Environmental and Social Impact Assessments

Nowadays, there are implementations of hydropower projects wherever possible in Myanmar as it is necessary for electricity in order to be balance with demand and supply, in doing so, it is facing deforestation, decreasing habitat, biodiversity loss in the vicinity of Hydropower project area (hereafter project area). It is also affected on water quality of riverine ecosystem where Hydropower is situated. Indeed, hydropower is renewable clean energy; therefore, it is vital importance to undertake to implement hydropower projects in Myanmar by reducing impacts on natural resources as water bodies, aquatic life, and biodiversity richness to be sustainable state for the sake of community regarding Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In the present work, the criteria of physico chemical indicator of water quality except few cases of the result of colour, conductivity, total dissolved solids of water quality in three locations is higher than W.H.O standard, as well as the turbidity of Ye-Pu stream is also higher than W.H.O standard by comparing with the standardization of World Health Organization (W.H.O) with two values, desirable as well as imperative values. Therefore, the role of innovative overall empirical solutions for conservation of water resources is vital importance by analysing water resources in the vicinity of middle Paunglaung hydropower dam.

Keywords: implementations of hydropower projects, riverine ecosystem, natural resources, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Myanmar has lots of natural resources to implement hydro power projects
because of four main rivers were possessed, in doing so, it is successfully focused on
the infrastructure of the resettlement area according to the adherence of promoting
CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) in the Upper Paunglaung Hydropower project
by analyzing the real standard of infected people in the resettlement area regarding
SDGs in order to sustain natural resources as well as develop socio-economic
condition of local indigenous groups by focusing on environmental sensitivity and
socioeconomic responsibility surveys are being emphasized as essential elements of
the growing industrialization accompanying development in Myanmar. Adherence to
a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policy ensures that development projects
take full account of the needs of communities impacted. Taking socioeconomic
survey includes housing, education, health care, community development, water and
electricity supplies, land intending cultivation and livelihood safeguards as effective
infrastructure regarding SDGs. Where relocation is necessary, CSR rules cover the
acquisition of land, construction of housing and public buildings and the award of
compensation. In the context of an urgent need to increase the supply of electricity,
the implications of CSR policy concerning SDGs for hydro-power projects are
considered and objectives as research and development for a land acquisition and
resettlement plan listed.

Keywords: natural resources, socio-economic responsibility, compensation,
livelihood safeguards, corporate social responsibility (CSR) policy

The Irrawaddy River is Myanmar’s largest and most commercially important water way. Over the years, declining water quality has affected fisheries resources in some areas especially due to the throwing of untreated household waste in the river. Water quality affects fisheries resources generally as well as the population of Irrawaddy dolphins, which number around 70 and are a main ecotourism attraction. There is a direct correlation between water quality, aquatic biodiversity, and the socioeconomic situation of local communities who depend on the river and its resources. This research uses physicochemical indicators to test water quality in the Irrawaddy River, comparing various indicators to World Health Organization (WHO) standards. The main recorded fish species are Order Cypriniformes and Siluriformes groups, as well as Synbranchiformes and Perciformes groups. Furthermore, the socioeconomic situation of local communities in the vicinity of Singu, the main ecological habitat of Irrawaddy dolphins, was investigated by conducting interviews concerning the
socioeconomic livelihoods of fishing communities. Concerning the results of water quality testing, the criteria of water color is higher than WHO standards although the result is chemically potable, therefore, not damaging yet. Nevertheless, fisheries resources are gradually declining due to serious impacts as Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing, including battery shock fishing, and throwing household waste into the river. These are the main reasons for the decrease in fish population, as confirmed by local fishermen and local communities. Therefore, it is essential to have effective governance with stakeholder mapping for the sake of local community.

Key words: water quality, fisheries resources, Irrawaddy dolphins, IUU fishing, stakeholder mapping

The most important development goals from the completion of the Bumbuna Hydroelectric Project (BHP) will be to accelerate economic growth, and poverty reduction, through the development of affordable power generation for domestic use in an environmentally sustainable, and efficient manner. Besides mobilizing private capital, the proposed Project will promote private sector involvement in the management of the power sector, and sustainable sector reform. The first component includes Hydroelectric and Transmission Infrastructure; and the second component is the funding of the implementation of the Dam/Reservoir, and the Transmission Line Resettlement Action Plan, with livelihood restoration and agriculture stabilization subcomponents, in addition to a comprehensive Environmental Management and Mitigation Plan (EMP). And the Technical Assistance component will fund the management and supervision of activities under the second component, and in addition, provide support to the Project Implementation Unit (PIU), the Dam Review Panel (DRP), and the Environmental and Social Advisory Panel (ESAP). This paper discusses environmental sustainability visàvis regulatory compliance and environmental policy issues as related to the challenges and benefits being experienced by the Bumbuna
Hydroelectric Project (BHP) in Sierra Leone. Its goal is to present strategies by applying established theoretical concepts and frameworks to the BHP case and examines some critical success factors that could be integrated into best practice management, especially in the face of future environmental and socioeconomic challenges. The paper focuses on the Environmental Mitigation and Area Development (EMAD) component of the project as opposed to project contracts and technical assistance.

How individuals live their lives, within the context of personal and collective values, expresses their living culture. Societies may be made up of people with different ethnocultural backgrounds, socio-economic profiles or spiritual orientations, but they share certain common cultural frameworks (e.g., democratic governance, rules of law, conventions of business, principles of equity for all, etc.) of what is increasingly a globalized, pluralized, and urbanized present. Culture is often thought of as either the historical traditions of a group, or else as certain types of activities (e.g., dance, theatre, celebrations, rituals, etc.) and objects (e.g., art, artifacts, clothing, etc.). Meanwhile, cultural organizations are characterized as specialized places of expertise that provide selected kinds of experiences and services to the public – normally available for consumption during leisure time. This article argues that the heart of living culture is to be found not in specialized types of objects, leisure-time experiences, ethnocultural traditions, or cultural organizations but, rather, in its processes of human adaptation in a changing world. The author uses the lens of culture to examine how humanity understands and attempts to manage change within its sphere of influence. How can we best measure the cultural well-being of our societies, our organizations, and ourselves? The overarching notion of global/local sustainability provides the grounding point for considering how best to foster a 'culture of sustainability‘.

“K‟utarapxiw quqanakasxa, ukatxa phichantapxarakiw, quqa tunu lawanaks jik‟irapxi, ukatsi janipuniw jik‟supkit qhuya tunu saphanakasxa.”

“One should take pride in one‟s land and culture. There is a popular saying in Aymara, "They cut our
branches, they burn our leaves, they pull out our trunks . . . but never could they overtake our roots.‟ This was addressed to the Spaniards.”
                                                              - Aymara agriculturist of Chile

Aymara Indian Perspectives on Development in the Andes presents our collaborative research with the Aymara people in the Andes of northern Chile. We conducted ethnographic interviews with Aymara people in more than 18 villages from the coast to the high plateau, 4600 meters above sea level.
Within a multidisciplinary framework and with a detailed understanding of issues from the Aymara point of view, together we explore the enduring reciprocal relations between the Aymara and the elements of land, water, and the supernatural amid exogenously imposed development within their holy land. We discuss the paving of international Chile Highway 11, diversion of Altiplano waters of the Río Lauca
to the arid Atacama Desert coast for hydroelectricity and irrigation, mining within Parque Nacional Lauca, a UNESCO International Biosphere Reserve, and Chilean national park policies regarding Aymara communities and their natural and cultural properties within the protected area.
For Andean people, economic, spiritual, and social life, are inextricably tied to land and water. The Aymara
of Chile are the indigenous people of the northern border Region XV, Arica y Parinacota, who are struggling to maintain their sustainable and traditional systems of irrigation waters distribution, agriculture, and pastoralism in one of the most arid regions of our world, the Atacama Desert. Interviews with
Aymara people reveal the social and environmental dimensions of the larger conflict between rapid economic growth and a sensitive cultural and natural resource base. The Aymara help us to understand indigenous issues and their cosmological vision.

Aruskipt‟asipxananakasakipunirakispawa

Large-scale development projects oftentimes end up creating negative impacts that affect vulnerable populations with particular intensity. Projects likely to displace families from their homes, degrade the living conditions of indigenous peoples or intensify social conflicts at local levels are not uncommon. Social safeguards are intended to prevent these and other unintended impacts, and when the impacts cannot be averted, to develop appropriate measures to mitigate them. However, the practical implementation of social safeguards is plagued with a series of structural problems. The collection of stories from the field presented in this book illustrates the principles and application of social safeguards in the context of projects funded by multilateral banks, identifying key challenges in their implementation and exploring paths to overcome those limitations.

The Rio treaties broadened the concept of common concern and global responsibility for
protection of environment. Economic growth and environmental degradation can be de-linked by
promoting more eco-efficient growth patterns. Despite the rapid economic growth the concern of
environmental sustainability is the challenge of every country. This paper highlights the direct
relation of government role in the monitoring process of environmental impact assessment
towards sustainable development. The signs of unsustainable growth include high future
infrastructure costs, an increasing tendency to produce waste and continuing declines in natural
capital of country. Environment and its protection need a wide approach irrespective of
boundaries. An economic and social justification characterize all environmental protection
measures aiming to protect human health and safety. Through effective legislation on
environment issue and with national instrument of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) the
path of sustainable development can be easily achieved. The right to decent, healthy and viable
environment is not only the right of present generation but is the right of human race on earth.
This right becomes the root word for sustainable development. Effective implementation of law
and people participation is required to ensure environmental governance in India.

Key Features
- Demonstrates the development of an integrated holistic method that presents new research in the field
- Offers a thorough analytical assessment of an EIA system in a developing country
- Presents valuable insights into how developing countries are coping with the new phenomenon of public participation and involvement in environmental decision making and what methods and techniques have been successful
- Includes a chapter on social impact assessment in developing countries with special focus on Bangladesh, providing valuable information applicable to developing countries

Description
Evaluating Environmental and Social Impact Assessment in Developing Countries is a valuable reference book for practitioners and researchers conducting research in and developing studies on environmental science and management and environmental and social impact assessment. The book’s authors have developed and tested a new framework to evaluate environmental impact assessment (EIA) systems that may be adopted by most developing countries with EIA experience. Application of this framework will help determine if the EIA is achieving its intended goal of sustainable development in these countries. It also explains the reasons behind the strengths and weaknesses from which the development practitioners and international development partners can take lessons. This book will help the reader answer such questions as "What are the best forms of public participation?" and "How do we measure contributions to EIA procedure?" since it is based on direct experiences from a developing country that is struggling with many of these issues. Evaluating Environmental and Social Impact Assessment in Developing Countries provides further understanding of appropriate tools to evaluate environmental and social impacts of development initiatives especially in developing countries.

This article is a commentary and critique of the concept of ‘environmental justice’ that lately has become much more prominent in discourses on the environment, especially in the debates and advocacy on climate change. After briefly considering the origins of the concept, it is argued that environmental justice is limited by its liberal democratic roots—it is an extension of a discourse that ultimately is based on atomism, centralization of power, and legitimization of the marginalization of groups from true democratic decision-making processes. This arises from the absence of a coherent philosophy and system of principles that can balance social demands for access and allocation of resources against individual proclivities toward unending appropriation and accumulation, preventing ‘environmental justice’ from addressing the counter-environmental effects of consumerism and displacement. To offer an alternative called ‘ecological social justice’, a reconsideration of the environment within Karl Polanyi’s definition of economy and critique of the market society is correlated with the definition of ‘social justice’ and the right to a healthy environment in Philippine jurisprudence.

A hybrid model to combine SIA and SRA namely RSIA is proposed.RSIA can provide the proper mechanism to assess social impacts of natural hazards.RSIA can play the role of ex-post as well as ex-ante assessment.For some complicated and sensitive cases like nuclear energy, conducting a RSIA is necessary.An increasing focus on integrative approaches is one of the current trends in impact assessment. There is potential to combine impact assessment with various other forms of assessment, such as risk assessment, to make impact assessment and the management of social risks more effective. We identify the common features of social impact assessment (SIA) and social risk assessment (SRA), and discuss the merits of a combined approach. A hybrid model combining SIA and SRA to form a new approach called, ‘risk and social impact assessment’ (RSIA) is introduced. RSIA expands the capacity of SIA to evaluate and manage the social impacts of risky projects such as nuclear energy as well as natural hazards and disasters such as droughts and floods. We outline the three stages of RSIA, namely: impact identification, impact assessment, and impact management.

A B S T R A C T Academics across disciplines are increasingly employing political ecology lenses to unpack conflicts related to resource extraction. Yet, an area that remains under-researched and under-theorised is how environmental impact assessments (EIAs) are embedded in politics and imagined as sites of power relations. Drawing on long-term fieldwork in Zimbabwe engaging small-scale gold miners, EIA consultants and government officials, this article examines the changing social significance of EIAs during and after a nationwide police operation that was framed by authorities as targeting non-compliance with environmental policy, illegal mining and illicit trading. Among other articulations of dissent, small-scale miners associations protested that EIA enforcement rhetoric served unjustly as a rationale for halting livelihoods and extracting rent from miners in times of economic difficulty. The article challenges EIA narratives that focus narrowly on risk management or governance failure, exploring technocratic obfuscations and how enforcement rhetoric was perceived in relation to criminalisation and coercion, expert environmental consultancy cultures and adapted legacies of colonial practice in contemporary dynamics of rule. Heavy-handed policing under the banner of enforcing order impinged on livelihoods and had counterproductive effects in addressing environmental problems, while complying with expensive EIA report-producing requirements was far beyond the means of most small-scale miners. The article rethinks how technical EIA rhetoric becomes entangled in spaces of contentious politics, the perils of looking only at particular scales of relations to the exclusion of others, and what it means to re-engage Donald Moore's notion of " shifting alignments and contingent constellations of power. " Suggesting future directions in political ecology theorising in relation to extractive sectors, it calls for careful attention to the situated politics of EIAs – situated in time and space, amid varying relations of power – and how multiple hegemonic practices are con-ceptualised and challenged.

Consideration of social issues in environmental impact assessment (EIA) of development projects has been an integral part of project cycle since the inception of EIA in Bangladesh in the early 1990s. This paper examines the emergence of social impact assessment (SIA) in Bangladesh environmental management and its institutionalization. It reveals that although SIA does not have a statutory status like EIA, social dimensions are firmly established in donor funded poverty alleviation projects. It is proposed that SIA is given a clear legislative mandate. The Department of Environment (DOE)—the agency
that looks after the implementation of EIA on behalf of the government—needs to be strengthened and transparent in order to play a more effective role.

On the 13th of December 2015, the leaders of Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India officially inaugurated the TAPI pipeline, which is set to be the largest crosscountry energy infrastructure project undertaken in South Asia with an expected completion date of 2019. The limited literature on TAPI has almost exclusively focused on security impediments to the pipeline from the perspective of the member countries of the project. This paper argues that the solution to these impediments is greatly constrained by a reductionist rather than a multistakeholder approach. Using a broader understanding of the concept of energy diplomacy, this paper argues that energy infrastructure such as the TAPI can be used to encourage interdependency by expanding the number of stakeholders beyond the member countries of the project. While including the interests of external countries and institutions may build consensus on political issues, identifying ways by which the interests of communities can be addressed may reduce the explicit emphasis on the physical security of the pipeline by including human security concerns within the project's blueprint. The cumulative impact of such an approach may create a shift in the perception of energy projects from the purview of security, to one of inclusive cooperation .

This paper explores the impacts of multinational companies’ (MNCs’) social investment on the
livelihoods of local people in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) and explores the
drivers that influence these impacts. The study advances an argument that MNCs’ social investment
produced two distinct types of families after being relocated to new villages: poor and well-off families.
The well-off families received the fewest direct benefits from the MNCs’ social investments, but
with a greater degree of self-resilience than the poor families, they were able to adapt to their new
environments and availed of the MNCs’ social investment to improve their livelihoods. This study
concludes that the impacts of the MNCs’ social investment on the livelihoods of the affected families
depend not only on the behavior and commitment of the MNCs, but also on the economic and
cultural capability of the affected families to adjust to the new environment and on the commitment
of the host country’s government.

Pollution concerning environmental contaminants including organic pollution/an excess of nutrients, chemical pollution and metal pollution, which are resulted from human activities are mainly affecting on ecological food web and biological richness especially on aquatic life such as fish species, as well as the socioeconomic condition of local indigenous people. It is necessary to implement effective assessment on environmental contaminants and to reduce its negative effects on food web and biological production and well-being of indigenous people as well. It is important to understand and identify the main sources and types of environmental pollution regarding water resource development and its effect on aquatic life. The efficient adaptive management approach to biological conservation, livelihoods of indigenous people, fisheries sector, conservation on regional riverine resources / requirement for food security, ecosystem-based management framework includes (1) identification of main environmental contaminants and its effect, (2) monitoring physico-chemical indicators, (3) measurement of biological indicators, and (4) use and development of analytical technique. This approach plays a crucial role to conserve biological resource including healthy aquatic ecosystem, fisheries and water resources, as well as sustainable development on livelihood of local indigenous people. Similarly, this project will focus on current fisheries resources and socioeconomic development of local indigenous groups and the effects of contaminants on their wellbeing. It will be mainly analysed on biological richness including fisheries and water resources regarding ecosystem management in rivers that take accounts in general of any weak points and incorporate many good points effectively and efficiently for the sake of community development.

Keywords: environmental contaminants, ecological food web, healthy aquatic ecosystem, indigenous people, ecosystem-based management

Social impact assessment(SIA) has become a buzzword since 1970s and it originated in the United States of America from its precursor Environmental Impact Assessment(EIA).SIA is basically an interdisciplinary methodology to review, assess and evaluate the social effects of infrastructure projects and other development interventions.
Given this short and basic background, I will narrate the story of an early social impact assessment study done by an Indian anthropologist conducted as early as 1951, although the expression “Social Impact Assessment” was not used by the author. This valuable but little known study was done by Surajit Sinha, (1926-2002) who then just passed out as M.Sc. student in anthropology from the University of Calcutta. Sinha later became one of the famous anthropologists in post-independent India who held the position of Director at the Anthropological Survey of India and later became the Vice-Chancellor of Visva-Bharati University.
The aforementioned impact assessment study was entitled as Resettlement of East Pakistan Refugees in Andaman Islands: Report on Survey of Further Possibilities of Resettlement (1955) published by the Govt. of West Bengal.  Sinha’s painstaking and intensive study on the resettlement of Bengali refugee population in Andaman just after the partition of the country still remains an almost unnoticed work in the history of Indian anthropology.

The conservation community is increasingly focusing on the monitoring and evaluation of management, governance, ecological, and social considerations as part of a broader move toward adaptive management and evidence-based conservation. Evidence is any information that can be used to come to a conclusion and support a judgment or, in this case, to make decisions that will improve conservation policies, actions, and outcomes. Perceptions are one type of information that is often dismissed as anecdotal by those arguing for evidence-based conservation. In this paper, I clarify the contributions of research on perceptions of conservation to improving adaptive and evidence-based conservation. Studies of the perceptions of local people can provide important insights into observations, understandings and interpretations of the social impacts, and ecological outcomes of conservation; the legitimacy of conservation governance; and the social acceptability of environmental management. Perceptions of these factors contribute to positive or negative local evaluations of conservation initiatives. It is positive perceptions, not just objective scientific evidence of effectiveness, that ultimately ensure the support of local constituents thus enabling the long-term success of conservation. Research on perceptions can inform courses of action to improve conservation and governance at scales ranging from individual initiatives to national and international policies. Better incorporation of evidence from across the social and natural sciences and integration of a plurality of methods into monitoring and evaluation will provide a more complete picture on which to base conservation decisions and environmental management.

A turning point in the Uruguayan economy came in 1987 with the creation of its Forestry Law, aimed at promoting the expansion of monoculture alien tree plantations. With the forestry came the foreign-owned pulp mills, and in 2007 the first load of cellulose was produced in Uruguay near the small interior city of Fray Bentos. Along with nearly one million hectares of Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified planted forest, the arrival of the pulp mill and eucalyptus trees brought with them the promise of more jobs for the country's interior, where rates of unemployment are highest, and an industry relying on the ''best technology available'' to ensure the most sustainable practices. With these developments, Uruguay officially entered the ''green economy.'' Yet, while the government and industry work to ensure that the environmental benefits of trees are recognized and contamination levels minimized, very little has been said on how small farmers working the land in the country's rural areas have been affected by the changing industry. Loss of productive land and traditional livelihoods, drying water wells, social isolation, and the destruction of longstanding communities are just some of the underexplored consequences of the plantation economy. Taking into account these impacts, this article will examine the ways that the growing pulp/plantation industry is changing the socio-cultural relationships of ranchers and farmers with the land on which they live and work and suggests that assessments of industry's environmental impacts need to consider residents' accounts of change along with the quantitative data to build a complete picture.

Assessment of the sustainability of alternative transport fuels is essential for directing the development while reducing their impacts. The aim of this paper is to assess the environmental and economic life cycle impacts of alternative transport fuels and compare with conventional fuels. The sustainability assessment was performed for selected fuels, including diesel, gasoline, liquefied petroleum gas, biodiesel, ethanol, hydrogen, fuel cell and electricity, using SimaPro 8.05 life cycle assessment software and Recipe methodology. The study revealed the highest environmental impacts for ethanol flexi fuel technology, followed by biodiesel at close to 80% to the ethanol impacts, liquefied petroleum gas at 45%, gasoline at 30%, diesel at 25%, electricity at 15%, compressed natural gas at 5%, and the minimum for hydrogen technology with only 3% of environmental impacts comparing to ethanol. The total economic costs (including capital costs and operating costs) on per km basis are the highest for battery electric vehicles (electricity fuel) followed by ethanol based flexi fuel vehicles, biodiesel, diesel, gasoline, compressed natural gas, hydrogen (fuel cell) and the minimum for liquefied petroleum gas. The combined environmental and economic impacts revealed hydrogen fuel cell is the best performing fuel technology with only 3% of the impacts of ethanol.

his report presents the findings of the environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) for the proposed waste treatment and disposal facility to be located in Ikamiro village, Kyangwali parish, Kyangwali Sub County in Hoima District, Uganda.

As part of the American Indian consultation process for the Hoover Dam Bypass Project the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) consults regularly with representatives of tribal groups that have an interest in cultural and traditional resources affected by the project plans and activities. The focus of this document is on information particular to understanding cultural landscapes and the long standing connections between the Southern Paiutes, Hualapais, and Mohaves and the revered sites of Sugarloaf Mountain and Goldstrike. In the end, these layered intertribal and geographic connections which link these sites met the criteria for establishing the eligibility of Sugarloaf Mountain and Gold Strike Canyon as Traditional Cultural Properties (TCPs). This report was prepared as part of the nomination process. Maps containing locations have been redacted from the public document. Tribal members who want a copy of the un-redacted report please contact Special Collections. Sugarloaf Mounta...

Local participation is always beneficial for sustainable action and environmental problems resulting from urban implementation due to the failure of social and institutional change necessary for a successful transformation of rural life to urban life ahead of the rapid movement of the population. Despite good legal practice and comprehensive guidelines, evidence suggests that Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) or more broadly Environmental, Social and Health Impact Assessment (ESHIA) have not yet been found satisfactory in Nigeria, as the current system amounts to duplication of efforts and cost. However, ESHIA has been developed and integrated to help manage project activities, facilities, and operations sustainably, so that both economic and ecological profits are accrued (sustainable development) or ensure that any development project does not result in excessive deterioration of and/or the irreversible adverse effect on any component of the environment – a recite for sustainable development. A literature review was done by using a variety of search engines including Research Gate, Google Scholar, Academia, Mendeley, SSRN search strategy to retrieve research publications, “grey literature” and expert working group reports. The thrust of this study is to evaluate the potential benefits of ESHIA as a tool for sustainable environmental development. The evaluation
MOJ Public Health
Review Article Open Access
and implementation of EIA are one of the strengths of these tools. Indeed, EIA is the first and foremost management tool employed to help mitigate adverse, potential, and associated impacts of proposed major developments in our environment. EIA is a regulatory requirement that is efficiently used to improve performance, project design, enhancing decision-making, and facilitating policy programs in a sustainable environment. An evaluation of the EIA systems reveals several weaknesses of the EIA system. These include the inadequate capacity of EIA approval authorities, deficiencies in screening and scoping, poor EIA quality, insufficient public participation, and weak monitoring and erratic government policies. Overall, most EIA study rarely meets the objectives of being a project planning tool to contribute to achieving sustainable development and mitigate the impact of the development project.
The study recommends some directions for the future to ensure that entire content of the EIA are religiously implemented, review the existing EIA act, increase the expertise of EIA consultants, create a liaison office with an international organisation and with sister agency, ESHIA must enjoy Improved budgetary provision, time latitude, spatial contexts and methodological improvements for outcome measures to achieve results that are relevant to sustainable development by improving project design, enhancing decision making and facilitating policy programs.

This article attempts to understand potential risks of nuclear power emergencies associated with the U.S. commercial nuclear power plants (NPPs), which could impact populations living within a 50-mile radius around NPPs during a nuclear disaster. This article will first examine the demographic composition of the populations in communities that host NPPs in urban and non-urban areas in 1990, 2000, and 2010. Second, the study will investigate the distributive justice of the potential risks, by looking into the difference in demographic characteristics of populations living in the host communities (a 50-mile radius from the NPPs), as compared to those living in outlying areas, in urban and non-urban settings. Further, this article will also investigate the distributive justice of the potential risks associated with NPPs by looking at the association between the distance from the NPPs and the percentage of specific racial and ethnic groups living within the 50-mile radius areas. Finally, in addition to the abovementioned distributive justice, this article will identify other environmental justice issues the communities near NPPs, if there are additional issues to address.

BioOne Complete (complete.BioOne.org) is a full-text database of 200 subscribed and open-access titles in the biological, ecological, and environmental sciences published by nonprofit societies, associations, museums, institutions, and presses.

BioOne Complete (complete.BioOne.org) is a full-text database of 200 subscribed and open-access titles in the biological, ecological, and environmental sciences published by nonprofit societies, associations, museums, institutions, and presses.

The article is devoted to analysis of the role and place of social work in the school. For example, the experience of school social workers in the United States, discusses the
main directions of their activities, problems and prospects. We discuss possibilities to use foreign experience of teachers in Russian schools.

In this article, I will not deal with social impact assessment per se as done by many sociologists and anthropologists. Two recent good examples are :(i) Hari Mohan Mathur’s commendable article (Mathur 2011: 97-120) and (ii) ‘Social Impact Assessment (A Module)’ in 2010 prepared by the Anthropological Survey of India (ASI), Kolkata.

I will deal here with the provisions of SIA in a specific text, which till today remains a relatively untouched area. The text is ‘Draft Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation and Resettlement (LARR) Bill, 2011’ which the Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India has prepared and placed in the public domain ‘as part of a pre-legislative consultative process’ among the citizens of the country. Interestingly, neither the activists, nor the Federation of the Indian Chamber of Commerce have paid serious attention to the provisions of SIA in the LARR Bill, 2011.Even Mathur’s 2011 article did not pay attention to the provisions of SIA in the aforesaid Bill.

A critical reading of the Social Impact Assessment provision in the Draft Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2011 reveals its serious shortcomings as regards the urgency clause and failure to include the Constitutional local self-governments in decision making on land acquisition points to the violations of the Indian Constitution once the law comes into force.

The bill also suffers from its overdependence on bureaucracy, although it speaks a lot on participatory processes and consultation by social scientists in conducting the SIA. Finally by fixing an arbitrary figure of 100 acres as regards the launching of SIA, it has ignored the situational ground realities of a vast and diverse country like India.

This report presents the findings of the environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) for the proposed waste treatment and disposal facility to be located in Ikamiro village, Kyangwali parish, Kyangwali Sub County in Hoima District, Uganda. The proposed development is being undertaken through a joint venture between MS Allways Environmental Services Incorporated (AESI), a private company incorporated in Uganda and MS China Offshore Environment Services, a company incorporated in China with several years of experience in oil waste handling. The waste drilling mud generated during drilling operation contains inorganic salts, oil and other pollutants. Effective harmless treatment, instead of direct discharge into the surroundings, is required for it. The mud, which has been treated with conventional waste drilling mud treatment method, has a high water content, which restricts the secondary development and utilization range of waste mud. This report will discuss the harmless treat...

Throughout  history,  indigenous  peoples  have  been  excluded,  marginalized,  mis-treated  and  disregarded.  The  United  Nations  Declaration  on  the  Rights  of  Indigenous  Peoples  and  the  Indigenous  and  Tribal  Peoples  Convention,  C169  tried  to  emphasize  the  need  to  grant  them  protection  that  is  both  broader  and  more  appropriate  while  taking  their  particular  characteristics  into  consideration.  However,  these  protections  are  insufficient  and  ineffective  in  the  face  of  current  problems  related  to  expansion  of  the  extractive  frontier  in  its  varied  forms,  which  mostly  end  in  controversies  among  the  indigenous  communities  present  in  the  territories  at  stake,  the  States,  and  the  companies  who  perform  such  activities.  Three  interconnected  and  interrelated  cardinal  issues  that  are  the  most  affected  are:  the  principle  of  non–discrimination,  the  right  to  land  and  natural  resources,  and  the  right  to  participation  and  consultation.

Water shortage (availability per capita) is a key indicator of vulnerability to water scarcity. Spatial datasets enable the assessment of water shortage on multiple scales. The use of river basins and subbasins as analysis and management units is currently commonplace. An important but less acknowledged fact is that spatial assessments are strongly influenced by the choice of the unit of analysis due to the Modifiable Areal Unit Problem (MAUP). Climate conditions, agricultural activities, and access to groundwater also influence water availability and demand. In this study, a total of 21 different criteria were used to define areal units of analysis, i.e., zonings, for which water shortage was calculated. Focusing on Monsoon Asia, where water scarcity is a pressing problem, we found that zoning had a considerable impact, resulting in up to three-fold differences in the population under high water shortage (<1000 m 3 /cap/year), ranging from 782 million to 2.11 billion. In most zonings, however, the Indus and Yellow River Basins and northwest parts of India and China are under high water shortage. The study indicates that a multizonal and multiscale analysis is needed to minimize skewed or even misleading information that might be produced when using only one zoning.