Editorial: experiences with developing guidelines for effective impact assessment

Abstract

Welcome to the second issue of 2019, a special issue on ‘experiences with developing guidelines for effective impact assessment’. Guidelines can play an important role in supporting effective impact assessments (IAs). In this context, guidance representing best practice is usually associated with going beyond simple legal compliance. As experience, skills and knowledge are continuously developing, guidelines need to be reviewed and updated regularly, therefore requiring a certain degree of flexibility (following e.g. Fischer and Gazzola 2006; Gunn and Noble 2009)