27 November 2025
Volume 26 brings together diverse perspectives from leading practitioners, legal experts and design professionals to unpack how alternatives shape project outcomes, influence decision-making and ultimately determine the quality and credibility of Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs).
For impact assessment professionals, this volume offers timely insight. As planning systems shift toward outcome-focused, transparent and proportionate processes, the expectation on practitioners to clearly articulate how environmental, social, technical and economic factors inform project choices has never been higher.
Across seven thought pieces, the authors demonstrate that alternatives are not just a procedural requirement—they are a strategic tool for improving design, strengthening the evidence base and enhancing stakeholder trust.
Contributors explore critical aspects of current practice: integrating natural capital and ecosystem services into economic appraisal; embedding early, collaborative optioneering; ensuring legal robustness in the documentation of alternatives; communicating the “development story” clearly and coherently; and balancing biodiversity, engineering and feasibility considerations on complex infrastructure projects.
For those working across EIA coordination, design integration, planning strategy or environmental governance, this volume provides practical guidance and reflective analysis grounded in real-world cases, including lessons from recent infrastructure examinations and legal challenges.
Volume 26 makes a compelling case: meaningful consideration of alternatives is becoming a creative, integrative and outcome-driven discipline. For practitioners seeking to raise the quality and credibility of their work, this collection is both relevant and essential reading.
