CHAPTER 11 Knowledge Management in Environmental Impact Assessment Agencies: A Study in Québec, Canada

Environmental impact assessment (EIA) is a knowledge-intensive activity that benefits from a highly structured approach to knowledge management (KM). In a survey of KM initiatives in two Québec government agencies, the Environmental Assessment Department and the Environment Public Hearings Bureau, knowledge repositories were mapped and officers were invited to reply to a questionnaire enquiring about the knowledge repositories' usefulness. Their perception about knowledge creation within each agency was assessed. Three drivers were identified that have steered the implementation of KM initiatives: (i) successive managers' understandings that EIA does create knowledge; (ii) a concern with consistency and reproducibility of recommendations; and (iii) improving agencies' efficiency, alongside one additional incentive: curbing the deleterious effects of staff turnover. So far an unmet challenge is making sense of a great deal of data and information obtained in the follow-up phase of the EIA process and transforming it into knowledge used to improve both efficiency and effectiveness of an agency's work.