A change in the make-up, working, or appearance of the environment. An Environmental Impact Assessment considers the probable consequences of human intervention in the environment, seeking to restrict environmental damage. In most developed countries, the methodology includes provision for the responsible authority to produce a draft, release this for public comment, and gather responses from a variety of perspectives: other agencies and levels of government, environmental and community groups, interested corporations, resource users, and ordinary citizens. This generates information that might otherwise be excluded from administrative decision making, and although this information may not directly influence the decision, it makes environmental and democratic values more visible and legitimate than before (Turnbull (2004) Geog. J. 170, 1). See S. Atapattu (2006).