Abstract

Environmental impact assessment: Acase study of hydropower project

Author(s): Bimlesh Kumar, Achanta Ramakrishna Rao

Although hydropower is very environmentally and economically sound project, it has effects on a local or regional scale. Present work addresses these issues and presents a viable procedural layout on environmental impact assessment (EIA) for implementing such project to the upcoming environmental engineers. The rapid impact assessment matrix (Pastakia, 1998) was used to get numerical impacts (adverse or beneficial) of different parameters. This method analyses and presents in a structured, friendly and transparent environment the numerous parameters and alternatives of an EIA. It considers all 4 components: physical/chemical, biological/ecological, social/cultural, economic /operational. Based on the analysis, it is shown that such a project will be positive economically but negative otherwise considering the other three components.