Description:
Causality, or the relation of cause and effect, is a fundamental notion in impact assessment, indicating how impacts arise from development actions. In the context of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), recent research in the UK has indicated that impact statements typically do not contain graphic expressions of causality. This article explores the extent to which causality about environmental impacts is described in the text of the Environmental Impact Statements (EIS). The analysis methodology employs two techniques, semantics analysis and transcription of the text into causal digraphs, while the case study material is sampled from ten recent UK and US impact statements. The research indicates in many cases that the communication of causality has faults such as uncertainty or absence of important information, and we highlight the implications for the practice of EIA.