Practitioner Briefing 'Social Impact Assessment: Tools, Methods and Approaches'

The Practitioner Briefing ‘Social Impact Assessment: Tools, Methods and Approaches’, that has been developed within the framework of the H2020 CIVITAS SUITS and H2020 TinnGO projects, is now available.

This Practitioner Briefing introduces the concept of Social Impact Assessment (SIA) in the context of Sustainable Urban Mobility Planning (SUMP). SIA can be used as a means of considering and improving transport justice or equity, encouraging citizen engagement and taking account of the needs of vulnerable users. SIA is a well-recognised approach which has been used in several domains outside of transport. It can be conducted as part of the SUMP cycle, or with respect to individual transport measures.

Following an introduction to SIA, an overview of methods and tools is provided, which practitioners could use to plan and implement gender-and diversity-sensitive transport measures, with examples of how these methods have been applied in practice. SIA is introduced as an approach to improving inclusiveness in the design and operationalisation of sustainable transport measures, to ensure the voices of all stakeholders are heard and given equal value in the planning of mobility services. Within SIA, transport is assessed in relation to the extent to which it enables a good quality of life to be achieved. Conducting SIA’s throughout the urban mobility planning process helps to ensure that plans meet the needs of all citizens and that no group is disadvantaged by new mobility measures.

This document is part of a compendium of guidedance documents that complement the second edition of the SUMP Guidelines, by providing specialised information on planning in specific policy fields. Two types of documents exist: ‘Topic Guides’ provide comprehensive planning recommendations on established topics, ‘Practitioner Briefings’ are less elaborate documents addressing emerging topics with a higher level of uncertainty. These documents form part of a growing knowledge base of documents which can be found in the ‘Mobility Plans’ section of Eltis.

To download the Practitioner Briefing see here.

To read any existing or future Practitioner Briefings, see here.