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A typical residential block a short walk from the busy commercial area in the Georgetown area in Washington, D.C. These historic homes provide a relatively dense populated area that facilitates the success of commercial establishments in Georgetown. The sidewalk brick pavers add charm to the residential district.

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Updated on: August 29, 2006

Social Impact Assessment (SIA)

What is Social Impact Assessment?

Professor Rabel J. Burdge defines Social Impact Assessment as a "systematic analysis in advance of the likely impacts a development event (project, policy or plan) will have on the day-to-day life (environment) of persons and communities." An internationally renouwed expert on SIA, Professor Burdge addes that SIA helps communities, government and private sector organizations understand and anticipate the social consequences on human populations of proposed project development or policy changes. SIA should be performed as part of the planning process to alert the planner and the project proponent of the potential social impacts. Social impacts, like biological, physical, or economic impacts, have to be identified and measured to be understood and communicated to the impacted population and decision-makers. Dr. Burdge states, "SIA provides a realistic appraisal of possible social ramifications and suggestions for project alternatives and possible mitigation measures."

Social Impact Assessment emerged in the early 1970s as an applied social science field in response to the need to understand the impacts on human populations of natural resource developments and environmental policy alternatives. The impetus was the passing of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) by the US Congress. By 2000, Social Impact Assessment was a recognized sub-field of the social science disciplines of sociology, geography, political science, anthropology, psychology and the design and planning arts.

In 1994, the Interorganizational Committee on Guidelines and Principles for Social Impact Assessment published Guidelines and Principles for Social Impact Assessment intended for US federal agencies who wished to incorporate Social Impact Assessment into their NEPA procedures. This document was revised and renamed Principles and Guidelines for Social Impact Assessment.

(Burdge, Rabel J., A Community Guide to Social Impact Assessment, 3rd Ed., 2004)

A social assessor, performs functions for the client "in advance," as Professor Burdge states, to:

• Recognize social changes resulting from new projects
• Measure the changes taking place
• Determine which changes are significant
• Use the measurements of social change to understand and interpret the consequences of a proposed action
• Provide understandable information about change that may be communicated to all members of the community
• Outline steps a community might take to mitigate and enhance the positive and minimize the consequences of change, and
• Benefit from the change that development brings.

A community that demands that a social impact assessment be performed is better prepared for the consequences (not inevitable) of a given project so that the changes become a positive experience. A SIA would provide to a community:

• A strategy to involve all community members in responding to a proposed change or development
• Acknowledgement of the negative consequences of change so that it can deal with the situation openly
• An approach to understand the importance of sociological, economic and psychological needs of community life.

We have years of experience in community and regional planning ranging from design of public programs delivering a broad array of municipal services to large populations in urban areas to assisting in the development of strategic (community-based) planning for small rural communities. As planners, sociologists, and economists, we always approach our projects from the ground-up; that is, from the comprehensive (or general) to the specific (or to a specific specialty). We have the collective skills to undertake a social impact assessment of any project, large or small.

Following are several examples of social impact assessments as currently being applied. Also briefly discussed is a situation where a social impact assessment was not performed and the negative consequences that resulted from this oversight.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reports in a recent study Final Report: Social Impact Assessment of Human Exposure to Mercury Related to Land Use and Physicochemical Settings in the Alabama-Mobile River System the following:

The interdisciplinary approach of this project illustrates the utility of integrating biophysical research with social impact assessment (SIA) and public involvement to affect both the conduct of the research and public policy... Researchers from different disciplinary backgrounds interacted as a team bound to the common ground of involving policy officials and other stakeholders and translating findings into their social and economic implications....

Two major conclusions emerge from the social science disciplinary perspective of the project: (1) the applicability of a planning/research management SIA model for linking research to policy was demonstrated; and (2) more generally, the utility of this connection for research to shape policy demonstrates a wider applicability of SIA than has generally been the case. SIA thus represents an instrument for policy, not simply an adjunct to environmental impact assessment.

Regrettably, the US EPA does not at present required the conducting of SIA as part of EIS throughout the nation as was initially considered by NEPA. Nevertheless, it appears that EPA is slowly coming around to realizing the benefits derived by the entire nation should SIA become a part of a greater number of public projects.

International multilateral banks, including The World Bank, use SIA as part of their sustainable development program. The Poverty and Social Impact Analysis (PSIA) is the analysis of the distributional impact of policy reforms on the well-being or welfare of different stakeholder groups, with particular focus on the poor and vulnerable.

An example of where a social impact assessment would have been beneficial for the citizens of Pinedale, Wyoming was reported recently by the PBS NewsHour program. While viewing the report it brought to mind the potential benefits to Pinedale from a SIA should it have been programmed before the opening of the surrounding federal land to gas exploration. Click here to read and view this PBS report. Click on the "Streaming Video" to view the video clip.

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