Environmental assessment (EA)

An environmental assessment is the entire process of undertaking a critical and objective evaluation and analysis of information designed to support decision making. It applies the judgment of experts to existing knowledge to provide scientifically credible answers to policy relevant questions, quantifying where possible the level of confidence. It reduces complexity but adds value by summarizing, synthesizing and building scenarios, and identifies consensus by sorting out what is known and widely accepted from what is not known or not agreed. It sensitizes the scientific community to policy needs and the policy community to the scientific basis for action.