Week 6 - People
Completion requirements
3. Social Impacts
3.1. Why Conduct an SIA
Why do we need to conduct a SIA?
The following are some of the reasons for conducting a SIA:
- SIA has the potential to identify local knowledge that could guide project siting decisions and reduce cost to companies that comes from poor siting decisions.
- Better decisions can be made about which interventions should proceed and how they should proceed.
- Mitigation measures can be implemented to minimise the harm and maximise the benefits from a specific planned intervention or related activity.
- Reduces likely future costs in the form of litigation, delays to approval, managing protest actions or addressing violence against staff and/or property.
- Enables a more sustainable and equitable biophysical and human environment.
The SIA process can begin with a preliminary SIA which is usually done prior to a full SIA. A preliminary SIA involves a desk-based research approach to gathering relevant data and information on project area, demographics, history, etc.