Development of the Environmental Impact Assessment Methodology in Accordance with the Development and Needs Environmental of the Palestinian Society

This study is about the environmental impact assessment (EIA) which is required as a prerequisite for any development project by most of the international and local institutions prior to the approval of the project implementation. The Palestinian Environmental law has clearly stated the necessity for EIA studies in accordance with the Palestinian strategy for Environmental Assessment. The study evaluates Palestinian Methodology for environmental assessment and its different and approval procedure. It also evaluates the EIA contents, procedures and policies in comparison to the Jordanian and Egyptian Environmental Impact Assessment Methodologies and policies. The study has analyzed the data and information collected about the different EIA studies that has been prepared by the consultancy Firms in the West Bank and those submitted and approved by the Palestinian Environmental Authority> The studies have been listed and evaluated according to their subjects, evaluation results and the development of these studies in accordance with the Palestinian society development and environmental needs. After that, the researcher has applied questionnaire about the public participation in the environmental assessment process. Using the statistical package SPSSM the researcher has analyzed the reasons of public participation, its requirements, procedures and the different factors affecting its application. The study has concluded several recommendations for developing the EIA methodology in accordance with the Palestinian development and environmental needs. These recommendations include suggestions for developing the consultancy firms, the approval procedure, requirements and analyses towards developing the environmental assessment methodology in Palestine.