Editorial

Dear readers,

Welcome to 2021. Not many of us are likely to be sorry to see the back of 2020. Whilst the new year is hopefully going to be one with fewer health challenges and less personal restrictions, unfortunately as an IA community we will still not be able to come together physically at a global annual conference in 2021, with the IAIA annual meeting being virtual once again this year (https://conferences.iaia.org/2021/). Let’s hope we will be able to finally meet again 2022 in Vancouver.

At this point, may I raise your attention for a number of excellent online events/webinars that were held in the second half of last year by IAIA, including e.g. the symposium ‘Our Interconnected World: Impact Assessment, Health, and the Environment’ (https://conferences.iaia.org/virtual2020/) as well as the ‘IA for Belt and Road Initiative Projects’ (https://www.iaia.org/webinar-details.php?ID=31) webinar.

2020 was a busy year for Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal. A total of 59 documents were published, the highest number of items published in any one year since the start of the journal in 1998. These included 15 letters, one full article and a dedicated editorial published in special issue 2020–2 on ‘Impact assessment for the 21st century – what future?’ with former IAIA president Sara Bice and myself as special issue editors. Another 33 articles, 2 letters, 2 book reviews and 5 editorials were published in 5 further issues, one of which (2020–6) a ‘half’ special issue on ‘Green Infrastructure and IA’ by Sarah Clement. For 2021, we have two special issues scheduled, one on ‘Gender and IA’ (possible as a double special issue 2021–3 + 4, edited by Nora Götzmann and Nick Bainton) and one on ‘Benefit Sharing and IA’ (edited by Ted Downing, Guoqing Shi and Mohammad Zaman), planned for 2021–5.

This first issue of the year 2021 consists of six full articles and two letters with authors coming from The Netherlands, Canada, Japan, Ireland, the UK, South Africa and Denmark. In the first paper, Chen Chen, Frank Vanclay and Terry Van Dijk (all University of Groningen, The Netherlands) report on ‘the dynamic nature of social licence to operate’. In this context the authors reflect on ‘how a new university campus affected people in three villages’ in China. In the second paper, Rhys McMaster, Bram Noble, Greg Poelzer (all three University of Saskatchewan, Canada) and Kevin Hanna (University of British Columbia, Canada) report on ‘wind energy environmental assessment requirements and processes’ in Canada. Next, Melissa Mayhew and Jessica Perritt (both Nuclear Waste Management Organization, Canada) elaborate on the ‘benefits of early planning and participatory decision-making’, based on their experiences in the nuclear industry. This is followed by Shingo Takeda, Takehiko Murayama, Shigeo Nishikizawa and Atsushi Nagaoka (all Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan) who look at the ‘evidence from a coastal development project in a developing country’ (Vanuatu) on ‘mitigation of coral ecosystem service-related social issues’. In the fifth paper, Ainhoa González (University College Dublin) and Riki Therivel (Levett-Therivel Sustainability Consultants) reflect on ‘Learning Support Mechanisms in SEA: A Review of the Potential to Optimize Outcomes’, based on the international professional literature and their own experiences. Finally, F.H. Smith (North West Province Business Unit, South Africa), F.P. Retief, C. Roos and R.C. Alberts (all North West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa) elaborate on the ‘evolving role of supreme auditing institutions towards enhancing environmental governance’. The issue is completed with two letters to the editor; the first one by Lone Kørnøv (Aalborg University, Denmark) who asks ‘SEA as a change agent: Still relevant and how to stay relevant?’ and the second by Rob Verheem (Netherlands Commission for Environmental Assessment) who elaborates on ‘How to strengthen the independence of IA reviewers and practitioners’.

Enjoy reading!