternative should be incorporated automatically. Finally, and specifically with reference to EIAs, one of the alternatives should be the 'no-action' option; that is no development. This provides an objective baseline against which the other alternatives can be measured.

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Reference

Ron Bisset, Environmental Impact Assessment: Issues, Trends and Practice, prepared for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), June 1996.

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