Our Interconnected World: Impact Assessment, Health, and the Environment
Our Interconnected World: Impact Assessment, Health, and the Environment (5–8 October 2020, with extended discussion through 22 October) brought together international experts to explore how development projects affect human health and the environment. With a focus on climate change, health, resilience, and key issues, the symposium highlighted the interconnectedness of these challenges and provided IA professionals with tools, case studies, and best practices to guide impact assessment in a COVID-shaped world.
The symposium combined live keynotes, pre-recorded presentations, and interactive virtual discussions with Q&A, creating an engaging format for participants to learn, share, and connect globally.
Below you will find the four sessions under the Health Track:
- Health Track Keynote: Using HIA as a development planning tool to its full potential
- Health Track Session 2: Managing development, impact assessment, and emerging infectious diseases
- Health Track Session 3: Leveraging health impact assessment for societal responses to the pandemic
- Health Track Session 4: Better methods and tools: Emerging guidance on health and impact assessment
Find the other tracks in the IAIA Resource Library: Climate Change Track, Resilience Track, and Key Issues Track.
Health Track Keynote: Using HIA as a development planning tool to its full potential
Societal responses to the pandemic have varied across the globe with both intended and unintended consequences. This panel-type session will present case studies on how HIA and HIA methods and tools have been used to inform private sector responses to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, assist Indigenous People in Canada navigate the response the pandemic, and assess the intended and unintended consequences of government policies in Wales. Keynote Robert Bos shares his insights, with input from panelists Dr. Martin Birley, Francesca Viliani, and Gene Peralta.
Health Track Session 2: Managing development, impact assessment, and emerging infectious diseases
What can be done at the project level and the global level regarding the link between human activities, infrastructure and other development, and emerging infectious diseases? This session will start with an introduction to HIA, mega projects, and the pandemic from Francesca Viliani, to be followed by the project perspective and the global perspective from Jo Treweek, Dr. Philippe Guibert, Mariana Ruiz Alvarado, and Dr. Osman A. Dar.
Health Track Session 3: Leveraging health impact assessment for societal responses to the pandemic
Societal responses to the pandemic have varied across the globe with both intended and unintended consequences. This panel-type session will present case studies on how HIA and HIA methods and tools have been used to inform private sector responses to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, assist Indigenous People in Canada navigate the response the pandemic, and assess the intended and unintended consequences of government policies in Wales. Presenters include Dr. Janis Shandro, Dr. Mark Divall, Liz Green, Yina Xiao, and Laura Morgan.
Health Track Session 4: Better methods and tools: Emerging guidance on health and impact assessment
The societal value of impact assessments, from the strategic to the project level, is well established. While human health has been a key consideration since the inception of impact assessment in the 1970’s, its practical inclusion in impact assessment processes has not been optimal. This session will explore historical shortcoming and emerging guidance on the inclusion of Human Health in SEA and EIA via presentations from Ben Cave, Dr. Thomas Fischer, Dr. Odile Mekel, and Ryngan Pyper.
