Environmental value assessment in a multidisciplinary EIA setting

Value assessment is a central element in an EIA for the understanding of the impacts of specified projects. The value assessment contains subjective elements and this may cause errors and difficulties in numeric value assessment methods. There is a need for transparent common criteria to promote discussion and understanding. A common criteria base already exists, but lack of communication between different management systems and different disciplines, all with different traditions in value assessment, makes the situation complex. In this article we have looked into the basic understanding of value linked to the investigation themes of natural environment, cultural heritage and society. The investigation themes linked to social science is difficult to incorporate into a common system, basically because they have less focus on land use and contain different value types. Much of the relevant literature about value assessment is linked to the assessment of sites of special interest as candidates for legal protection or conservation. In an EIA a much broader range of areas is introduced, including the “every day landscape” with a lower and more general level of value. Together with a focus on mitigation and adjustments of plans, this results in a need for a more detailed value assessment scale than is normally in use today. We have suggested a new scale to ease communication between different disciplines and management systems. How we understand value is not constant over time, nor is the level of knowledge. This makes it necessary to sustain an ongoing debate on value assessment. The need for a dynamic value assessment system increases with the increasing use of database modelling, digital analysis of map data (GIS) etc. Lack of a ongoing value debate will rapidly lead to misleading and biased results.