Baseline

The purpose of this stage is to identify the environmental characteristics of the area for which the Plan is being prepared and to summarise any environmental problems/issues experienced in the area which may affect or be affected by the Plan. This should include identification of the relevant environmental data to be used and possible data gaps.

The level of detail of the information to be used will need to reflect the scale and nature of the Plan being assessed, and the likely significant environmental effects.

When certain data or information are not available, it may be necessary to draw the opinion of other sources of information e.g. experts rather than data.

Further information can be found in the section on Baseline Information.

Examples of approaches to collation of environmental baseline information for air, soil and water can be found here:

		Air		Soil		Water
Approaches to collation of environmental baseline information		PDF		PDF		PDF