Investigation and Comparison Capabilities of Common Methods of Environmental Impact Assessment and ELECTRE-TRI Multi-Criteria Decision Method

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is a process of identifying, predicting and mitigating the negative impacts of development projects on physico-Chemical, biological, socio-economic and cultural environments. The main purpose of EIA process is to inform decision makers of the likely impacts of a proposal before a decision is made. EIA provides an opportunity to identify key issues and stakeholders early in the life of a proposal so that potentially adverse impacts can be addressed before final approval decisions are made. There are different methods for implementing an EIA project. The best method is one, which can quantify the impacts and assess the impacts rapidly. This paper attempts to investigate and compare capabilities of the EIA prevalent methods including questionnaire, matrix, system analysis, maps overlay, networks and ELECTRE-TRI multi-criteria decision method. This paper indicates that ELECTRE_TRI is an appropriate method for EIA projects. However, the final judgment of the selection of EIA method depends on the EIA experts opinions.