The seventh edition of the Impact Assessment Outlook Journal: ‘Demystifying Cumulative Effects’ provides a series of thought pieces on the consideration of cumulative effects in Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). This supports our advocacy for high standards in EIA as a means for local communities and decision-makers to understand the potential environmental effects of new developments.

‘As we build back better, we face multiple challenges with a climate change emergency, COVID pandemic, and biodiversity crisis all occurring at the same time. Therefore, the need to carefully consider the cumulative impact of new planning developments is more critical than ever.’ -Dr Rufus Howard, IEMA Impact Assessment Lead

This area of Impact Assessment is one of the most complex, looking at changes to the environment caused by the combined impact of past, present and future human activities and natural processes. This journal provides guidance for those exploring different aspects of Cumulative Effects Assessment (CEA) in EIA across UK practice, particularly where technical leads, directors and EIA coordinators are required to aid the individual topic experts with understanding how and what CEA parameters apply to an individual project.

This journal has been created in partnership with the IEMA Impact Assessment Network Steering Group and guest edited by Andy Mitchell, Associate at Arup. It is freely available at https://www.iema.net/eia-quality-mark/impact-assessment-journal.