J48716 Willend EIA ResearchReport V4 FINAL - Flipbook - Page 25
If the EA Department is to achieve its ambition of maintaining an
understanding of Digital EIA that is aligned with, and ideally ahead of,
developers and their consultants, then it will need a means of understanding
how technology and digital approaches are advancing in practice.
Beyond the opportunity to develop a national
strategy, or aspects of the elements that would
contribute to it the research identified more
focussed opportunities related to the FMEnv, as
set out in Figure 3.3 overleaf. A number of the
examples presented in the figure are discussed
below:
•
Digital EIA Capacity Building – Development
of a clear scope for a substantive training
course for a selection of FMEnv staff to enable
greater understanding of the opportunity and
benefits digital technology and approaches
can bring to EIA. This EIA related capacity
enhancement would need to be combined
with more focussed digital upskilling sessions
related to the use of GIS, design and set up
of digital systems. The need to clearly scope
learning needs, the balance of EIA vs Digital
knowledge and the likely location of such a
course is needed to establish the basis to then
go on to seek funding sources, such as MFI
investment funds.
•
Digital data collection and collation Apps
– As discussed in the NOSDRA section of
chapter 3, there is much potential for the
development of smartphone Apps to enable
digital capture and centralised storage of EIA
related data and information that is collected
by FMEnv Environmental Assessment Officers.
The development of such an App could also
prove useful in helping to engage staff with
the benefits and opportunities digital EIA
approaches can offer.
•
Retrospective review of completed EIA
projects using advances in remote sensing
and satellite data to explore how such data
sources could be used in the work of EA
Officers, by EIA Review Panels, and in the
work developers commission in producing EIA
Reports.
•
MALENA – Beta Test with IFC – on Federal
Ministry digital EIA Report archive. Need to get
the data onto a single digital system – i.e. on
server / hard drive(/s) that can be accessed by
the AI system. Currently it is unclear whether
EIA Reports are held in a central digital (harddrive) archive, or whether they are stored as
individual ‘soft copy’ storage – CD / Memory
Stick – or whether a combination of both
storage approaches is applied. The benefits
of taking part in such a Beta-test would
need to be defined in discussion with the IFC,
but could include identification of common
environmental risks and opportunities related
to specific sectors / geographies within Nigeria.
There may be the potential for a Nigeria
specific version of the MALENA AI that could
be generated and oriented to in-country
environmental and social risks, rather than the
wider machine learning that it has currently
been ‘trained’ with.
•
Exploring Partnerships for support and
funding – World Bank, African Development
Bank, (AFDB) University research funding, NCEA,
UK Department for International Development
(DIfID), Big Tech – Google, MicroSoft, Amazon
Web Services (AWS), Nigerian Mobile Industry,
see Figure 3.3, overleaf.
Willend Associates and FothergillTC Ltd – Ambitions, Challenges & Opportunities - Progressing Digital EIA in Nigeria
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