Writing For Municipal Projects

🌱 Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Process Explained 1. 📌 Proposal Identification The process begins when a project proposal is submitted — like building a factory, dam, highway, etc. 2. 🔍 Screening Authorities decide if the project needs EIA. If it’s small or low-risk ➝ No EIA needed If it’s large or risky ➝ EIA Required Sometimes, an Initial Environmental Examination (IEE) is done to help make this decision. 3. 📢 Public Involvement At multiple points (like here or later), public can raise concerns or give suggestions. Their opinion matters in shaping the EIA. 4. 🧭 Scoping If EIA is needed, this step identifies what to study – air, water, soil, wildlife, people, etc. A Terms of Reference (ToR) is prepared. 5. 📊 Impact Analysis Detailed study of possible environmental impacts of the project — both positive and negative. 6. 🛡️ Mitigation and Impact Management Plans are made to reduce or manage the harmful impacts found in the analysis. 7. 📘 EIA Report Preparation All findings are compiled into a formal EIA Report, including baseline data, predicted impacts, and mitigation plans. 8. 🧪 Review Experts review the EIA report to check if it’s complete, accurate, and addresses all key issues. 9. ⚖️ Decision-making Authorities decide: ✅ Approved ➝ Project can begin with conditions. ❌ Not Approved ➝ Project is rejected or sent back. If rejected, the project can be redesigned and resubmitted. 10. 🚧 Implementation and Follow-up If approved, the project starts — but with regular monitoring to ensure environmental rules are followed. The results also help improve future EIA processes. 🔄 Public Involvement Throughout People can give input at various stages, not just at one point.

What is a Baseline Study in EIA? A Baseline Study is the foundation of an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). It involves the systematic collection and analysis of environmental data to describe the current (pre-project) status of the physical, biological, and socio-economic environment of a proposed project area. Think of it as taking a "snapshot" of the environment before any development begins, so that we can: - Identify sensitive or valuable environmental components. - Detects future changes caused by the project. - Provide a reference for monitoring and mitigation. Why is the Baseline Study Important? 1. Informs Impact Prediction: It helps compare “before” and “after” scenarios. 2. Guides Decision-Making: It provides scientific evidence to justify project approval or rejection. 3. Enables Effective Mitigation: Knowing what's at stake allows better mitigation planning. 4. Ensures Legal Compliance: Many regulations require a detailed baseline assessment. Key Components of a Baseline Study 1. Physical Environment: ~ Climate and meteorology ~ Geology and soil ~ Air quality ~ Noise levels ~ Hydrology and water quality 2. Biological Environment: ~ Flora and fauna (terrestrial and aquatic) ~ Biodiversity hotspots ~ Ecosystem services ~ Protected areas or endangered species 3. Socio-Economic Environment: ~ Land use and infrastructure ~ Demographics and livelihoods ~ Cultural heritage ~ Public health ~ Community resources 4. Legal and Institutional Setting: ~ Environmental laws and regulations ~ Land ownership and rights ~ Administrative boundaries How is Baseline Data Collected? √ Field Surveys: Air, water, soil sampling; biodiversity assessments √ Remote Sensing and GIS: Land use mapping, terrain analysis √ Secondary Data Sources: Government records, academic studies, meteorological data √ Stakeholder Consultation: Local knowledge, community concerns Example Scenario: ✔ If a sugar mill is proposed near a rural waterbody, the baseline study would: ✔ Measure current water quality (pH, BOD, COD, heavy metals). ✔ Assess aquatic life health. ✔ Survey surrounding land use (agriculture, settlements). ✔ Collect socio-economic data (who uses the water, for what purpose). Only then can we determine what impacts might occur and how to mitigate them. Best Practices: √ Ensure seasonal coverage to capture variability. √ Use standard protocols for data collection. √ Integrate indigenous and local knowledge. √ Maintain transparency and reproducibility. What I find most valuable is that baseline studies not only support sustainable development but also ensure that environmental decisions are informed, inclusive, and scientifically grounded. P.S. Let’s not forget: "If you can’t measure it before, you can’t manage it after." #EnvironmentalEngineering #EIA #Sustainability #BaselineStudy #ImpactAssessment #CivilEngineering #EnvironmentalManagement #LinkedInLearning

Every year, millions of letters are sent from health authorities to patients – to encourage them to get vaccinated, do their cancer screening or health check-up.   Evidence from #BehaviouralScience can help increase the impact of health letters – and to make people act. Our new policy brief proposes several concrete steps to help health authorities: ✔️ ensure a clear call to action ✔️ keep a letter short and simple ✔️ address the barriers and drivers of behaviours, by for example clarifying services are free of charge ✔️ draw on relevant psychological mechanisms such as social norms ✔️ adapt a letter to a cultural context ✔️ attract the readers’ attention with the email subject or letter envelope ✔️ use the right sender and signatory ✔️ test the letter and engage with intended recipients ✔️ use reminders Read the full policy brief here: https://lnkd.in/dW2TvfYJ #BCI

Want to know what a ‘work in progress’ drawing of a relatively large scheme of apartments looks like ? Like this.   Early testing of a scheme’s viability.   About a year ago we were approached by an organisation tasked with selling an old vacant church and their associated plots of land. Somewhere in Yorkshire. Quite a complicated land sale, it involves: -          Old church buildings. -          Ministers house. -          Separate garden space. -          Separate large undeveloped plot of land nearby. -          Graveyard.   We agreed that rather than selling on as it is, we should conduct some loose feasibility studies to find out what could be done with the land to increase its value, ready for a quick exit, without paying out for the full development costs and associated risks.   All plots of land are in a conservation area and some are in the green belt. The old church is a gorgeous Victorian stone building, it oozes character, is totally unique and is built to last. So, several challenges there straight away to overcome.   We agreed to phase the project into separate ‘bite size chunks’ to make the land sale easier to manage. Phase 1 = old church buildings and ministers house. Phase 2 = other parcels of land.   We then worked out the old church buildings could be converted and retrofitted and would probably generate about 16 apartments over three floors and the separate plot of land could generate 2 x new build apartments blocks of 9 units each, 18 total units. Overall total units = 34 apartments. All based on exceeding the Nationally Described Space Standards for dwelling sizes.   To test the viability of this we submitted a Pre-application Planning Enquiry to the Local Planning Authority. About 6 months later we received a 20 page pre-app report. Yep, you read that right, about 6 months later! This informed us the church building conversion was viable and probably a go-er, subject to some highways and landscaping issues that needed to be overcome. We also received some useful feedback about the Phase 2 developments too.   This wasn’t necessarily an exercise in establishing a final agreed scheme, but rather just testing early viability of the schemes to see what was possible and acceptable in principle. This has now enabled the Client to make firm decisions about what to do next and when.   If there any developers who are interesting in finding out more about these sites, please send me a message! Andrew Wootton-Jones MRICS Helen Williams Ryan Malee 🏗️ Property Developer Heather Smail + anyone else..?   #Property #Strategy #Collaboration

⭐𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗜 𝗿𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 #𝗳𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗯𝗲𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗰𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝗱𝗲𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝗵𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘀⭐ In the simplest terms, the cost of delivering a new dwelling, such as: • land • planning & design • construction • taxes, charges, contributions • marketing & sales • financing (and time) • holding costs • margin for risk, overheads & profit    Must be at or below what the market will pay for said dwellings. Simple, right? 🤷🏻Developers logically won't build housing projects if not feasible - why would they? The NSW Productivity Commission recently reported on housing supply challenges in which they picked up the "feasibility gap"(https://lnkd.in/gAQHKbVa). It found the cost of building a new apartment is much higher than the price the market will pay for said apartment. Ergo, far fewer new apartments will be built than needed. 👷🏻♂️The biggest impact on feasibility is construction cost which has grown 40-50% since 2020. What many don't appreciate is a 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘦 impact on dwellings with a higher construction cost base - i.e. mid-high rise - compared to other types such as detached houses or townhomes. Everywhere but Victoria, greenfield style development is about feasible, but nowhere in the country is 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗲 apartments workable. House prices need to rise in circa 20-30% from already high bases for apartments to approach feasible again - if you can find builders to do it. In Victoria where house prices have lagged, a 10% increase will make greenfields work again, whereas scale apartments need a 30-40% growth in underlying housing prices for feasibility to return. 𝘐𝘵'𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘣𝘪𝘨 𝘢 𝘨𝘢𝘱. ⏲️How long that will take is anyone's guess. Prevailing market price is key in the feasibility equation; the depth of market also needs to be considered. For example, it may be feasible to sell a certain number of dwellings at a given price point, but that does not translate to selling an unlimited number of homes in that location. Meeting needs of most new home buyers is more closely linked to overall borrowing capacity and income than whether a certain area can deliver new stock based on prevailling prices. Right now, across the country, median income earners cannot afford to buy apartments at scale to meet their housing needs and capacity. 🤔That's why I keep reiterating that the only solution in the short-mid term is a focus on unlocking more feasible housing types at scale - #greenfields and middle-ring townhomes. Or we'll have more people living in the gaps between buildings. #housingsupply #familysizedapartments #housingaccord #housingstatement #economics   UDIA Victoria UDIA National UDIA NSW UDIA NT UDIA Queensland Urban Development Institute of Australia (WA) Property Council of Australia

With the current impact of cell network outages across almost all carriers in the US, it's a good time to talk about the future; actually, it's not even about the future, it's the present. Several years ago I started talking about having mobile robotics (air, ground and maritime robotics, like drones, rovers and submergible devices) be part of a mobile adhoc network or MANET. One example is a private mesh network, like Silvus Technologies provides. These communications solutions for high bandwidth video, C2, health and telemetry data are absolutely needed in today's environment and allow for a very flexible set-up and coverage; from a local incident scene, to a much larger area coverage, to entire cities or counties being covered. Why the need? While we in the drone industry originally focused on getting drones connected to a cell network, we quickly realized the single point of failure; the cell network infrastructure. Natural disasters, as well as manmade disasters, can impact these networks dramatically. An earthquake, hurricane, a solar storm, or a cyberattack, can take down these public networks for hours to days. And that includes public safety dedicated solutions like FirstNet or Frontline, during times when coms and data push is absolutely needed. Over the past couple of years we have seen the rise of mobile robotics deployments within private networks. While the defense side has done this approach for years, the public safety sector is still new to this concept. Some solutions integrate with a variety of antennas, amplifiers and ground stations, offer low latency, high data rates (up to 100+Mpbs), 256-bit AES encryptions and allow for a very flexible and scalable mobile ad-hoc mesh network solution. And most importantly - independence from a public network system. And now imagine you have multiple devices operating; a helicopter, a drone, a ground robotic, together with individuals on the ground, all connected and all tied into a geospatial information platform, like ATAK/TAK. Each connected device can become a node and extend the range. This is what I am calling building the Tech/Tac Bubble. This is not just the future, this is already happening with a handful of agencies across the US It's time to start thinking about alternative communication solutions and mobile robotics are an important part of leading the way. #UAV #UAS #UGV #Drones #network #MANET #Meshnetwork #publicsafety

Lessons from Atlanta’s Housing Strike Force Cities, counties and states have become the front lines of the effort to address the housing crisis in the U.S. Most communities have focused on the “what” — reforms and investments to boost the production, acquisition and preservation of affordable housing. Few communities, by contrast, have focused on the “how” — new institutions and mechanisms to enable the hard work to get done. Atlanta is an exception. Under the leadership of Mayor Andre Dickens, the city government has established a Housing Strike Force. Members include senior executives of every public agency that touches housing or has public land and buildings that could be developed for housing. The Strike Force has a laser like mission: expand the supply of affordable housing in Atlanta by 20,000 units by 2030. In our latest piece, Joshua Humphries and I lay out the origins of Atlanta’s housing crisis response team, detail its myriad accomplishments and describe how the model can spread across the nation. We highlight 8 lessons for other cities to absorb: 1. Set a North Star 2. Unleash the full housing coalition 3. Leverage Public Land 4. Reset the Toolbox 5. Leverage Powers you forgot you had 6. Get some early wins 7. Raise your risk profile 8. Build a new way forward A version of this paper was created for the National Housing Crisis Task Force and is part of a larger State and Local Housing Action Plan. You can find the Action Plan here: https://lnkd.in/difiUtST Benjamin Preis Michael Saadine Colin Higgins Mary Ellen Wiederwohl A.J. Herrmann https://lnkd.in/dPZURJ6E

The overnight collapse of Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge has unleashed a wave of online conspiracy theories, spreading like wildfire across social media platforms. Within hours, some individuals were promoting baseless claims around the cause of the attack, ranging from cyber-attacks to intentional collisions on X. While misinformation during such events isn't new, the alarming pace and trust some of these accounts command pose significant challenges for Federal agencies and corporates alike. In times of crisis, the dissemination of misinformation on social media can wreak havoc, creating confusion, panic, and hindering effective response efforts. Moreover, it erodes trust in reliable sources of information, exacerbating the chaos and making it even more challenging to manage the situation.  For corporates, it's a reality that they are living in---that's where the importance of corporate preparedness comes into the picture. Here are a few suggestions that can help with your crisis preparedness: DURING THE CRISIS ✅ Establish Clear Communication Channels: Designate official spokespersons and platforms for disseminating accurate information. ✅Monitor Social Media and News Sources: Implement robust monitoring systems to track mentions and detect misinformation early. ✅Debunk False Information: Respond promptly with evidence-based rebuttals to false claims and communicate transparently with stakeholders. ✅Engage with Stakeholders: Demonstrate transparency and accessibility by engaging directly with stakeholders to address concerns. ✅Collaborate with Authorities and Experts: Pool resources and coordinate response efforts with relevant authorities and industry peers. ✅Monitor Sentiment and Feedback: Continuously monitor stakeholder sentiment to tailor communication strategies and address concerns. BEFORE CRISIS ❎ Educate Employees and Stakeholders: Provide training on media literacy and critical thinking skills to empower individuals to discern fact from fiction. ❎ Review and Update Crisis Communication Plans: Regularly review and update crisis communication plans based on lessons learned and emerging best practices. AFTER CRISIS ⭕ Evaluate and Learn: Conduct a thorough evaluation of the company's response to misinformation to inform future crisis preparedness efforts.

When your country's trust in its leaders has collapsed, how do you rebuild it? You don’t hold another conference. You build tools that let citizens watch power in action—live. In Chile, public trust in democratic institutions has cratered. Trust is “very, very damaged,” as one developer put it. People just don’t believe their voices matter anymore. Then came Del Dicho al Hecho – from said to done. A digital platform built to track every official proposal: from introduction in Congress to real-world implementation. Education, healthcare, immigration: you watch promises go from line to law in real time. One in ten Chileans used it last year. That's what digital accountability looks like. Until the tech got old. Enter Tech To The Rescue: we matched Ciudadanía Inteligente with pro bono backend expertise from Alio IT Solutions. We moved from spreadsheets and guesswork to scalable power without bureaucracy: --> Django-powered backend, with clean, secure, scalable architecture --> Real-time dashboard, replacing manual updating every legislative cycle --> Instant CSV uploads, replacing convoluted PDF workflows This isn't about flashy tech. It’s about civic tech that works: tools that restore trust, reshape democracy, and scale across borders. Today’s reminder for nonprofits: 1. Your domain isn’t the only one broken. 2. Your tools don’t just serve; you deserve scalable systems. 3. Accountability doesn’t wait for reports; it needs real-time tools. Big thanks to Ciudadanía Inteligente and Alio IT for showing how civic tech actually scales. The future of democracy isn’t speeches. It’s pixels that speak truth to power. #CivicTech #TechForGood #FutureOfDemocracy #NonprofitInnovation

New British Council Report Launched today: Digital Cultural Heritage: Imagination, innovation and opportunity   This report illustrates the innovative potential of Digital Cultural Heritage, providing insights into key areas where Digital Cultural Heritage is advancing technologies. Taking the Cultural Protection Fund  (CPF) as a starting point, the report spotlights on the insights of 25 cultural heritage practitioners in Egypt, Ethiopia, Iraq, and Kenya. Providing deep dives into nine technologies, cutting edge case studies, and recommendations across the Digital Cultural Heritage pipeline, the report encourages cultural heritage practitioners and organisations to navigate a path that balances the creative potential of technologies with their evidenced complexities and limitations.   Key recommendations The five recommendations of the report emphasise the need for sustained investment that considers the full pipeline of Digital Cultural Heritage. Support across each of these areas will ensure technological foundations are fair, adaptable and sustainable in the long term: Infrastructure: Digital Cultural Heritage infrastructure that considers interconnected social, ecological, and technological systems. For example, if a project is investing in reliable internet access, it should also consider clean, stable energy supply for servers, and harnessing community engagement and local knowledge. Data collection: Cultural heritage data collection processes that engage community stakeholders in data collection and management, including decisions about which data to preserve. Data stewardship: Cultural heritage data stewardship models that engage communities in the sustainable ownership of data. For example, projects that support long-term communities of practice, sustained learning, and critical thinking about technologies, or small-scale, community-led models of data ownership. Audience engagement: Creative applications of technologies to engage audiences in cultural heritage, particularly young audiences or those without pre-existing access to or interest in heritage. Of particular interest are novel digital approaches to protecting living heritage, alongside approaches that depart from traditional museum contexts, for example user-generated content, distribution via Social Media, or gamification. Long term maintenance: Digital cultural heritage maintenance models that prioritise sustainability and resilience over continuous innovation to ensure that existing, previously funded projects remain functional. Of particular interest are projects that combine technical maintenance, with holistic processes that enable institutional or community agility, responsiveness, and ability to adapt in the face of change. #mondiacult #digitalinnovation https://lnkd.in/eDZdK_TC