Consider the following statements regarding impact prediction and assessment:

Question

Consider the following statements regarding impact prediction and assessment:

I. Impacts on air, water, biota, noise, cultural, and socio-economic environment

are normally assessed in an EIA.

II. Cultural heritage sites and socio-economic structures are excluded from EIA

coverage.

III. The impact of construction and infrastructure development on land typically

includes habitat loss, soil erosion, and water-related pollution.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

1. A. I and II only
2. B. I and III only (Correct answer)
3. C. II and III only
4. D. I, II and III

Correct Answer

Option B — I and III only

Detailed Solution & Explanation

The correct answer is I and III only.

Key Points

• Statement I is correct. A proper EIA assesses impacts across the full range of components — air, water, biota, noise, cultural and socio-economic — not the physical environment alone.
• Statement II is incorrect, and it is the deliberate error: it wrongly excludes or downgrades cultural heritage and socio-economic structures, which are in fact standard components of assessment.
• Statement III is correct.

Additional Information

• The socio-economic and cultural components are the ones most often neglected in practice and most often tested in examinations. They cover displacement and resettlement, effects on livelihoods and common property resources, pressure on local services, and impacts on archaeological or religious sites.
• Impacts are classified along several axes: direct or indirect, short-term or long-term, reversible or irreversible, and cumulative where several projects act on the same receptor.
• Irreversible impacts — loss of a heritage structure, extinction of a local population, permanent aquifer depletion — carry disproportionate weight in appraisal precisely because no mitigation can undo them.
• Prediction methods range from checklists and matrices (Leopold matrix) through networks showing causal chains to quantitative simulation models for air dispersion and groundwater flow.