Evaluation of environmental impact assessment effectiveness in Slovakia

Abstract

Environmental impact assessment (EIA) practice in Slovakia is about 20 years old. EIA was first introduced in Slovakia based on the Environment Law of 1992. The practice in EIA started developing shortly after the Law No. 127/1994 Coll. came into force. The first group of experts was certified as being EIA/strategic environmental assessment (SEA) professionally qualified persons. During 20 years, the numbers of EIA procedures were performed and number of EIA practitioners has considerably increased. Many discussions arise about EIA procedure effectiveness and quality in Slovakia. The task of this study has been to investigate EIA system applications in Slovakia and evaluate its effectiveness. In this paper, the views of professionally qualified persons are examined closely, using a questionnaire survey. Data from the questionnaires are analysed to find information relating to current EIA/SEA and EIA/SEA practice and the future for EIA. The objective of this study was to assess the potential for improving the effectiveness of EIA in Slovakia, and finally the recommendations for improvement are presented. The results of this research suggest that the use of new legislation should be extended in Slovakia in order to improve EIA effectiveness.

Environmental Impact of Small Hydro Power Plant—A Case Study

“…There is a need for a general and thorough approach to justifying, explaining, demonstrating, implementing, sampling, using, and creating real skills in analysis in any area of human society [18,19]. Most management decisions are concerned with the future; however, the future is usually uncertain [20][21][22][23][24][25]. The uses of risk identification, analysis, and assessment in relation to the environment have broadened considerably in recent years.…”

“…It is expected that EIA will continue to act as an effective tool to prevent the application of investments not only in Slovakia which by their degree of environmental damage vastly outweigh their benefits [23][24][25].…”

Environmental Impact Assessment in the Visegrad Group countries

“…The study began with an analysis of the theoretical basis of formation of EIA worldwide and in particular the relevant provisions in the EU and in Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary, as well as the existing studies and research papers in the field (Bohatkiewicz, 2007;Briggs and Hudson, 2013;Engel 2009;Gałaś et al, 2013;Gałaś, 2014;Pavličková, 2012;Pavličková and Kozová, 2009;Runhaar et al, 2013;Tamásová, 2013;Zvijáková et al, 2014). When selecting evaluation criteria, different approaches to the assessment of EIA were analysed (Sadler, 1996;Annandale, 2001;Wood, 1995Wood, , 1999Wood, , 2003Hollick, 1986;Gibson, 1993;Ortolano et al, 1987;Lee et al, 1994;Lee, 1995).…”

Environmental impact assessment of flood protection objects based on risk analysis in snakov village slovakia

“…24/2006 (The National Council of the Slovak Republic [25]) -a law that requires the assessment of proposed activities to determine its impacts on the "environment" -EIA is mandatorily being carried out on planned flood protection objects (FPO). According to Lexer et al [18] and Zvijáková et al [26] one way to advance the EIA system in the Slovakia is to develop method or guidance on how to apply risk assessment or analysis in EIA, that will provide better transparency to help maintain the impartiality of the entire process, the result of which should lead to the selection of future activity quantified with minimum risk to the environment. In the literature there are several other studies considering risk analysis in construction projects (Zavadskas et al [27]).…”