Recognizing Uncertainty in Environmental Impact Assessment as One of the Main Factors Affecting the Results

Understanding natural systems, as the most complex known systems, has always been difficult for human beings who are themselves component of those systems. This fact has created a lot of uncertainty in environmental planning and management. Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) as a branch of environmental investigation is not an exception. Understanding the environmental components and their reactions to degradation is necessary in this assessment. However complexity in living systems and lack of knowledge about those interactions has made it difficult for us to understand the relationship and react to the changes. This fact influences the correct analysis and results of the assessment. Hence in many cases, the results of these assessments are far from reality. This research aims to introduce the concept of uncertainty in ecological research and then investigates this phenomenon in different methods of assessment for the factors affecting the uncertainty in EIA.