Integrating Social and Environmental Assessments into the Project Decision and Design Process

摘要

Social and environmental issues represent increasinglyrnimportant considerations in the successful implementation ofrnoil and gas development and transportation projects. Thoughrnthis is generally well recognized, these topics are oftenrnaddressed as procedural requirements after principal projectrndesign details have been finalized. This can result in needlessrnexpense associated with last-minute design changes, strainedrncommunity relations, and wasted effort related to the pursuitrnof projects that are not compatible with their social and/orrnenvironmental setting. These problems can be minimized byrnincorporating a disciplined process of social andrnenvironmental data collection into early commercial andrntechnical feasibility studies, and then integrating ongoingrncommunity interaction and environmental investigations intornthe process of progressively more detailed engineering studies.rnThis paper presents detailed information about anrnintegrated process of project decision-making and designrnefforts with social and environmental inputs applicable tornmajor industrial projects. The stepwise process of the socialrnand environmental investigations is described along with arnspecific explanation of its integration with the projectrndecision-making and design process. This description isrnintended to allow others to apply this approach to futurernprojects. The authors of this paper conclude that this processrncould contribute to corporate profitability by reducingrnexpenses associated with project redesign efforts and by earlyrnrecognition of environmental and social fatal flaws.