Good Practice

Cumulative Impact Assessment Resource Page

January 7, 2019

One of the biggest risk management challenges currently facing project developers in emerging markets is the appropriate assessment and management of cumulative impacts and risks related to their business activities. Factors such as climate change and unpredictability of climate patterns, increasing and competing water use demands, decline of species biodiversity, degradation of ecosystem services, and changing socio-economic circumstances all add complexity to risk assessment and management. Potential system-wide consequences resulting from the combination of individual effects of multiple actions overtime are particularly important to understand better.

IFC helps companies and governments to consider the cumulative impacts of hydropower projects from a broad, basin-wide perspective that includes planned upstream and downstream developments. Our cumulative impact assessment (CIA) work in the hydropower sector spans from Lao PDR, to Myanmar, Nepal and Pakistan. In Lao PDR, we are embarking on the first CIA of the renewable energies sector in 2018.

This page shares resources and tools related to CIAs in the hydropower sector.

 

IFC Good Practice Handbook on Cumulative Impact Assessment and Management: Guidance for the Private Sector in Emerging Markets 

Available in  English /  Lao 


Myanmar - Cumulative Impact Assessment of Renewable Energy in the Myitnge River Basin

Commencing in February 2019 this CIA follows on from the recommendations of the Strategic Environmental Assessment of the Hydropower Sector in Myanmar which include planning at the basin level, and conducting sub-basin cumulative impact assessments to determine the full impact of current and planned development in key areas. 

Inception Workshop presentation 

Information sheet - English

Frequently Asked Questions - English

Terms of Reference


Lao PDR - Cumulative Impact Assessment of Renewable Energy in the Sekong River Basin

Final Inception and Scoping Report

Information sheet - English /Lao

Frequently Asked Questions - English / Lao

Terms of Reference 


Nepal

 Cumulative Impact Assessment and Management: Hydropower development in the Trishuli River basin, Nepal

Presentation from Training Course on Cumulative Impacts of Hydropower Projects

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) in Nepal

Environmental and Social Impact Assessments and Cumulative Impact Assessments

IFC Good Practice Handbook on Cumulative Impact Assessments: Six-step Approach

Moving from a Project-level to River Basin-level Cumulative Impact Assessment: Trishuli River Case Study

Cumulative Impact Assessment Step 4: Assess Impacts on VECs

Case Study: Gulpur Hydropower Project, Pakistan

Cumulative Impact Assessments: Determining the Significance of Impacts


Pakistan

Gulpur Hydropower Project: Cumulative Impact Assessment