Decision Factors and Benchmarks of EIA Report Quality for Japan’s Cooperation Projects

A paper by Kamijo Tetsuya, a research fellow at the JICA Ogata Sadako Research Institute (JICA Ogata Research Institute), co-authored by Guangwei Huang was published in Environment, Development and Sustainability, a journal covering the environmental impacts of socio-economic development.

The abstract on the site describes the content of the paper as follows.

“The purposes of this study are to identify the decision factors and benchmarks of the overall quality of EIA reports for Japan’s cooperation projects and to verify the effects of the decision factors on report quality. The study reviewed the quality of 160 reports from 2001 to 2016 and examined potential factors influencing the overall quality of reports using statistical tests, cluster analysis, decision tree analysis, and covariance structure analysis. The study identified the alternatives and public involvement as the decision factors among potential factors, and their linkage affected the quality of reports. The study concluded that the just satisfactory grade of alternatives and public involvement at scoping and draft reporting stages were the benchmarks for satisfactory EIA reports. Further verification through comparative studies and case studies is needed to confirm how two processes have an effect on the quality of reports.”

The study presented in this paper is part of a research project of the JICA Ogata Research Institute entitled “Improving the Planning Stage of JICA Environmental and Social Considerations.”