Holistic Approach
An assessment using RIAM is executed as a holistic study, and provides basis of comparison of the impact across all environments.
This concept is best demonstrated by considering “The Environment” as consisting of 4-Circles of environment that overlap in the executing of a RIAM assessment.
The Holistic Approach – The 4-Circles of the Environment
The concept of the 4-Circles is used to define the components that become the scope of the RIAM assessment. These components are then assessed against a set of five criteria that are universal in their application and critical to Impact Assessment.
The 4-Circles concept allows RIAM to assess both the Natural world and Human world side by side, and thus to clearly see any conflicts that may arise. Because of the simplicity in use and speed of RIAM it becomes easy and quick to consider alternatives, forms of mitigation, and set these within financial and operational boundaries.
This holistic approach, using the 4-Circles concept and RIAM has the added advantage of having the analysis on a single platform, and due to its transparency and ease of use the RIAM analysis can be updated and reviewed as new data and information becomes available. It therefore becomes possible to update impact assessments easily, rather than carrying out new assessments over time.