New Zealand Association for Impact Assessment

NZAIA promotes the use of impact assessment methods in relevant areas of public and private sector decision-making, to protect social, cultural and environmental values. 

What is Impact Assessment? 

Impact Assessment (IA) is the process of identifying the future consequences of a current or proposed action.
The “impact” is the difference between what would happen with the action and what would happen without it. Impacts may be positive or negative and may affect the environment, communities, human health and well-being, desired sustainability objectives, or a combination of these.

Impact Assessment can help us design and implement better policies, plans, programs and projects that will face up to important challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, a growing population, urbanisation, conflicts over increasingly scarce resources, inequities, and new technological opportunities.

There are many different facets of impact assessment – including social, ecological, cumulative, cultural, landscape, health, economic, and strategic assessments. Impact assessments require technical expertise and skills. 

Impact assessment can be applied at the project level (eg a specific infrastructure proposal), the policy level (eg a proposed Plan Change) or the strategic level (eg a National or Regional Policy Statement). 

SOCIAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT: issues for current practice
Due to the uncertainty surrounding the current Covid-19 situation, NZAIA has made the difficult call to postpone our 2020 Conference.

We are exploring options to hold the conference in the first half of 2021, with a mixture of face-to-face and electronic delivery via Zoom and/or livestreaming.

In the meantime, please submit a paper if you are interested in presenting at the conference. Applications for student scholarships also remain open. We will communicate the conference dates to applicants as soon as we can.

Impact Connector

A series of articles from academics and practitioners working in the field of impact assessment 

Social Impact Assessment

Co-edited by Nick Taylor
and Mike Mackay

Impacts of Covid-19

Emerging Issue
Co-edited by Nick Taylor
and Richard Morgan

Ecological Impact Assessment

Edited by Judith Roper-Lindsay

OUR PARTNERS

EIANZ is a professional association for environmental practitioners from across Australia and New Zealand.
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We have a Memorandum of Understanding with EIANZ to work closely with with Special Interest Section on Impact Assessment in promoting and supporting the practice of impact assessment in New Zealand and Australia.
The Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme has been charged by the governments of the Pacific region with the protection and sustainable development of the region's environment. 

We have a Memorandum of Understanding with SPREP to assist with the development of impact assessment capability in the Pacific as part of the Environmental Monitoring and Governance Programme. 
NZAIA is an affiliate organisation of the Royal Society of New Zealand. 
NZAIA is an affiliate of the International Association for Impact Assessment. IAIA is the leading global network on impact assessment. We have a Memorandum of Understanding with IAIA. 

NZAIA members receive discounted attendance at international IAIA conferences and training symposia.