Digital IA Opportunities and Constraints Barten Why a

Digital IA Opportunities and Constraints Barten

Why a digital IA? Rijkswaterstaat 2 RWS INFORMATION - Digital IA

Background Rijkswaterstaat 3 RWS INFORMATION - Digital IA

Pilot Digital IA Houtribdijk • Session with experts, authorities and reviewers Rijkswaterstaat 4 RWS INFORMATION - Digital IA

Opportunity's - government Task in IA process Opportunity's Communication - informing Better accessibility Informing stakeholders Transparency Participation Better informed discussion Stronger participation in design More involvement Wider support Quality of decision making Easier to retrieve information 1 portal for all information Rijkswaterstaat 5 RWS INFORMATION - Digital IA

Opportunities – principals and IA writers Tasks in IA process Opportunities Digitalisation whole procedure Linking digital information in different procedure steps Writing IA report Link to National Digital information system Lower costs / report Less reviewing work Review / quality control Digital reviewing Additional IA studies / IA repairs Less frequent and less substantial Rijkswaterstaat 6 RWS INFORMATION - Digital IA

Constraints - government Task in IA process Constraints Communication - informing How to keep it small? Involving digibethics Transparency Reliability Participation Who leads designing process? Limits to participation / co-creation Quality of decision making Lack of legislative certainty Legislative expiration date Rijkswaterstaat 7 RWS INFORMATION - Digital IA

Constraints – principals and EIS writers Tasks in IA process Constraints Writing EI Statement No example or tried format More development costs technical issues Maintaining information is it secure? there has to be a copy with 'frozen‘ information no hard copies any more (people have to get used to the idea) Reviewing EI Statements Search engine, comments Rijkswaterstaat 8 RWS INFORMATION - Digital IA

Review - Commission on Environmental Impact Assessment Rijkswaterstaat 9 RWS INFORMATION - Digital IA

Conclusions Current ‘paper’ IA’s Digital IA Houtribdijk Future digital IA’s Lack of index or guide for readers Better suited for specific information needs / users Tool for reviewers (search engine, notes) Repeated text Avoids unnecessary / repeated text Accessibility visually impaired Links to in depth information Freezing information and links (legal requirement) Modern presentation techniques Rijkswaterstaat 10 RWS INFORMATION - Digital IA

Recommendations • Usability study – Specific needs of different users: content, accessibility and user friendlyness • Linking design and participation process – Better interaction between design & participation – Joint fact finding – Digital IA becomes disign and information platform • Cost and benefit analysis – Compare traditional IA, optimalised traditional IA – digital IA – Compare different types of plan and projects • English translation available at the Royal. Hoskoning. DHV Booth! Rijkswaterstaat 11 RWS INFORMATION - Digital IA

Rijkswaterstaat 12 RWS INFORMATION - Digital IA