The second edition of this title is a practitioner text offering practical and comprehensive coverage of the law relating to environmental impact assessment which is an important stage in the planning process. This title sets out the legal requirements relating to EIAs including the relationship of European Union law with domestic law and the resulting cases. The main part of the work concentrates on the role that EIAs play in the planning application process. There is also a section on EIAs in specific contexts such as forestry, archaeology, agriculture and highways. The work concludes with a section on good practice that offers guidance on scoping the statement, how to write the non-technical summary and certain aspects such as social impact, air quality, noise and health risk assessments. This work is invaluable for lawyers, local authority planning officers, planning consultants, property developers and all other professionals who need to know about the planning process. Completely updated to include a detailed examination of the legislative changes such as the new Strategic Assessment legislation and the Planning Act 2008; significant developments in international law such as UNECE, Espoo and Aarhus Conventions; case law such as R (Wye Valley Action Association Limited) v Herefordshire District Council [2009] that has occurred post the last edition. New chapters to include: Strategic Environmental Assessment; Major Infastructure Projects; Assessment in context of Habitats Regime; Planning Act 2008.