Improving the consideration of uncertainty in environmental impact assessment (BONDA1U18SF) at University of East Anglia on FindAPhD.com

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Dr A Bond No more applications being accepted Self-Funded PhD Students Only

About the Project

The environmental impact assessment (EIA) field is currently debating the effectiveness of this decision-making tool (Bond et al., 2014), and this research aims to contribute to this debate. A particular issue is that EIA aims to predict the outcomes of a project, and Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) the outcomes of plan or policy interventions. All these cases involve considerable uncertainty; and this is troublesome for decision makers.

Decision making generally involves what is called ‘normal’ science, which involves straightforward scientific problem-solving, and the ‘normal’ transfer of objective scientific knowledge into policy (Ravetz, 1999). Normal science cannot be applied to uncertain problems as cause and effect are not clear; and policy-making is not considered to take place in an objective way.

Therefore Funtowicz and Ravetz (1994a; 1994b) argued for the application of post-normal science to situations where either uncertainty, or decision stakes (or both) are high (for example, climate change). This research aims to identify how post-normal EIA and SEA might work in practice.

The project will rely on case study approaches and engagement (through interviews and focus groups) with a series of stakeholders to validate post-normal approaches to EIA and/or SEA capable of accommodating the uncertainty associated with prediction into the future.

This research approach will help to develop the following skills:
• Literature review and analysis
• Focus group organisation and analysis
• Interview techniques
• Competence in use of software analysis packages including NVivo and R for statistical analysis
• Theory development
The research will be embedded in the 3S (Science, Society and Sustainability) research group (https://3sresearch.org/) within the School of Environmental Sciences.

Opportunities are also available for UK students, and others who are eligible for Research Council studentships, to apply for ESRC funding to work on similar topics in this area. Please see https://www.uea.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/research-degrees/doctoral-training-partnerships/senss-dtp-studentships for more information and contact Alan Bond ([Email Address Removed]) if you are eligible.

For more information on the supervisor for this project, please go here: http://www.uea.ac.uk/environmental-sciences/people/profile/alan-bond
Type of programme: PhD
Start date of programme: October 2018
Mode of study: Full time

Funding Notes

This PhD project is offered on a self-funding basis. It is open to applicants with funding or those applying to funding sources. Details of tuition fees can be found at http://www.uea.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/research-degrees/fees-and-funding.

A bench fee is also payable on top of the tuition fee to cover specialist equipment or laboratory costs required for the research. The amount charged annually will vary considerably depending on the nature of the project and applicants should contact the primary supervisor for further information about the fee associated with the project.

Acceptable first degree: Environmental Sciences; Geography; Social Sciences; Planning.
Standard minimum entry requirement is 2:1.

References

i) Bond, A, J Pope, A Morrison-Saunders, F Retief and J Gunn (2014), "Impact Assessment: eroding benefits through streamlining?", Environmental Impact Assessment Review, 45, pages 46-53.
ii) Funtowicz S, Ravetz JR. Emergent complex systems. Futures 1994a;26:568-582.
iii) Funtowicz SO, Ravetz JR. Uncertainty, complexity and post-normal science. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 1994b;13:1881-1885.
iv) Ravetz JR. Editorial. Futures 1999;31:647-653.

Where will I study?

University of East Anglia

We’re one of the UK’s leading research institutions, ranked 10th in the UK for the quality of our research outputs and with more than 1,500 research students.

Improving the consideration of uncertainty in environmental impact assessment (BONDA1U18SF)

University of East Anglia School of Environmental Sciences