NOSDRA itself, however, has needs andambitions related to greater integration of digitaltechnologies in its operations. A clear priority isthe development of a smartphone based Appto enable its officers to record spill related data,photos and the geolocation (GPS coordinates)of spills and restoration work directly into theAgency’s systems, rather than its current systemof photographing paper copy documents that arecurrently completed in the field. There are potentialoverlaps between this need and the potentialfor similar environmental data recording Apps,which could be developed and used by FMEnvEA Officers in the field, or by EIA consultants,working for developers, in compiling information toproduce the EIA Report. There may therefore beopportunity for cooperation to develop and trialAPPs related to environmental monitoring.Nigerian EIA Practice – Digital approaches byDevelopers and EIA consultantsIt is clear from discussions that EIA practice inNigeria has developed considerably over the last20 years. Both in delivery of regulatory stepsand in undertaking fieldwork and data samplingtechnology and digital approaches have beenadopted to drive efficiency. Despite this, however,experienced EIA practitioners recognise thereis still much that could be achieved with a lackof readily available and coordinated digitalenvironmental data being a key barrier in greateradvancement of technology that is widely adoptedin many other EIA systems. While GIS systems areused by consultants there is much more scopefor their use. However, greater uptake is limitedby a lack of available digital data both related toenvironmental topics considered in EIA practice,plus relevant community and social data, seesection 3.2 discussion on digital IA barriers.16Despite this the experts see clear advances intechnology with progress in the acceptance ofdigital approaches to enable FMEnv activitynoted as beneficial. In relation to this the mostestablished move has been the acceptance ofsoft-copy EIA Reports – on compact disc (CD)or memory stick – however, the future ability tosubmit the document via an online portal wouldbe appreciated by consultants as a next stepdevelopment. Further to this, the development ofFMEnv’s online registration system is also seen asa positive step forward and an indication that theFMEnv’s Environmental Assessment Departmentis receptive to adoption of digital approaches todrive efficiency and effectiveness. There was alsopositive progress made during the pandemic toaccept online meetings as an acceptable form ofdiscussion and exchange for key meetings withinthe EIA procedure, such as the Expert PanelReview. While recognising the advantage of faceto face and onsite meetings, there was a desirefrom practice to seek to learn lessons from thepandemic to see where such online meetings canbecome an additional facet of practice as weemerge from the restrictions it imposed.In practice, working for developers, the mostobvious sign of the application of digital ESIAapproaches by consultants is the uptake andapplication of drone technology. While initialusage related to fly-over video coverage of sitesto supplement site visits and enable additionalperspective on a proposed development siteand its surrounds, the use of drones has nowexpanded beyond this into baseline datagathering and monitoring. Drones as a meansof digitising aspects of ESIA baseline surveysare now used for land use assessment, habitatsidentification, to scope and identify GPSlocations of target sites for ecological, heritageand other surveys, to gather air quality data,and help search for the presence of nocturnalspecies that can be otherwise hard to discern.Willend Associates and FothergillTC Ltd – Digitization in and around Nigerian EIA
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