About EHIA
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Curtin University of Technology provides a role in advisory and consultative services in EHIA to the Western Pacific Region and beyond.

Staff at Curtin University of Technology provides expertise and a strong role for the coordination of services relevant to Environmental Health Impact Assessment (EHIA) programs and research in the Western-Pacific Region and beyond. Our philosophy is to allow a coordinated approach in collaboration with hosting regions to prevent, mitigate or solve environmental health problems associated with social, economic or environmental factors impacting on community populations.

To achieve our aims, we have been designated a World Health Organisation (WHO) Collaborating Centre as a result of previous work that focuses on partnerships for activities such as education, research, training, and the provision of advisory and consultative services in environmental health impact assessment and related activities. Our Centre also plans, conducts, and evaluates EHIA research, communicating results at regional and International forums.

Although the concept of EHIA is not entirely new, the incorporation of government initiated frameworks and policies before, during and after industry development has been a recent addition to environmental regulation in many countries providing the various observations provided below.

"Environmental Health Impact Assessment is a relatively recent process which seeks to predict the impact of a development before the development proposal has been approved, so that negative impacts can be reduced or avoided, positive impacts can be enhanced and the probability of sustainable development increased. It is a key component of informed decision making."

enHealth Council, 2000 (Health Impact Assessment Guidelines 2001)

"Health Impact Assessment is a combination of procedures methods and tools by which a policy, program or project may be judged as to its potential effects on the health of the population and the distribution of those effects within the population."

Gotheburg Consensus Paper, 1999

"The health of the population is determined by many factors including genes, age, a persons’s social and economic circumstances, lifestyle and access to services, as well as environmental health factors such as air, water quality, housing, etc. HIA seeks to ensure both the positive and negative aspects on health are effectively considered during impact assessment"

enHealth Council, 2000 (Health Impact Assessment Guidelines 2001

We consider EHIA to be a process which combines both Environmental Impact Assessment and Health Impact Assessment when evaluating the impacts of a development, policy or plan on the environment and on health. It is necessary to have depth in both assessment aspects providing qualitative and quantitative evaluation processes for long-term, sustainable benefits. EHIA applies to projects, plan and policies already ongoing (retrospective) as well as those currently under development.