Environmental Impact Assessment Centre

The EIA Centre, directed by Carys Jones, is an independent university based research organisation, specialising in environmental impact assessment (EIA), research, training and information. EIA includes project EIA and the EIA of programmes, plans and policies (strategic environmental assessment). EIA is an important environmental management tool essential for the achievement of sustainable development.

Research and training related to EIA have been undertaken, on an extensive scale, at the University of Manchester since the early 1970s. At the beginning of 1988 it was decided to bring the major part of these activities together in a new EIA Centre located in Planning and Landscape. This initiative was funded by the European Commission with the objective of promoting EIA research and training within Europe .

Since then the activities of the EIA Centre have grown and it now operates on a world-wide basis and has received recognition for its achievements from the International Association for Impact Assessment in 1996 and 1997.