Social Impact Assessment

Dr. S. T. RAMESH, Ph.D.

Associate Professor
Department of Civil Engineering
National Institute Technology,
Tiruchirappalli – 620 015.
E-Mail : [email protected]

Dr. S. T. Ramesh / Associate Professor / Civil Engg./ NIT-T

Social Impact Assessment

• There is no widely agreed definition of SIA. But simply, it
focuses on the impact of development proposals on
people.
• EIA legislation and procedures provide a framework for
this purpose; for example, the term environment is
defined broadly to include ‘social’, ‘cultural’, and other
human dimensions.
• In this context, the aim of SIA is to identify the human
consequences of a proposed action, giving particular
attention to the mitigation of adverse or unintended
aspects.
• This approach follows approximately the steps of the EIA
process.

Dr. S. T. Ramesh / Associate Professor / Civil Engg./ NIT-T

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• Under EIA mandates, the scope of SIA differs from country
to country, depending on the institutional arrangements that
are in place.
• The consideration of social impacts is triggered by and, in
some cases limited to, environmentally related changes.
• These can be particularly important in developing countries
where large numbers of people are dependent on the
resource base for their subsistence and livelihood.
• In other cases, once an EIA is required for a proposal,
major effects on the human environment can be considered
in their own right.
• These can include potential changes to population, lifestyle,
cultural traditions, community dynamics, and quality of life
and well being.

Dr. S. T. Ramesh / Associate Professor / Civil Engg./ NIT-T

• A more comprehensive SIA may be carried out separately

from the EIA process.
• For example, this division is institutionalised at the World
Bank, where broadly based SIA, equivalent to
understanding and management of social change
processes, is promoted in support of the sustainable
development agenda.
• This framework covers the full scope of social
considerations, including poverty alleviation, gender
balance, governance and institutions, and equity, rights and
justice issues.
• Many SIA practitioners endorse such an overarching
approach, beyond what is possible in the context of EIA.
• However, there is not yet a common understanding of its
scope, boundaries and content (also called social appraisal
or human impact assessment).
Dr. S. T. Ramesh / Associate Professor / Civil Engg./ NIT-T

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 Social impacts
• Social impacts can be defined as the consequences to
people of any proposed action that changes the way
they live, work, relate to one another, organise
themselves and function as individuals and members of
society.
• This definition includes social - psychological changes,
for example to people’s values, attitudes and perceptions
of themselves and their community and environment.
• Indeed, some SIA practitioners consider social impacts
to be only ‘as experienced’ (e.g. stress, disruption,
hunger) and differentiate these from the causal
processes (e.g. over-crowding, infrastructure pressure,
poverty).

Dr. S. T. Ramesh / Associate Professor / Civil Engg./ NIT-T

Aims and objectives of SIA are to:

• analyse how proposals affect people

• identify and mitigate adverse impacts
• enhance benefits
• help manage social change

Dr. S. T. Ramesh / Associate Professor / Civil Engg./ NIT-T

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 Scope of SIA
• SIA conducted under EIA legislation and
procedure
• scope of SIA differs with jurisdictional
arrangements
• initially limited to environmentally-related
changes
• larger range of social impacts now considered
• comprehensive SIA often a separate process
• focuses on social issues of sustainable
development, poverty alleviation and justice

Dr. S. T. Ramesh / Associate Professor / Civil Engg./ NIT-T

Causes of social impacts

• demographic change, e.g. population size and
composition
• economic change, e.g. employment and income
• environmental change, e.g. air and water quality
• institutional change, e.g. law and administration

Dr. S. T. Ramesh / Associate Professor / Civil Engg./ NIT-T

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Key characteristics and variables
• The key characteristics and variables that are often
correlated with adverse social impacts of development
proposals include:
– demographic change, e.g. size and composition of resident
population, influx of temporary work force or new recreational
users (disrupts the cohesion of a small, stable community);
– economic change, e.g. new patterns of employment / income,
real estate speculation (marginalises long term, older
residents);
– environmental change, e.g. alterations to land use, natural
habitat and hydrological regime (loss of subsistence or
livelihood in resource dependent community); and
– institutional change, e.g. in the structure of local government
or traditional leadership, zoning by-laws or land tenure
(reduced access or loss of control leads to disempowerment
or impoverishment of the established population).

Dr. S. T. Ramesh / Associate Professor / Civil Engg./ NIT-T

Types of social impact

• The main types of social impact that occur as a result of
these project-related changes can be grouped into five
overlapping categories:
– lifestyle impacts – on the way people behave and relate to
family, friends and cohorts on a day-to-day basis;
– cultural impacts – on shared customs, obligations, values,
language, religious belief and other elements which make a
social or ethnic group distinct;
– community impacts – on infrastructure, services, voluntary
organisations, activity networks and cohesion;
– Amenity / quality of life impacts – on sense of place,
aesthetics and heritage, perception of belonging, security and
livability, and aspirations for the future; and
– health impacts – on mental, physical and social well being,
although these aspects are also the subject of health impact
assessment

Dr. S. T. Ramesh / Associate Professor / Civil Engg./ NIT-T

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 Examples of projects
• Examples of projects with important and
‘everyday’ social impacts include:
– landfill and hazardous waste disposal sites (perceived
health risks, loss of amenity);
– power and industrial plants (community stress from
influx of work force, pressure on infrastructure);
– dams and reservoirs (lifestyle disruption resulting
from relocation, land use alteration or long lead time
to full impoundment); and
– roads and linear developments (dislocation of activity
networks and relationships).

Dr. S. T. Ramesh / Associate Professor / Civil Engg./ NIT-T

How social impacts may vary in

accordance with different stages of the
project
• It is also important to consider how social impacts may
vary in accordance with different stages of the project life
cycle:
– Planning or policy development : This phase, beginning with
project notification (or rumour) can have its own social
impacts, even though nothing has actually happened.
– For example, the following can occur:
• changed expectations or fears about the community and
its future;
• increase or fall in property prices depending on the nature
of the proposal;
• real estate speculation, which locks up or freezes land;
and
• concerns about the environmental, social or health
impacts, which may lead to activism, resulting in
community polarisation.
Dr. S. T. Ramesh / Associate Professor / Civil Engg./ NIT-T

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• Construction / implementation
– This phase usually will have the greatest social impact.
– Construction work is socially disruptive.
– It frequently involves clearing land, building physical plant
and putting in access roads and utilities.
– The resulting traffic congestion, dust, noise and other
hazards typically undermine the quality of life of the
resident population.
– Depending on project type and scale, there may be a large
influx of temporary workers, whose demands and
behaviour may be at odds with those of local people.
– In small communities, this phase often creates a strain on
community infrastructure and may be marked by a boom
and bust cycle.
Dr. S. T. Ramesh / Associate Professor / Civil Engg./ NIT-T

• Operation and maintenance

– This phase of a project normally continues over many years.
– In many cases, it will be relatively stable period compared to
the social changes that occurred during construction.
– For one thing, operation requires fewer workers, and
newcomers often become gradually assimilated into the
community.
– Longer - term economic opportunities and social benefits from
the development will be realized during this stage.
– On the other hand, the operation of power, industrial and
waste treatment facilities can bring another set of social
impacts and health hazards from pollution emissions.
– However, the community also may be different from that
which existed before the project was constructed, possibly
adjusting to an industrial operation if it is carefully managed.

Dr. S. T. Ramesh / Associate Professor / Civil Engg./ NIT-T

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• Decommissioning or abandonment
– This phase can have a significant social impact,
especially where a facility is the mainstay of the local
economic base or the only employer as in a single
purpose mining community.
– Depending on condition and location, it may be
possible to convert a site to its former or an
alternative use, such as restoring an open pit mine for
agriculture or recycling a port facility to recreational or
commercial use.
– In other cases, however, industrial lands may be
contaminated and require costly remediation
treatment to rehabilitate or secure them to ensure the
health and safety of nearby residents.

Dr. S. T. Ramesh / Associate Professor / Civil Engg./ NIT-T

Benefits of undertaking a
systematic SIA
• reduced impact on communities or individuals – identification of
mitigation measures is an integral element of SIA;
• enhanced benefits to those affected – SIA preparation also helps
identify measures such as job training packages;
• avoiding delays and obstruction – a well prepared SIA
demonstrates that social impacts are taken seriously and helps
to gain development approval;
• lowered costs – addressing social impacts and mitigation
measures at an early stage helps to avoid costly errors and
remedial actions imposed at a later stage by regulatory agencies;
• better community and stakeholder relationships – experience has
shown that SIA can help to allay fear and concern and build a
basis of trust and cooperation necessary for the proponent to
successfully introduce and operate the project; and
• improved proposals – an SIA provides information that adds
value to existing projects and helps to design future ones.

Dr. S. T. Ramesh / Associate Professor / Civil Engg./ NIT-T

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 Steps in the SIA process
• 1. public involvement – develop and implement an effective public
involvement plan to involve all interested and affected stakeholders
• 2. identification of alternatives – describe the proposed action and
reasonable alternatives to it, including the no action alternative
• 3. profile of baseline condition – document the relevant human
environment/area of influence of the proposal and the existing social
conditions and trends (using the characteristics and variables
described previously)
• 4. scoping – identify and prioritise the range of likely social impacts
through a variety of means, including discussion or interviews with
numbers of all potentially affected
• 5. projection of estimated effects – analyse and predict the probable
impacts of the proposal and the alternatives against baseline
conditions (with versus without the action)
• 6. prediction and evaluation of responses to impacts – determine the
significance of the identified social impacts to those who will be
affected

Dr. S. T. Ramesh / Associate Professor / Civil Engg./ NIT-T

• 7. estimate indirect and cumulative impacts – identify the

subsequent, flow-on effects of the proposal, including the
second/third order impacts and their incremental impacts
when added to other past, present and foreseeable
current activities
• 8. changes to alternatives – recommend new or changed
alternatives and estimate or project their consequences
for affected and interested stakeholders
• 9. mitigation – develop and implement a mitigation plan,
in order of preference to firstly avoid, secondly minimise
and thirdly compensate for adverse impacts
• 10. monitoring – develop and implement a monitoring
programme to identify deviations from the proposed
action and any important unanticipated impacts

Dr. S. T. Ramesh / Associate Professor / Civil Engg./ NIT-T

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 Principles of SIA good practice
• involve the diverse public – identify and involve all
potentially affected groups and individuals
• analyse impact equity – identify who will win and who will
lose, and
• emphasize vulnerability of under - represented groups
• focus the assessment – deal with the issues and public
concerns that really on count not those that are just 'easy
to count'
• identify methods and assumptions and define
significance – describe how the SIA is conducted, what
assumptions are used and how significance is
determined.

Dr. S. T. Ramesh / Associate Professor / Civil Engg./ NIT-T

• provide feedback on social impacts to project planners –

identify problems that could be solved with changes to
the proposed action or alternatives
• use SIA practitioners – trained social scientists
employing social science methods will provide the best
results
• establish monitoring and mitigation programmes –
manage uncertainty by monitoring and mitigating
adverse impacts
• identify data sources – use published social scientific
literature, secondary data and primary data from the
affected area
• plan for gaps in data – make clear any incomplete or
unavailable information and the reasons why this could
not be obtained
Dr. S. T. Ramesh / Associate Professor / Civil Engg./ NIT-T

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 Methods commonly used for
predicting social impacts include:
• trend extrapolations
• population multipliers
• use of expert knowledge
• scenario building
• comparative studies

Dr. S. T. Ramesh / Associate Professor / Civil Engg./ NIT-T

Methods commonly used for

predicting social impacts
• trend extrapolations – projecting current trends, such as
population change or employment, into the future (with or
without modifying the rate of change)
• population multipliers – extrapolated increases in population
size are coefficients for the change in other variables, such as
employment and demand for housing, infrastructure or
services
• consulting experts – use of expert knowledge such as
researchers, professional consultants, local authorities, or
knowledgeable citizens scenarios – exercises to develop the
likely, alternative or preferred future of a community or
society. Scenarios can be used to compare different
outcomes (best versus worst case)
• comparative studies – examining how an affected community
has responded to change in the past, or the impact on other
communities that have undergone a similar action

Dr. S. T. Ramesh / Associate Professor / Civil Engg./ NIT-T

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• When conducting an SIA, the following factors and
considerations can assist in implementing and amplifying
the principles :
– identifying trends – when gathering baseline data on an affected
community, it is important to situate the profile or 'snap shot' in a
dynamic context by identifying the changes that are occurring
already from non-project sources;
– taking account of initial response to project announcement –
support or opposition may be an impact itself or an indicator of
the likely degree of community cohesion or conflict over social
issues;
– qualifying data sufficiency and reliability – where SIA is
hampered by a lack of adequate data, err on the conservative
side in reporting any potentially significant impacts (e.g. stating
that it cannot be ruled out with confidence rather than concluding
it is not proven);

Dr. S. T. Ramesh / Associate Professor / Civil Engg./ NIT-T

– predicting key issues – it is better to be roughly

correct on the matters that count, rather than
quantifying the impacts that can be counted; and
– team building – experienced social scientists need to
be an integral part of the EIA team to predict these
key issues and establish linkages to biophysical
impacts. Often, team building must address cultural
style as well as disciplinary differences, for example
when relating an SIA to the EIA and project planning
timetable on the one hand and the norms and
traditions of an affected community on the other.

Dr. S. T. Ramesh / Associate Professor / Civil Engg./ NIT-T

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 SIA practitioners guard against
the following factors:
• spatial bias – information gathering focuses on
accessible locations and overlooks remote or nomadic
tribes;
• seasonal bias – an SIA may be carried out at a time
when it is difficult to gain a representative information on
an affected community, for example during harvest time
or hunting season;
• personal bias – consultation and interviews may be
dictated by cultural traditions or power structures, for
example limited to political leaders, elders or men; and
• professional bias – lack of interaction between
disciplinary specialists may result in important links
between the environment and society being omitted.

Dr. S. T. Ramesh / Associate Professor / Civil Engg./ NIT-T

Steps in the SIA process

• public involvement plan
• identification of alternatives
• profiling of baseline conditions
• scoping of key issues
• projection of estimated effects
• prediction and evaluation of responses to impacts
• estimate indirect and cumulative impacts
• recommend changes to alternatives
• develop and implement a mitigation plan
• develop and implement a monitoring programme

Dr. S. T. Ramesh / Associate Professor / Civil Engg./ NIT-T

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 SIA: How is it done?
Screening
Screening

Data
Scoping
Scoping C
Baseline
Baseline O
Data
Data N
Collection
Collection S
U
+
Identification
Identification
&&Analysis
Analysisofof L
Impacts
Impacts
T
Mitigation
Mitigation A
Strategies
Strategies T
I
Draft
Draft SIA
SIA O
Final
Final SIA
SIA N
and
and
Management
Management
Plan
Plan

Dr. S. T. Ramesh / Associate Professor / Civil Engg./ NIT-T

Principles of SIA good practice

• involve the diverse public
• analyse impact equity
• focus the assessment
• identify methods and assumptions and define
significance
• provide feedback on social impacts to project
planners
• use experienced SIA practitioners
• establish monitoring and mitigation programmes
• identify data sources
• plan for gaps in data

Dr. S. T. Ramesh / Associate Professor / Civil Engg./ NIT-T

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 Sources of SIA information
• data on the proposal
• experience with similar actions
• census and vital statistics
• secondary documents
• survey and field research

Dr. S. T. Ramesh / Associate Professor / Civil Engg./ NIT-T

Basis of good practice in

prediction of social impacts
• understanding those affected and their likely
responses
• comparisons with experience in similar cases
• use of appropriate expertise and knowledge
base

Dr. S. T. Ramesh / Associate Professor / Civil Engg./ NIT-T

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 Good practice in analysing
impact equity
• predict adverse impacts
• specify for each group
• explain reasons for variations
• highlight impacts on vulnerable groups
• guard against representational bias

Dr. S. T. Ramesh / Associate Professor / Civil Engg./ NIT-T

Good practice in impact

mitigation and management
• identify mitigation measures for each impact
• customize them to the different groups affected
• give priority to avoiding social impacts
• then minimise them as far as practicable
• use compensation as a last resort
• ensure impacts are not borne disproportionately by one
group
• no one should be worse off than before
• treat relocation/resettlement as a special case
• livelihoods of those displaced should be improved
• enhance benefits for local people through job training
and development packages

Dr. S. T. Ramesh / Associate Professor / Civil Engg./ NIT-T

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 SIA benefits can include:
• reduced impact on people
• enhanced benefits for those affected
• avoiding delays and obstruction
• lowering costs by timely actions
• better community and stakeholder relationships
• improved future proposals

Dr. S. T. Ramesh / Associate Professor / Civil Engg./ NIT-T

Dr. S. T. Ramesh / Associate Professor / Civil Engg./ NIT-T

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