Environmental impact

Environmental impact analysis is conducted to determine the likely human environmental health impact, risk to ecological health, and changes to nature's services that a proposed or ongoing project may bring, or is bringing.

The US Environmental Protection Agency pioneered the use of pathway analysis to determine the likely human health impact of environmental ills. It and the Natural Step definitions later became the basis of the global ISO 14000 series of environmental management standards and the more recent ISO 19011 accounting standard.

After an analysis, Precautionary Principle and Polluter Pays may be applied to prevent, limit, or require strict liability or insurance coverages to a project, based on its likely harms.

Environmental impact analysis is often controversial and rarely uncontested.

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See also list of environment topics