Development Impact Assessment Handbook.

• Author: Daun, Michael J.

Development Impact Assessment Handbook is a comprehensive set of methodologies to estimate the effects of a major urban development project, bringing together a variety of planning and engineering approaches in a single integrated assessment tool and computer spreadsheet model. As a handbook, the work is directed toward urban planning practitioners and related professionals who evaluate the physical, economic, social and financial impacts of a major development project. The handbook comes with a diskette containing the model components, including introductory information, worksheet input forms, model factors used, summary results, etc. The models work best with Lotus 1-2-3 version 2.01 or later and at least 640K bytes of memory.

The handbook is organized into nine chapters, each reflecting a dimension of impact that its development models are designed to measure: legal/administrative considerations; physical land planning/site analysis; market analysis; environmental, social, economic, fiscal and traffic impact analysis; and shared infrastructure costs.

These aspects of a project are approached sequentially in both the text and in the model where outputs of one dimension (public service demands from the social impact model) are often inputs to a succeeding dimension (fiscal impact model). Each chapter provides an introduction, description of methodology, data sources, application of the development model, presentation of results and future directions. The handbook, replete with tables and illustrations, uses an example of a large residential/retail/office development to go through the analysis of each development dimension as it affects the sample project. While it is certainly not "light reading," its well-organized, carefully documented format promotes understanding to both urban planners and others.

The book has several strengths. In interweaving each of the development dimensions, the model requires consistency in the use of population assumptions, land requirements, etc., which is often not the case when these facets are viewed in isolation from one another.

Another appealing strength of the handbook's approach is its bringing together the variety of development impacts under a single "assessment" umbrella. Often the world of development is artificially segregated into land use, economic, environmental, traffic, etc., because the planners and engineers who examine these narrower areas come from differing professional backgrounds. A...