One of the main challenges in undertaking an integrated environmental health impact assessment is to arrange and organise the collaboration that is needed across what is often a large and varied assessment team.  The difficulties are often made all the greater by the different disciplines and levels of expertise of the participants, their geographic scatter across different areas, and the simple limitations of time and other resources.  There is also an obligation to restrict the volume of travel, in order to minimise impacts on the environment.

Given these constraints, collaboration inevitably relies increasingly on the use of the Internet, not only for email contact and exchange of data etc, but also for interactive discussion, modelling and development of reports.  To facilitate these activities, a number of more-or-less standard procedures have evolved, including the use of a central, co-ordinating website, a document management system and clear reporting systems.  In most cases, however, it is likely to be beneficial to go beyond these, and to establish of some form of collaborative workspace.  If the concept of open assessment is followed, this will provide an environment not only for centrally-organised collaboration but also for more informal and organic activities - e.g.  self-organised groups and ad hoc consultations on specific issues.  A leading example of this is provided by Opasnet.