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The environmental assessment process was explicit in the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) enacted by the US Congress in 1969 and signed into law on January 1, 1970. The purposes of NEPA were declared to include:
To declare a national policy which will encourage productive and enjoyable harmony between man and his environment; to promote efforts which will prevent or eliminate damage to the environment and the biosphere and stimulate the health and welfare of man; to enrich the understanding of the ecological systems and the natural resources important to the Nation…. Sec. 2 [42USC § 4321] (EPA 2016)
Similar provisions to assess developmental measures for their impact on the environment have since been adopted in many other countries. In 1973, the European Union initiated efforts to provide a framework...
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References
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De Graff, J.V. (2018). Environmental Assessment. In: Bobrowsky, P., Marker, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Engineering Geology. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12127-7_111-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12127-7_111-1
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