Book excerpt: Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is a policy and management tool for planning and decisionmaking. Conceived in the 1970s after the United Nations Conference on the Environment in Stockholm, EIA assists policymakers and the general public in identifying, predicting, and evaluating the environmental impacts and consequences of proposed development projects, plans, and policies. The outcome of an EIA study helps to decide whether a given project should be implemented and what form it should take.The book includes an introduction to EIA and sections on its process, methods, and tools. It discusses the implementation of specific environmental management measures and the need for their constant monitoring. The book also reviews the process of translating and communicating the findings of an EIA study to decisionmakers and the public, and outlines the writing and reviewing of an EIA report. It examines emerging trends in EIA and concludes with a number of illustrative case studies.