Impact Assessment (IA) is the process of analysing and managing the intended and unintended consequences of interventions on people and the environment. This process can be applied to tourism development projects, land-use planning for tourism, conservation programmes (i.e., species protection) and the formulation of tourism strategies and policy. In New Zealand, the process has a clear focus on bringing about a more sustainable environment.

Impact assessment, including social impact assessment (SIA) is a legal requirement under the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA), particularly under section 5 (dealing with sustainable development) and section 88 (the requirement to assess effects on the environment). IA is also necessary under the Conservation and National Parks Acts. However, despite the legislative framework, tourism development continues to occur with insufficient assessment of effects.

The need for integration across different areas of IA has frequently been noted in New Zealand and overseas, but there are few examples of integration as integrated objectives are difficult to define and implement. The social assessment process, in particular, should provide a framework for integrating planning and IA, with a focus on key issues and a basis for ongoing consultation. An integrated approach is particularly necessary In tourism development because of the close interaction between it and the physical, social, cultural and economic environments. It is also important to consider the sustainability of the host community and local enterprises.

Webbing and chaining is a tool used for integrated scoping of social and environmental impacts before any detailed impact assessment is done. The process links bio-physical and social impacts in a “web” of cause and effect relationships, and helps to focus analysis of all types of environmental effects (i.e., social, biophysical) on the relevant issues.

As tourism developments intensify in and around natural areas, there is increased potential for reverse sensitivity issues. Reverse sensitivity analysis examines activities or land uses facing opposition from neighbouring activities that have established close enough to experience the effects of the existing activity. Often both the existing activity and the more recent neighbouring activity are mandated by planning policies and rules, such as zoning and consents. There are formal requirements for monitoring environmental effects in the RMA, and these should reflect potential reverse sensitivity when formulating conditions placed on resource consents.

The requirement for monitoring impacts falls on district and regional councils to oversee. Monitoring helps manage and mitigate impacts (including enhanced benefits). To be meaningful and provide consistent information, monitoring needs to gather data in the form of environmental indicators that reflect amenity values and establish performance or outcome standards against which change can be assessed. Indicators need to show trends or sudden changes in environmental conditions and cumulative effects. In reality, both RMA consents and conservation-area concessions are set up for one-off applications and provide minimal feedback into future tourism strategies and plans.