An Environmentally-oriented Mode of Industrial Project Planning

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Abstract
Recent research has shown that many industrial projects are not being designed with the environment in mind. The intellectual exercise of thinking ‘what impact does this project have on the environment?’ has not yet been made an integral part of industrial project-planning. More thoughtful and informed planning is needed, for reasons of both sound environmental management and, increasingly, sound project economics. An environmentally-oriented mode of planning, in which inputs and means related to environmental concerns are carefully taken into account during the planning, is discussed. This mode represents a tentative summary statement of an emerging consensus. Its objective is to facilitate informed and socially desirable choice among alternative actions in such a manner that adverse environmental consequences will be avoided or at least minimized.Environmentally-oriented planning requires that a new methodology, that of impact assessment, be fully integrated into the very fabric of planning. Impact assessment consists of three analytical functions: description, prediction, and evaluation. These functions can be translated into a series of tasks, which in their entirety constitute the full process of impact assessment. The process can be achieved operationally by incorporating environmental considerations into planning via five dimensions: multidisciplinary professional involvement, broad public participation, holistic thinking, systematic analysis, and continuous integration. Adoption and application of the process can be encouraged and/or facilitated by a number of internal organizational adjustments, or by external public-policy adjustments.

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