| Management
Environmental assessments, also known as environmental impact assessments or environmental impact statements, are essential to predict and understand ecosystem impacts of a hydropower development. Environmental assessments need to identify likely or potential positive and negative effects of a project, in order to inform project siting and design, and to develop suitable management and mitigation measures at as early a stage as possible. Environmental assessments should be relevant to the scale and nature of the project in question. Guidelines for the assessment should be developed in conjunction with regulatory authorities and community expectations. Environmental assessments should include evaluation of project alternatives, including the consequences of not undertaking the project. The environmental assessment should be open to public review and consultation.
Assessments should be based on good science and factual information, and data collected should be part of a pre-development monitoring program against which environmental effects can be measured once the scheme is operational. The effectiveness of management and mitigation measures should be monitored, and if necessary these measures should be adapted if data shows they are not to be meeting their objectives. |
