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Open research questions in Environmental and Social Impact Assessments

93 gap statements mined from Environmental and Social Impact Assessments papers in our 4.5M-paper local library, which holds 888 papers on the topic — drawn mostly from each paper's own stated research gap, future-work, challenge and limitation notes, and its abstract. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one.

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What the literature leaves open

  • Traditional fixed-weight evaluation methods have difficulty identifying stage-wise changes and localized high-risk characteristics of ecological security. The need for a dynamic evaluation method that can respond to state differences in ecological security.

    Dynamic Evaluation of Ecological Security in Lithium Mining Areas by Integrating Variable Weight Theory with the DPSIRM Framework · 2026 · DOI

  • There is a gap in the application of GenAI in environmental assessment, particularly in data-poor regions. The validity of synthetic outputs still depends on rigorous calibration, transparent data provenance, and ethical stewardship. Empirical evidence of sustained, practice-level integration across environmental science, governance, and social systems remains limited.

    Generative Artificial Intelligence for Environmental Assessment: A New Paradigm for Sustainability Analysis · 2026 · DOI

  • The power and fuel industries have received limited research attention, highlighting the need to examine strategies that mitigate their environmental footprint. There is a need to examine the role of environmental impact assessment in shaping effective natural resource management.

    Unveiling the Nexus of Governance, Stakeholder, and Technology Through Environmental Impact Assessment for Natural Resource Management · 2026 · DOI

  • The lack of institutional capacity and organizational knowledge to consider cumulative impacts in EIA. The absence of specific CIA guidance for practitioners. The insufficient expert capacity to assess cumulative impacts.

    Advancing Cumulative Impact Assessment in the Global South · 2026 · DOI

  • The evaluation of infrastructure projects has focused on financial aspects, sidelining ecological and societal factors. There is a lack of consideration of social, ecological, and economic systems in infrastructure projects.

    Adopting a Political Ecology Approach to Understanding Stakeholder Roles and Values in Infrastructure Initiatives · 2026 · DOI

  • The gap is the need for a framework that integrates EIA and ecosystem service evaluation in cost-benefit analysis. Traditional EIA has limitations and does not consider ecosystem services. The paper aims to fill this gap by proposing a cyclical-incremental approach.

    Integrating Environmental Impact Assessment and Ecosystem Service Evaluation in Cost-Benefit Analysis: A Cyclical-Incremental Approach · 2026 · DOI

  • The paper identifies challenges in ensuring the effectiveness of EIA, including the need for improved stakeholder participation and inclusiveness. The study notes the importance of transparency, accountability, and ethical decision-making in the EIA process. The paper also highlights the need for capacity building and institutional learning to improve EIA effectiveness.

    Environmental Impact Assessment Effectiveness in Ethiopian Road Infrastructure Projects: Evidence from the Modjo–Moyale Interregional Road Corridor · 2026 · DOI

  • The paper identifies a gap in the existing literature and practice, highlighting the need for improved EIA effectiveness in road infrastructure projects. The study notes that many EIAs are conducted after key decisions have already been made, limiting their influence on core project outcomes. The paper aims to address this gap by assessing the effectiveness of EIA in Ethiopian road infrastructure projects.

    Environmental Impact Assessment Effectiveness in Ethiopian Road Infrastructure Projects: Evidence from the Modjo–Moyale Interregional Road Corridor · 2026 · DOI

  • The analysis and expert interviews suggest that GIS already plays an important role in environmental assessment and planning processes but remains insufficiently integrated into formal permitting workflows, where spatial information is often reduced to static map attachments and PDF documents.

    Spatial data for environmental regulation: a GIS-based framework for streamlining the Swedish permitting process · 2026 · DOI

  • The research highlights the need for respect for Indigenous consent and decision-making in environmental assessments.

    Indigenous Homelands and Environmental Assimilation: Canada’s Impact Assessment Act (2019) and the Public Interest Determination · 2026 · DOI

  • Lack of evaluation of areas with diverse ecological characteristics. Limited understanding of the ecological and environmental characteristics of Erzincan Districts.

    Ecological and environmental assessment of Erzincan Districts within the scope of the biodiversity-friendly city approach · 2026 · DOI

  • Social impact assessment (SIA) models are central to sustainability accounting, yet their evolution under post‐2021 regulatory transformations (CSRD, EU Taxonomy, ISSB) remains underexplored.

    Reframing Impact: Evolution of Social Impact Assessment Models and Redefinition of Value in Accounting · 2026 · DOI

  • The lack of a comparative analysis of environmental domains in Colombia. The need for a framework that addresses the interconnectedness of environmental degradation and sustainability governance. The limited capacity to convert policy commitments into measurable improvements.

    Environmental Degradation and Sustainability Governance in Colombia: An Integrative Review · 2026 · DOI

  • Fifth, current EIA practices in the Area remain scarce, occasionally inaccessible, and not fully aligned with the rigorous minimum content standards prescribed by Article 33 (2) of the BBNJ Agreement.

    Implementing the EIA provisions of the BBNJ Agreement in the international seabed area: obstacles and recommendations · 2026 · DOI

  • There has, however, been little consideration of proponent decision-making about voluntary project modifications during IA, with the limited research thus far focusing on the overall motivations for design changes, rather than how such decisions are ultimately made.

    Proponent decision-making about project design modifications to address environmental concerns identified during impact assessment · 2026 · DOI

  • Delays and disputes in environmental permitting cause significant land-use and land-cover changes and economic costs, yet remain underexplored in Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) discourse.

    Drivers of environmental permitting delays: implication for costs and rapid mining landscape changes in Ghana · 2026 · DOI

  • Despite its growing use, the reliability of MCDA-based sustainability assessment outcomes, particularly under uncertainty and in dynamic contexts, remains underexplored.

    Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) for sustainability assessment–How reliable are the results? · 2026 · DOI

  • The integration of environmental aspects in land use plans (LUPs) through SEA varies across Europe and their efficiency is still not well known, motivating the research of SEA implementation for LUPs.

    Efficiency of Strategic Environmental Assessment Methods in Municipality Land Use Plans · 2024 · DOI

  • Limited analytical rigor in impact assessments. Weak integration of environmental data into decision-making processes. Limited inclusion and evaluation of monitoring programs.

    Bridging Analytical Gaps in Environmental Impact Assessment: Integrating DPSIR and Ecosystem Services for Ecological Evaluation · 2026 · DOI

  • The analysis is based on a single qualitative case study of the Nairobi Expressway, limiting the ability to statistically generalize findings across all infrastructure contexts. The study relies primarily on document-based analysis, which may not fully capture informal negotiations, contested decisionmaking processes, or the lived experiences of affected stakeholders.

    Adopting a Political Ecology Approach to Understanding Stakeholder Roles and Values in Infrastructure Initiatives · 2026 · DOI

  • The article also shows that Member States' discretion to approve new oil and gas extraction projects is significantly limited by their climate‐related obligations under EU law, as well as by the duty of sincere cooperation in the context of the EU's international commitments under the Paris Agreement.

    Is it still permissible under EU law to issue new permits for oil and gas extraction? · 2024 · DOI

  • Applying the proposed framework to other studies to reduce concerns regarding the influence of political, economic, and institutional considerations - Conducting further research to validate and refine the results of the first-round implementation - Investigating the application of the cyclical-incremental approach to other…

    Integrating Environmental Impact Assessment and Ecosystem Service Evaluation in Cost-Benefit Analysis: A Cyclical-Incremental Approach · 2026 · DOI

  • Low institutional capacity and weak governance - Lack of access to reliable sources of information - Insufficient expert…

    Advancing Cumulative Impact Assessment in the Global South · 2026 · DOI

  • Research priorities include studying the social dimensions of circular transitions and environmental noise in Colombia - Further analysis of the effectiveness of policy portfolios and single instruments…

    Environmental Degradation and Sustainability Governance in Colombia: An Integrative Review · 2026 · DOI

  • Because reported information shapes stakeholders' ability to evaluate EIA, we recommend further research on the measurement and communication of project-level EIA effectiveness as an integral part of accountability.

    Project-level environmental impact assessment effectiveness: Examining indicators from competent authorities' accountability reports · 2026 · DOI

Most-cited papers in Environmental and Social Impact Assessments

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Open questions raised by papers listed on this page include: (1) Empirical evidence of sustained, practice-level integration across environmental science, governance, and social systems remains limited (“Generative Artificial Intelligence for Environmental Assessment: A New Paradigm…”, 2026); (2) There is a need to examine the role of environmental impact assessment in shaping effective natural resource management (“Unveiling the Nexus of Governance, Stakeholder, and Technology Through…”, 2026); (3) The lack of institutional capacity and organizational knowledge to consider cumulative impacts in EIA (“Advancing Cumulative Impact Assessment in the Global South”, 2026); (4) There is a lack of consideration of social, ecological, and economic systems in infrastructure projects (“Adopting a Political Ecology Approach to Understanding Stakeholder Roles and…”, 2026); (5) Lack of evaluation of areas with diverse ecological characteristics (“Ecological and environmental assessment of Erzincan Districts within the scope…”, 2026). 93 gap statements have been mined from Environmental and Social Impact Assessments papers in our 4.5M-paper local library, which holds 888 papers on the topic; the gaps come from whichever of those papers state one. They are mostly the research gaps the authors state and the papers' abstracts, plus future-work, limitations and challenges passages. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one, so you can read the original claim in context.

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