This indicator is closely linked with other institutional ones, such as sustainable development strategies, national councils for sustainable development, and programme of integrated environmental and economic accounting.
All countries have policy or legal instruments in place to ensure that EIAs are carried out.
Mandated EIA means that EIA is required by national legislation. Environmental Impact Assessment is a structured approach for obtaining and evaluating environmental information prior to its use in decision-making in the planning and development process. EIA includes predictions of how the environment is expected to change if certain alternative actions are implemented and advice on how best to manage environmental changes if one alternative is selected and implemented. As used here environment includes the physical, biological, economic, health, and socio-cultural context of human activities. The relevant concepts are well developed and are described in a variety of publications on the subject.