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Rapid Environmental Impact Assessment in Disaster Response


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Rapid environmental impact assessment in disaster response (REA)

The importance of the linkage between disasters and environmental damage is increasingly recognised as an important factor in mitigation and response, with several initiatives under way to reduce negative environmental impacts that contribute to disasters or arise from them.

However, environmental issues are still not systematically included in disaster response and recovery. Relief workers are rarely able to step back from their immediate and intense operational efforts to view the broader aspects of a disaster and its impacts. It is difficult for affected communities to communicate their concerns about the environment to relief assistance organisations working under pressure. Standard environmental impact assessment (EIA) methods are too complex to be readily applied in emergencies.

The Rapid Environmental Impact Assessment (REA) project seeks to overcome these problems by providing relief workers and affected communities with a simpler and more straightforward analytical and decision-making framework to identify significant environmental issues in relation to the prime humanitarian objectives of saving lives and reducing damage. The project is a joint initiative of the Benfield UCL Hazard Research Centre and CARE International, with funding to date from OFDA/USAID, UNEP/OCHA and the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In its first phase (2001-4) a formal REA methodology was developed and tested in different locations and contexts. A training syllabus and course materials were also developed and tested; staff from a number of agencies received training. These and other project outputs were published (on this website) and advertised.

The second phase (2004-6) comprises support for real-time use of the REA by international, national and local organisations, a more extensive training programme to build capacity in operational and training organisations, and a range of awareness-raising activities.

Additional details on the REA project

REA Guidelines The latest version of the Guidelines is 4.4, issued in May 2005. French and Spanish versions of the Guidelines are also available through this link.

REA Training REA Workshops are now scheduled for Geneva (November), Nepal (December), Sri Lanka (December), East Africa (January 2006), and South Africa (February 2006). Schedules for other REA workshops in South Africa, East Africa, Asia and North America are being developed. Click here to go to the 2005-2006 REA Workshop schedule which contains the latest information on dates, locations and contacts for registration. Real Time REA Assistance The REA project has a capacity to provide REA experts to assist in conducting a rapid environmental impact assessment during major disasters. The roster of currently available REA experts can be found here. Real Time REA assistance is usually available in 5 to 7 days and experts can remain in the field up to a month.

Resources Newest Addition: Environmental Checklist Review of Emergency Shelter, based on field work in Sri Lanka and presented at the Shelter Project meeting in Geneva 12 May 2005.

©IRINnews.org (http://irinnews.org/)

Also to be found at this link is Your Assessment of My Needs: Contrasting Crisis and Normal Impact Assessment, presented at the International Association of Impact Assessment annual meeting in 2004 which discusses how the REA and other disaster-related assessments are different from assessments conducted in normal times.

Click here for better documentation on the UNHCR Framework for Assessing, Monitoring and Evaluating the Environment in Refugee-related Operations (FRAME) Project, a joint UNHCR-CARE project.

Links

For more information contact John Twigg at j.twigg@ucl.ac.uk or Charles Kelly at 727342412ck@compuserve.com

Benfield UCL Hazard Research Centre
Department of Earth Sciences
UCL
136 Gower Street (Lewis Building)
London, WC1E 6BT
UK

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