This free 90-minute event is the fourth in the IAIA-Fothergill TC Digital Impact Assessment Webinar Series. The series delves deeper into specific areas and examples of how digital approaches and technology are being used to advance IA, as discussed in their joint report “The State of Digital IA Practice.”
This webinar recording deep dives into how the use of data and digital technology is enabling the environment to have earlier engagement and sustained role across the lifecycle of infrastructure projects, allowing schemes to be brought forward to seek finance / consent, reduce risk, and identify opportunities to enhance.
The webinar focuses on work by consultancy Atkins (member of the SNC-Lavalin Group) to apply digital data and approaches across the project lifecycle, from early conception and assessment through to construction and operation.
This will build on what can be achieved with different levels of digital data availability, combined with a transition to a digital mindset, cumulating in an exploration of their Atkins’ Pangea Environmental Assessment Hub, which they use across their UK EIA services and are rolling out in other areas.
Part 1 introduces the concept of environmental integrated design, a left-shift, outcome-based approach enabled by better use of digital and data, bringing earlier consideration of the environment into the design process to reduce risk and identify opportunities.
Part 2 reveals how by rethinking the EIA as a conceptual model, it is possible, using widely available tools, to digitize and automate large parts of the assessment process, freeing up the impact assessors’ time to work more closely with multiple stakeholders, from designers, regulators, and the wider community.
Part 3 explores how digitizing and combining the spatial, temporal, and technological elements of control and mitigation measures can achieve environmental compliance in construction and operation, particularly for complex schemes spanning multiple entities, jurisdictions, large number of mitigations and permit conditions.
The final 15 minutes of the webinar are dedicated to a facilitated discussion with the speakers by the Chair, with questions from attendees.