Challenges Allied to the Effectiveness of the Environmental ImpactAssessment in the Construction Industry of Sri Lanka

Abstract

Environmental Impact Assessment is a structured program for evaluating and inspecting environmental factors, in order to support and aid the decision-making or the planning stage of a development process. Basically, this information is used to observe the change that cause to the environment due to the development process and advice the most effective and reasonable methods to reduce the impact to the environment. Considering the last decade Sri Lanka has been positive towards development and towards the Construction industry. Nevertheless, there are numerous environmental concerns that should be addressed due to these developments. EIA procedure emphasizes the possible environmental impacts and methods to reduce these impacts. This study elaborates on the Challenges allied to the Effectiveness of the Environmental Impact Assessment in the Construction Industry of Sri Lanka. Theimpacts of five main challenges are discussed in this study and also study will provide an insight about the current EIA procedure implemented in Sri Lanka. Both quantitative and qualitative approaches are used to collect data, and these collected data were presented using both numerical formats by regression analysis and descriptive formats by content analysis. The findings inthe study reveal that the challenges discussed in this cause have a significant impact towards the effectiveness of the EIA procedure. The paper concludes with recommendations or strategies to overcome these Challenges.