The objective of this handbook is to provide a description of practical methods for designing and executing effective environmental assessments (EAs) to those who are involved in various aspects of road projects, from planning to construction to maintenance. This handbook consists of two parts. Part I provides an overview of the EA process in the context of road planning and construction and also describes the detailed methodological steps of the EA process. Part II provides a more detailed, in-depth discussion of each of the major factors involved in environmental assessment of road projects, including impact mitigation. Each chapter covers one component of the environment and provides a description of possible impacts, the nature and scale of the impacts, and some practical information on common mitigation options. This is followed in each chapter by a checklist which suggests common ways of minimizing the impacts on the component. Each chapter ends with a list of information sources.
