Digital EIS

Improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the environmental review process, while also increasing transparency and promoting greater public participation.

Digital platforms are increasingly being used to present scientific and technical information related to environmental impact statements. The ability to incorporate visual communication tools such as maps, diagrams, and interactive graphics, enables complex information to become more accessible and easier to understand.

Environmental assessments often discuss complex, technical and detailed environmental and social studies to address specific terms of reference set by relevant government jurisdictions. As a result, they can be quite text heavy, static and limited with community engagement and interaction.

Digital EISs can provide beneficial outcomes for your project including:

  • Easier access to information
  • Improved engagement, including integration with existing CS&E activities
  • Better community understanding of your project
  • Supporting public exhibition periods by regulators and to allow more informed feedback

First developed by EMM in 2018 to present the Snowy Hydro 2.0 Exploratory Works and Main Works Environmental Impact Statements, the platform was built for the sole purpose of creating opportunities for greater stakeholder engagement.

The platform has since expanded to other sectors and regions, with many regulators and organisations recognising the value of digital tools for improving transparency and public participation in the decision-making process.

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How we assist

Because no two projects are the same, digital EIS inclusions can be customised to meet each client’s requirements.

With an extensive in-house capability, we can assist to create your solution to include:

  • Digital Storyboard
  • Interactive Mapping
  • Assessment Interpretation
  • Panoramas
  • Renderings
  • Flythroughs
  • 3D Mapping
 

    A digital storyboard (or StoryMap) allows for creative presentation of an environmental assessment. It offers a scrolling 'reading' approach though primarily fixed in the navigation of content. This approach may involve re-writing of the key findings or development of new content (such as graphics) to visually communicate technical issues, or simply replicate a report summary.  

Data from previously hosted digital EIS platforms confirmed that the highest traffic volumes were use of interactive mapping, followed by watching of video content. It allows for large amounts of data and information to be presented spatially, meaning users can navigate to specific locations or project aspects that are most relevant or of interest to them.

Interactive mapping provides great flexibility to content development.

  
    A digital EIS with interactive mapping provides an opportunity to show potential project impacts and mitigation spatially, to allow a local community to better understand how they might be impacted. This is achieved through further environmental assessment and interpretation by our team of highly experienced environmental consultants, who gather relevant findings from the EIS and summarise what this means for relevant communities or key stakeholders.   Panoramas can be transformed into an interactive photo sphere of a rendered view of project infrastructure or  completely modelled to a 3D environment. This allows the community and stakeholders to visualise a specific view to gain a simulated understanding of how a project would look in the surrounding environment. Additional explanatory content can also be overlayed.  
    Using either supplied or developed project design data, rendering involves superimposing the project onto an existing photograph to simulate a real-world view of what the project will look like. Renderings can also be modelled in a digital environment to create a fully digital landscape – helpful to illustrate a project or its components in isolation.   Flythroughs provide an animated 3D visualisation of a project including its infrastructure, surrounding environment and any other key information you may want displayed. They are meaningful ways to communicate your project design, as they are accessible and present design information in a way that is easy to understand.  
    Drone photogrammetry quickly and accurately captures high-resolution aerial images. These are transformed into detailed 3D models and provide the ability to digitally explore a landscape, project resource or highlight other features of interest. It can map a large area or a specific asset.      

 

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