In practice, for many transport projects the source of economic activity and location impacts is an expected release of constraints on land availability. Where a transport investment does enable land that would otherwise be incapable of development to be developed for productive uses, there is potentially a local economic benefit, where the use of the land gives rise to output and employment impacts.
However, even at a local level the argument that the EALI is additional is valid only where no other site is available which could be developed in a similar manner. Where there is a potential site whose use is ruled out through environmental/planning considerations, the benefit of using the site released by the transport project is in effect related to planning and/or environment objectives rather than economic objectives. However, it is very unlikely that no alternative site would have been available for that development, and therefore the impact at the Scotland level should be noted as zero, unless there is a convincing argument that the development would have gone elsewhere. Similar considerations apply to employment impacts.
It is possible that even where there is no economic (output or employment) impact, because development would take place elsewhere, there may be an environmental gain, where that alternative land has a higher environmental value than that made accessible and developable through the transport intervention. If such a gain were expected, it would be useful to note this in the EALI section, so as to make decision makers aware of how this impact has been assessed. However, as this is an environmental gain, it should be addressed fully in the section on environment.
It should be noted for options requiring SEA, that the SEA Directive's definition of "environment" includes not only the natural environment and the historic environment, but also some human effects such as health and material assets. Therefore within the SEA process, significant effects on material assets should be assessed and presented in the SEA Environmental Report. Material assets include land-use and development-related impacts such as effects on infrastructure, and property.
