Social Impact Assessment of the Proposed Dodds-Roundhill Coal Gasification Project

This project report was completed by 14 graduate and undergraduate students in a social impact assessment course (AREC 450-550) during the Winter Term, January to April, 2009. The overall goal of this project was to learn specific concepts and methods for social impact assessment by undertaking such an assessment for the proposed Dodds-Roundhill Coal Gasification project (Southeast of Edmonton, Alberta). The social impact assessment is composed of four major components: (1) scoping of relevant social indicators, (2) social impacts within municipalities, (3) social impacts within the farming region, and (4) a comparative case study of social impacts. Together, the four project reports provide insights into the potential social impacts from the proposed coal gasification project in the Dodd-Roundhill region. In each project, students identified opportunities and challenges in conducting research. These insights may be useful in the development of monitoring frameworks and long-term evaluation processes with regard to this project. Also, each project utilized a variety of methods for social impact assessment and the learning from these methods may be useful for assessment practitioners as they work with communities to identify social impacts in other locales