Throughout the humanitarian programme cycle of disaster preparedness, response, and recovery, a range of guidelines, manuals, toolkits and mechanisms have been developed to support the decision-making assessment process. However, no single mechanism or tool is comprehensive or accepted as standard operating procedure. Furthermore, the extent to which environmental assessments are integrated into the overall humanitarian emergency planning process can vary significantly. This patchwork of environmental tools can complicate when, where, and how to integrate environmental considerations into humanitarian projects and programmes.

Developed and published by the Joint Initiative, this scoping report provides a situational analysis, outlining the challenges and providing draft recommendations regarding the use of environmental assessment tools, with focus on the Rapid Environmental Impact Assessment in Disasters (REA).