Geoheritage and Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)

Geoheritage represents an important part of natural and cultural heritage, and provides the society with a broad range of services that are fundamental for its socio-economic development. Due to its nature, geoheritage constitutes a non-renewable resource; thus, natural processes and human activities can produce a partial or total loss of such heritage and associated services. In order to achieve the protection and conservation of geoheritage, one strategy is the identification and estimation of the probable impacts produced by human activity, with the objective to design mitigation measures. Environmental Impacts Assessment (EIA) represents the best tool to reach these objectives. Even if this procedure exists since the end of the 1960s and is now being practised in many countries, the integration of geoheritage in EIA is not yet satisfactory. Some efforts were made at the end of 20th century, but methodologies for the integration of geoheritage in the EIA procedures are still very limited.