Dear readers,
This is my first issue as the new editor of Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal (IAPA) as I officially take up this post from 1 July 2023. I would like to start by thanking all our past editors for their commitment and contribution to this journal which has safeguarded its integrity over the years and has helped in maintaining its focus on the subject of Impact Assessment (IA). I deeply respect this journal which, along with International Association of Impact Assessment (IAIA), has nurtured IA-related research, practice and professional growth of so many individuals across the globe, including mine.
Looking back, in 1998 when Project Appraisal and Impact Assessment journals were combined to form IAPA, Dan Bronstein from Michigan State University, USA, became the first editor of IAPA and he emphasised on knowledge sharing amongst IA community. During 1999 to 2005, University of Manchester’s Christopher Wood acted as editor and was joined in first by Paul Scott and later by Carys Jones as co-editors. In 2005, Carys Jones took up the role as editor and she was joined by Paul Slin and later by Colin Kirkpatrick as co-editors of IAPA. This is also a time when the EIA Centre was located within the University of Manchester and as a PhD student, I found a wealth of information here, which was freely shared by the team with anyone interested in IA-related work. Angus Morrison-Saunders and Francois Retief took up the editor role in 2010 and during their tenure IAPA witnessed the introduction of web-based submission and peer review system, which was a landmark event in the life of this journal. Riki Therival acted as editor during 2015–16 and she was joined by Mat Cashmore and Davide Geneletti as associated editors. It is during this time that IAPA joined in Thomson Reuters’ Social Sciences Citation Index, another landmark event for the journal. Thomas Fischer led the journal from end of 2016 till 2023 June. With his commitment over this long period, we now have an Impact Factor of 2.160 and CiteScore (Scopus) of 4.1. With over 491K annual downloads and views, there is no doubt of the fact that IAPA is thriving! The peer-review process of the articles published in this issue has been managed by Thomas Fischer as I just get started in my role. My sincere thanks to him for supporting me through this transition.
2023 also marks the 25th year of IAPA and I am excited to be here and humbled to avail this opportunity to serve the IA-related community. I do not have any major agendas of change as my main focus will be to continue the excellent momentum of the journal, keep working on enhancing its Impact Factor and reaching out to a wider audience of IA-related researchers and practitioners. Of course, the journal can thrive only with the support of the IA-related community. So, please continue to submit papers, help us to review them and inspire each other to play our part in protecting and enhancing our world. In the past quarter of a century since IAPA was launched, IA and knowledge creation within it has grown many folds. In a time when new types and forms of IAs are evolving, there is a growing need of expertise of people who can distil knowledge from information overload. The last issue hence aptly looked at the ‘simplification’ trend which is currently being experienced all around the globe.
Subsequently, in this issue, we have four articles and two letters written by a total of 18 authors. The first paper looks into significance judgements within EIA practice and in doing so explores learning from psychology to gain deeper understanding. The second paper from Botswana examines SEA’s substantive effectiveness in influencing developmental planning and the challenges faced in integrating SEA within the decisional process in the country. The third paper is from Namibia and it investigates EIA’s effectiveness in the country through the perception of the key actors. The fourth paper investigates the public participation process in Malawi within their Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) and explores the participation of various stakeholders in both urban and rural locations in the country. In our first letter, the authors are challenging the business-as-usual approach in IA by providing a voice to Nature and making environment as a stakeholder in a relational approach to IA. Finally, in the second letter the author explores challenges for mitigating climate emergency in airport expansion projects and provides suggestions .
Enjoy Reading!