An Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) determines the economic, social and
environmental impacts of proposed developments. Environmental Impact Assessment reports
are complied by independent consultants in order to provide the authorities with information
on the anticipated impacts on the environment caused by a proposed activity or development.
The authorities therefore base their decision largely on the EIA document and trust that the
information about forecasted impacts are to a large extent accurate. Authorities also trust
that the mitigation measures proposed in the Record of Decisions (RODs) and Environmental
Management Plans (EMP`s), in order to minimize impacts on the environment, are
implemented during the construction and operational phases of a project. Post-authorization
activities such as monitoring and auditing are the only feedback mechanisms to provide
authorities with information on the extent to which predicted impacts materialised and
whether mitigation measures were implemented.
Post authorization activities, especially auditing is to a large extend neglected because it was
not mandatory in South Africa under the Environmental Impact Assessment regulations
promulgated on September 1997 in terms of Environment Conservation Act 107 of 1989.
Therefore the accuracy of predicted impacts and the implementation rate of mitigation
measures in South Africa are to a large extent unknown.
The aim of the study is to assess the accuracy of predicted impacts and the implementation
rate of mitigation measures of activities that received authorization from the Departments of
Environmental Affairs in the Free State and Northern Cape provinces, in South Africa. The
objective of the study is to determine if any improvements are necessary to EIA reports, to
establish whether authorities base their decisions on correct information. The adequacy or
success of proposed mitigation measures will also aid decision makers in suggesting
preventative measures.
The research problem posed in this study was two-fold. First the question relating to the
accuracy of predicted impacts and implementation of mitigation measures in the Free State
and Northern Cape had to be answered. This was done through a method called
impact-backwards auditing. Secondly the question whether the two provinces had similar
outcomes in terms of predicted impact accuracy and implementation of mitigation measures,
had to be assessed. The comparison between the two provinces was conducted through a
series of Pearson chi-square tests on contingency tables to assess if statistically significant
differences occurred in the outcome of predicted impacts and mitigation measures between
the Free State and Northern Cape provinces. This study concluded that no statistically significant differences occurred between the two
provinces in relation to the outcome of predicted impacts and mitigation measures. Predicted
impacts were to a large extent accurately predicted and the majority of mitigation measures
were to a large extent implemented successfully to prevent or minimize an impact.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ufs/oai:etd.uovs.ac.za:etd-02152010-153846 |
| Date | 15 February 2010 |
| Creators | Freemantle, Sophia Johanna |
| Contributors | Ms E Kruger |
| Publisher | University of the Free State |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en-uk |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.uovs.ac.za//theses/available/etd-02152010-153846/restricted/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University Free State or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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