Environmental assessments in the Internet age: the role of e-governance and social media in creating platforms for meaningful participation

Abstract

Critical to impact assessments (IA) evolution has been the advent of more meaningful processes for participation. The use of the Internet as a tool of participation, as well as the scope and ambition of IA, has been growing since their inception. This work explores e-governance and social media in IA and the potential contribution these may make to meaningful public participation. Research is informed by literature and case studies in Hong Kong and Canada. The cases and literature revealed that e-governance in IA is used predominantly for sharing information and not for generating dialogue. Social media is used primarily by participants to share information, but is also to organize themselves and their input to IA cases. In addition, we found the innovative use of virtual cloud environments for collaboration and the establishment of one of the first websites for starting, signing and submitting public petitions with a focus on the local environment. Suggestions are made regarding how to better connect the rise in e-participation and conventional IA public participation.

Keywords:

• Impact assessment
• public participation
• e-governance
• social media
• Hong Kong
• Canada

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the participants who made this research possible. We would also like to acknowledge that some of the research was done with fiscal support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. The reviewers also provided comments that were helpful to improving the paper.

Notes

1. See the project website at burfellwindfarm.landsvirkjun.com.

2. See the project website at http://keeyask.com/the-project/environment-and-montoring/.