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Viewpoint: Ethical and value issues in EIA
Viewpoint
Ethical and Value Issues in EIA
Marvin L. Manheim
This Viewpoint serves as the foreword to this special issue on ethics and values in EIA . The issue grew out of a research project conducted at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with support from the National Science Foundation's Ethical and Value Issues in Science and Technology program. The research team was made up of MIT Professors David Marks, Lawrence Susskind, and Marvin Manheim, the latter who acted as principal investigator, and a group of graduate students. The team would like to acknowledge particularly the role of Dr. William A. Blanpied in encouraging the project.
312 EIA REVIEW 2/4
The attention to environmental impacts of public and private actions has increased tremendously since the early 1970s, and has had a significant effect on professional practice in many fields, in many countries. The most noticeable effects on professional practice have been at the technical and procedural levels. Architects, engineers, planners, systems analysts and all the other professionals involved in planning or designing particular projects must now do careful technical analyses of many factors-air and water quality, noise, ecological systems, and so on-that were .previously given little, if any, consideration. Procedurally it -has become important, and in many cases required by law, to incorporate these broader technical analysis into the planning and design processes ; to make analyses available to professionals and nonprofessionals alike; and to take account of the analyses' results in the selection of a final design and its implementation. Related requirements for public involvement in EIA have affected further the political and administrative dynamics of the planning and design processes. Beyond the technical and procedural implications, however, are a set of ethical and value implications that are even deeper and more far-reaching for professionals engaged in assessing environmental impacts. The -articles that follow explore the value questions that underlie aspects of the EIA process. including:
Environmental Impact Assessment Review, V. 2, N. '1 0195·9255 /8 111200·0512105 .00/0 C \981 Plenum Publishing Corporation
• the choice of professional team members • problem definition • the work plan, including its content and adaptability • identification of the client groups • approaches to public participation • technical methods, including the use of data and styles of forecasting, and evaluation methods • approaches to coping with uncertainty • attitudes toward mitigation • attitudes toward the role of the EIS in planning and decision making • attitudes toward differences of opinion • professional training • image of an appropriate professional work style and the choice of a professional role model
For a list of working papers available from the research project on ethical and value issues in:EIA, write: Professor M. L. Manheim EVIST Reports Room 1-181 MIT
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139
Many professionals attempt to deal with these aspects of impact assessment by technical or procedural means. But, there is no escaping that the final choices reflect professional and personal values-ultimately revealing one's personal professional ethic. While each practitioner or scholar must seek his/her own answers to the value questions that arise in EIA, we hope this special issue of the REVIEW will playa part in stimulating discussion that will lead eventually to greater sensitivity on the part of all professionals involved in impact assessment.
EIA REVIEW
2/4
313
314 EIA REVIEW
2/4
Ethical and Value Issues in EIA
Marvin L. Manheim
This Viewpoint serves as the foreword to this special issue on ethics and values in EIA . The issue grew out of a research project conducted at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with support from the National Science Foundation's Ethical and Value Issues in Science and Technology program. The research team was made up of MIT Professors David Marks, Lawrence Susskind, and Marvin Manheim, the latter who acted as principal investigator, and a group of graduate students. The team would like to acknowledge particularly the role of Dr. William A. Blanpied in encouraging the project.
312 EIA REVIEW 2/4
The attention to environmental impacts of public and private actions has increased tremendously since the early 1970s, and has had a significant effect on professional practice in many fields, in many countries. The most noticeable effects on professional practice have been at the technical and procedural levels. Architects, engineers, planners, systems analysts and all the other professionals involved in planning or designing particular projects must now do careful technical analyses of many factors-air and water quality, noise, ecological systems, and so on-that were .previously given little, if any, consideration. Procedurally it -has become important, and in many cases required by law, to incorporate these broader technical analysis into the planning and design processes ; to make analyses available to professionals and nonprofessionals alike; and to take account of the analyses' results in the selection of a final design and its implementation. Related requirements for public involvement in EIA have affected further the political and administrative dynamics of the planning and design processes. Beyond the technical and procedural implications, however, are a set of ethical and value implications that are even deeper and more far-reaching for professionals engaged in assessing environmental impacts. The -articles that follow explore the value questions that underlie aspects of the EIA process. including:
Environmental Impact Assessment Review, V. 2, N. '1 0195·9255 /8 111200·0512105 .00/0 C \981 Plenum Publishing Corporation
• the choice of professional team members • problem definition • the work plan, including its content and adaptability • identification of the client groups • approaches to public participation • technical methods, including the use of data and styles of forecasting, and evaluation methods • approaches to coping with uncertainty • attitudes toward mitigation • attitudes toward the role of the EIS in planning and decision making • attitudes toward differences of opinion • professional training • image of an appropriate professional work style and the choice of a professional role model
For a list of working papers available from the research project on ethical and value issues in:EIA, write: Professor M. L. Manheim EVIST Reports Room 1-181 MIT
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139
Many professionals attempt to deal with these aspects of impact assessment by technical or procedural means. But, there is no escaping that the final choices reflect professional and personal values-ultimately revealing one's personal professional ethic. While each practitioner or scholar must seek his/her own answers to the value questions that arise in EIA, we hope this special issue of the REVIEW will playa part in stimulating discussion that will lead eventually to greater sensitivity on the part of all professionals involved in impact assessment.
EIA REVIEW
2/4
313
314 EIA REVIEW
2/4