Hyder emphasises design phase Environment Assessment

To stand out in the current market, Hyder Consulting Middle East is encouraging architects and developers to focus on environmental issues from the design stages of a project to ensure lasting success.

Within the turbulent economic market, the ‘build it fast, build it now’ philosophy that is too often seen in the region is giving way to more environmentally conscious design and development strategies, particularly as long-term sustainability becomes key to return on investment.

Speaking at the MEED Middle East Coastal Projects 2008 conference in Dubai recently, Amanda Robertson, Manager of Environment Function at Hyder highlighted that there are huge benefits of proper environmental impact assessment (EIA) as part of securing the region’s infrastructure expansion, which will help long-term economic development.

“While we have seen a massive expansion of built-up area, large scale reclamation, artificial islands, canals, green belts and skyscrapers vying to go beyond the kilometre mark, looking to the long-term future, it is important to put in place proper environmental foundations so as to guarantee the success of developments and countries as a whole for decades to come.”

International advisory and design consultancy, Hyder Consultancy Middle East, has been established in the region for over 45 years, and have contributed to the engineering of prestigious developments such as the Burj Dubai and City of Arabia in Dubai, Shams Development on Reem Island in Abu Dhabi among other projects.

In assessing the environmental impact, Hyder uses various metrics including international conventions and standards, global practices and local laws to assess projects at different stages, right from the strategig planning, concept planning, concept design, detailed design to the construction and operation.

Though industry players becoming increasingly aware of the importance of EIA, there are still challenges like the lack of uniform policies, unavailability of reliable data and are some instances, a lack of compliance monitoring after the assessment.

“EIA also helps to estimate the costs and benefits of environmental integration and facilities top level decision-making as well as public participation in development,” concluded Robertson.

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