Scoping for Environmental & Social Impact Assessment (ESIA)
In this video, I walk through the fundamentals of the scoping phase in Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (EIA / ESIA), drawing on over 20 years of real-world experience across extractives, government, and multilateral development banks.
This video is designed for:
• EIA / ESIA practitioners
• safeguards specialists
• project staff working on infrastructure projects
• students or professionals learning how impact assessment works in practice
In this video, I cover:
• What impact assessment is: Why we carry out impact assessments across the project cycle, who they are for (regulators, communities, financiers), and why they are more than a paperwork exercise.
• What scoping is and why it’s critical: Scoping as a decision-making filter, deciding what matters enough to assess in detail, and what doesn’t.
• Scoping Methodologies: Looking at what methodologies are used globally and what I recommend.
• Demystifying the jargon: Valued components, receptors, resources, VECs — different terms, same idea.
In a follow-up video (part 2), I walk through a practical example and show how to facilitate a scoping exercise step-by-step.
If you work in impact assessment or safeguards, and you’re trying to understand how EIA works beyond the theory, this video is for you.