Environmental Impact Assessments have been carried out in the past in Botswana without any national guidelines, resulting in reports with large variations in content, quality and coverage. It is in recognition of these shortcomings that the Guidelines for Planning and Environmental Impact Assessment of Road Infrastructure have been produced. Their objective is to facilitate a comprehensive technical basis for decision-making throughout the planning process as well as to provide transparency to the affected communities. Environmental impact assessment (EIA) is an evaluation of foreseeable impacts, both beneficial and adverse. It is intended to help reveal mitigating measures and alternatives to optimise positive impacts while reducing or limiting negative impacts. The end result of the EIA process is a better understanding of the linkages between society, the natural environment and the sustainable use of inherited resources. Environmental impact assessment is to be carried out at different levels of detail at the pre-feasibility, feasibility and detailed design stages. Technical guidance for the level of detail of the environmental impact assessments at each planning stage is given in the guideline. Road projects often involve issues of conflicting interests. Environmental impact assessment is, in this respect, a useful tool for documenting the various impacts and interests and providing a transparent basis for comparing them and recommending or deciding on alternative options. Consultation is emhasised. The method for Environmental impact assessment described in this manual is a systematic evaluation of the relevant advantages (benefits) and disadvantages (costs) that alternative alignments for a new road project or improvements to an existing road will generate, regardless of the unit of measurement, i.e. whether measurable in monetary units or not. The impacts that can be put into monetary terms e.g. time - savings, are handled in an ordinary Cost Benefit Analysis. The non-monetised impacts, for example impacts on archaeological relics, are handled in a systematic way describing the value of the asset and the magnitude of the impacts. Based on the value and the magnitude, the significance of the impact in relation to the value of the asset is assessed .The guidelines also present advice and methods on how to compare both monetised and non-monetised impacts, and how to discuss and substantiate the recommendation of an alignment. For the covering abstract see ITRD E135448.
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