INTRODUCTION
The Environmental Impact Assessment Regulation1 (the
"2013 Regulation") introduced a new
concept, namely the cumulative impact assessment (the
"CIA"), which is required to be taken
into account during the environmental impact assessment (the
"EIA") process.
The CIA basically requires that not only the environmental
impact of a single project but also the environmental impacts of
several projects, which are under either development or operation
and located in the same region, should be examined by the project
owners and the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization. In other
words, the CIA aims at identifying whether or not interface risks
exist.
Prior to the 2013 Regulation, Turkish environmental legislation
included no provision concerning the CIA. In fact, the CIA concept
was, to our knowledge, first introduced by administrative court
decisions released before the 2013 Regulation, as explained
below.
