A Social Impact is something that is experienced or felt directly or indirectly, in a perceptual (cognitive) or bodily (physical) sense at all levels of human endeavor, associated with some modifying action of the surrounding physical environment. This impact can positively or negatively affect the individual, family and / or community.
Social impacts are favorable or negative changes in one or more of the following areas:
1. The people’s way of life in their daily activities,
2. Their culture (beliefs, customs, values and language or dialect),
3. Their community (cohesion, stability, character, services and facilities),
4. Their political systems (degree of participation in the decisions they´re affect by),
5. Their environment (the quality of air, water, availability and quality of food, and levels of risk),
6. Their general health and well-being (physically, mentally, socially and spiritually),
7. Their fundamental personal and property rights, and
8. Their fears (safety and community future), and aspirations (for the future and that of their children).
The entire SIA´s scheme is developed with a single objective: to obtain and maintain the “Social License” to operate in the short, medium and long term, taking into account the various stakeholders, each with their own interests not necessarily complementary, rather than a single government regulatory entity.
The management of these type of evaluations includes, by way of example- at least 25 activities, noting that these are not carried out simultaneously but are subject to the special characteristics of each specific case and its particular context.
