Recent IAIA webinars and conference sessions reflect a growing interest among IA practitioners and those who commission projects to learn how to conduct psycho-social impact assessment (PSIA). This may be alone or incorporated in SIA, HIA, Indigenous IA, or other practice. PSIA identifies and communicates emotional, social, and cultural effects from significant environmental changes among individuals, households, and communities, such as from pollution or resource development.

Day 1 opens with an overview of PSIA, with case examples illustrating rationale for documenting—or forecasting—effects on individuals, families, communities, institutions and societies. Mitigation and monitoring steps and coping strategies for communities will be described next. Then, requirements of statutory processes will be contrasted with the focus of community-led processes and Indigenous perspectives. The afternoon addresses methods for conducting PSIA, mainly qualitative research augmented by Edelstein’s Theory of Environmental Turbulence to analyze findings for reporting or arguing a case. Case material will illustrate how to apply PSIA to varied IA settings.

Day 2 will be highly participatory. Small groups are guided in developing concrete approaches to integrate PSIA into participants’ own impact assessment projects or ones they commission, supervise, or monitor.

Level: Intermediate/Advanced

Prerequisites: Familiarity or experience with Social Impact Assessment (SIA), Health Impact Assessment (HIA), or cumulative impact assessment is an advantage, particularly for Day 2.

Language: English

Duration: 2 days (18-19 April)

Min/Max: 7-40

Price: $560

Instructors: Michael R. Edelstein, Professor Emeritus, Environmental Psychology, Environmental Studies and Sustainability Programs, Ramapo College of New Jersey (USA) and Helen Ross, Professor Emeritus, Rural Development, School of Agriculture and Food Sustainability, The University of Queensland (Australia)

Michael R. Edelstein has a Ph.D. in Social Psychology and over 50 years of experience as an Environmental Psychologist, with a particular focus on Psycho-Social Impact Assessment (PSIA). His work began in the late 1970s with research on the impacts of hazardous waste and landfill projects on communities, including interviews at Love Canal, and has since included work as an expert witness, consultant to governments and non-profits, and contributor to environmental impact assessments and permitting processes across several continents.

Michael has developed qualitative research approaches to PSIA and contributed to advancing theory and practice in understanding community responses to environmental change. He is Professor Emeritus at Ramapo College of New Jersey, where he taught Environmental Studies and Sustainability for 47 years, including a long-running capstone course in environmental assessment. He has authored numerous books, chapters, and articles, including Contaminated Communities: Coping with Residential Toxic Exposure, and continues to work on environmental sustainability and community-environment relationships.

Helen Ross has been a pioneer in social impact assessment (SIA) since the mid-1980s, with SIA studies in northern Australia with Indigenous communities highlighting the centrality of psycho-social impacts and their relationship to culture, environmental damage from mining, cumulative impacts, and personal values. Her work has evolved into 23 years of research on resilience, including influential studies and conceptual contributions to community resilience with ecologist Fikret Berkes. She is currently writing a book on conceptual and methodological approaches to resilience with Katrina Brown and has recently returned to psycho-social impact assessment.

Until 2021, she was Professor of Community Development and leader of the Rural Development group at the University of Queensland. She is a Fellow and Honorary Life Member of the Environment Institute of Australia and New Zealand (EIANZ) and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia. She has also contributed extensively to environmental scholarship through professional committees and journal editorial roles, including 19 years as editor of the Australasian Journal of Environmental Management.