Toolbox

The environmental and social impact strategy arises from adapting UN-Habitat's Environmental and Social Safeguards System (ESSS), which facilitates the identification, mitigation and monitoring of social and environmental risks and impacts that could be triggered by the strategic development and spatial plans and strategic projects. It should be noted that, although countries may already have processes in place for environmental and social impact assessment, it is advisable to use this activity as a complementary strategy to this process in order to have as comprehensive an analysis of social and environmental risks and impacts as possible.

The environmental and social impact strategy of the project will be developed based on the information gathered from Block D Analysis and Diagnosis and the activities. If the objective is to prepare a city-level output (either plan or project), the outputs from the Scenario Building (Activity 17), The Strategic Visioning Workshop (Activity 18) and the Spatialisation of the Strategic Vision (Activity 19) will have to be taken into account. If the objective is to prepare a neighbourhood plan or intervention the outputs from the Neighbourhood Plan and Design (Activity 33) and Neighbourhood Projects and Interventions (Activity 34) will have to be taken into account.  Initially, the risk level of the plan or project should be identified through a T10 Environmental and Social Screening Report. This will allow a timely and preliminary review of the characteristics of the project that may trigger environmental and social impacts With the Screening report ir is possible to categorize the level of environmental and social risk. Depending on the level of risk identified and the type of project (urban plan or physical intervention), different reports and plans will have to be developed with a level of detail that varies according to the level of risk.

For the development of plans with low risk and impact, a T11 Environmental and Social Development Impact Plan (DIP) - a simplified plan to control risks and impacts - must be prepared; the preparation of the DIP requires a discussion and identification of the activities, initiatives and actions that the strategic development plan proposes, and consists of two synoptic tables. 

For plans with high level of socio-environmental risk and impacts, a T30 Environmental and Social Scoping Report (ESSR) and a T31 Environmental and Social Action Plan (ESAP) must be completed. The goal of the  ESSR is to prepare the team for the development of the T31 Environmental and Social Action Plan (ESAP). For the ESAP, the team will determine detailed measures to avoid negative impacts and a monitoring plan to control unexpected impacts. The ESAP consists of three main sections: the results of the ESSR, an Environmental and Social Management Plan and the list of stakeholders to be involved.

For the planning of physical interventions through strategic projects, regardless of the level of risk, a ESSR should be prepared, and subsequently, depending on the level of risk, a PAAS (for physical interventions with low socio-environmental risk) or a T66 Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) (for physical interventions with high socio-environmental risk) will be developed. The ESIA is the most detailed document to be developed in the strategy and the one that requires more technical capacity for its development, as it includes the baseline environmental and social studies to be executed, as well as the specific identification of impacts, their mitigation and a monitoring plan. The ESIA can be completed with a participatory process for identifying socio-environmental risks.