HIA is a study to evaluate the Impact , Change & Alteration on a cultural heritage site or heritage items as a result of proposed development , new buildings , urban renewal and changes to the land use and to recommend an overall approach to conserve the resources . It also aims to safeguard the values and integrity of the identified cultural or natural resources by managing any potential impacts with proposed mitigation measures to ensure that the heritage significance of the cultural resources is not jeopardised .
The HIA process comprises five major stages , which start with the evaluation of cultural resources , and ends with the mitigation and management plan as seen in the HIA flow chart . An HIA is usually carried out by qualified heritage experts from various disciplines depending on the nature of the development on site . Assessing and evaluating an impact will take into consideration the value grading of the heritage , effects of change on the attributes of the heritage whereby the impact is not necessarily adverse , as it can be beneficial as
Examples of adverse impacts
● Visual Impact ( roofscape , streetscape , key view );
● Environmental Impact ( cultural ), ( noise , vibration , dust , pollution etc .);
● Environmental Impact ( natural ), ( forest fragmentation , animal displacement , wildlife habitat loss etc .);
● Social Impact ( migration , vandalism , building change use etc .);
● Traffic Impact ( physical , visual during construction ); and
● Impact on a whole community resulting from the above impacts .
Examples of beneficial impacts
● Opportunity for conservation , protection and management ; and
● Opportunity for adaptive reuse .
Photograph showing the position between SSP Line S25 and the heritage resources , The Sungai Besi Old Town , a heritage zone under DBKL ’ s listing .
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