Social Impact Assessment of Built Environment And Strategic Measures of Mitigating Social Impacts: The Case of Standard Gauge Railway Line at Sultan Hamud in Makueni County, Kenya

Abstract

Built environment refers to the aspects of human made surroundings distinguished from the natural environment that provide support for human activity such as transportation, recreation, social networking, economic activities, defences from natural disasters, telecommunications among others. Built environment impacts the environment and the society positively and negatively. This study therefore was undertaken to determine the impacts of built environment on the society using the Mombasa-Nairobi standard gauge railway line (SGR) as a case study. Specifically, the study was to: (i) determine the socio-demographic characteristics of the stakeholders and households impacted by built environment (SGR), (ii) undertake a scoping exercise for Social Impact Assessment (SIA), (iii) Assessment of social impacts of the built environment (SGR) using the SIA framework and variables, (iv) identification of mitigating strategies and ranking of their effectiveness in alleviating social impacts of a built environment (SGR). A mixed method research design incorporating crossectional, descriptive, ex post facto and evaluative designs was used for this study. The target population was the households within ten-kilometre radius of Sultan Hamud town within the corridor of the Mombasa-Nairobi SGR. A stratified random sample of 344 households was identified and surveyed using a structured questionnaire. Key Informants Interviews (KII) of sixty-three (63) purposively selected stakeholders were undertaken to identify and rank the impact mitigating strategies. Four Focus Group Discussions (FGD) were conducted to triangulate the survey and KIIs data. The data was analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics in the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (IBM SPSS version 27). The findings showed that the social impacts of the built environment (SGR) using the combined index of five dimensions and twenty-six (26) indicators of Social Impact Assessment (SIA) framework were rated as high (M=5.0, SD=.45) on a scale 0 no impact to 7 very high impact. The reliability of the index using Cronbach’s alpha was determined as (α=.877). The stakeholders identified mitigating strategies for social impacts of the built environment (SGR) at Sultan Hamud and ranked their effectiveness in terms of their implementation. The Corporate Social Responsibility and the utilisation of the new livelihood ventures created by the Built environment (SGR) were highly ranked strategies by the stakeholders. The study recommended public involvement and participation in mitigating social impacts. The implication of the study findings to the stakeholders and the communities impacted by the Built Environment (SGR): (i) the SIA process creates an awareness to the affected community of their social responsibility as pertains to the management of the impacts of development project, (ii) the identification of the significance and magnitude of the social impacts shows the stakeholders and the impacted community of the effects of the development for them to address, (iii) as they identify the social impacts and strategies for mitigating the impacts, it allows them to mitigate or eliminate the negative impacts and enhance the positive ones to manage their economy, and (iv) the SIA procedure also identifies and brings together the project stakeholders to the table to discuss and manage the challenges arising from the building and implementation phase of the development projects.