%A Philip Andersen
%T Public participation in environmental impact assessment follow-up of metro infrastructure projects: a comparative study between Noord-Zuidlijn in Amsterdam and Cityringen in Copenhagen
%L theses_frw4762
%X Urban areas have large transport networks. Metro infrastructure offers public transport that limits the need for cars and makes cities more sustainable. The construction of metro infrastructure is a megaproject and is highly complex, uncertain and involves major environmental impacts that influence the communities around them. This research compares two metro projects, Cityringen Copenhagen where a formal environmental impact assessment (EIA) was conducted and the Noord-Zuidlijn in Amsterdam where there was no formal EIA. A crucial part of EIA is public participation and follow-up. Public participation is seen primarily in the pre-consent decision stage and is lacking in post-consent decision stage. Public participation follows Arnstein’s ladder of citizen participation where the higher up the ladder the more power the public has in decision making. When public participation and their interest are not taken into account it can result in protest, halting projects and leaving them with no option but to meet the demands of the public. Follow-up is part of the post-consent decision stage but is also lacking in practice. Follow-up is primarily associated with monitoring but is also about management, engagement, evaluation and governance. The combination of both, public participation and follow-up, is rather new and this research aims to explore both through the new IAIA best practice principles of public participation in EIA follow-up. A comparative analysis was conducted using interviews, project and policy document analysis and media analysis. For both cases there was limited public participation and follow-up in the post-consent decision stage until there was an incident, which for the case of Cityringen was late night drillings causing extreme noise levels and for the NZL subsidence resulting in damage to houses. As a result of protest and the large scale media coverage to these incidents the projects were halted and there was a complete overhaul in strategy for both cases. This enhanced both public participation and follow-up and resulted in successful projects. The key was to build trust. In regards to the principles there were instances of involvement of the community in adaptive management which is the highest level of empowerment. Adaptive management is essential for megaprojects due to their complexity and uncertainty requiring incremental changes to avoid delays and cost overruns. Therefore, it is recommended that a mix of the principles are applied in a project, through one-way communication and two-way communication to build and maintain trust which will limit protest and litigation thus limiting project delay and cost overruns.
%D 2024