Environmental impact

An environmental impact may be adverse, beneficial or a combination of these, although use of the term often connotes a negative impact. It may be sudden (e.g. land clearing), gradual (e.g. water utilization), or have delayed action (e.g. climate change). An impact may create secondary or flow-on impacts, and may add or multiply in combination with other impacts. It may be an impact on humans (E.g. natural hazards or a human impact on the environment (mining, dams, pollution etc.) Usually refers to adverse impacts of human activities and developments on natural systems and ecology (e.g. environmental impact assessment), or also on the broader environment including human society (e.g. social impact assessment). An Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is an assessment of the likely human environmental health impact, risk to ecological health, and changes to nature's services that a project may have. The purpose of the assessment is to ensure that decision-makers consider environmental impacts before deciding whether to proceed with new projects.