The benefits and perils of digital and automated technologies: impact assessment methods in the fourth industrial revolution

Alberto Fonseca

Chapter 7 in Handbook of Environmental Impact Assessment, 2022, pp 126-145 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter reviews developments in impact assessment methods and explores the benefits and perils of digital and automated technologies. The emergence of new technologies has been increasingly perceived as a positive trend that could improve impact prediction, as these tools can bring more georeferenced and visually interactive data and processing tools to the assessment process, enhancing the implementation of common methods of impact assessment, such as checklists, matrices, map overlays, models and simulations. However, there have been growing concerns about the reliability, accessibility, fairness and transparency of environmental datasets and of the tools that can be used to generate, process, automate, and display impact information. Their outcomes - e.g., priority areas, predicted impacts, measures of significance, etc. - could be inadvertently biased or inaccurate, and may not necessarily reflect stakeholders' values and beliefs. The chapter highlights key risks, implications and calls for future research avenues

Keywords: Economics and Finance; Environment; Politics and Public Policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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