Click to edit Master title style,Click to edit Master text styles,Second level,Third level,Fourth level,Fifth level,*,*,Strategic Environmental Assessment,Sheena Wurthmann,1,Introduction,what SEA is and why it is needed,how it can be used as a planning tool,how it links to sustainable development and project environmental impact assessment,limitations of SEA,where SEA is being used.,2,What is SEA,There are many definitions of strategic environmental assessment(SEA).Sadler and Verheem(1996)call it:,a systematic process for evaluating the environmental consequences of proposed policy,plan or programme initiatives in order to ensure they are fully included and appropriately addressed at the earliest appropriate stage of decision making on par with economic and social considerations.,Therivel et al.(1992)define it as:,the formalised,systematic and comprehensive process of evaluating the environmental effects of a policy,plan or programme and its alternatives,including the preparation of a written report on the findings of that evaluation,and using the findings in publicly accountable decision-making.,Perhaps the simplest definition of SEA is that it is the,environmental impact assessment,process applied to policies,plans and programmes,keeping in mind that the process of evaluating environmental impacts at a strategic level is not necessarily the same as evaluating them at a project level.,3,SEA is meant to be a continuous source of environmental information throughout all the stages of decision-making,as shown below.,Note that the stages do not necessarily follows one another:,for instance,the identification of alternatives may show that other aspects of the environmental baseline need to be analysed.,4,Stages in SEA,5,6,7,SEA process,As a very minimum,the SEA process involves:,predicting the environmental impacts of a strategic action;and,using those predictions in decision-making.,If those two basic criteria are not fulfilled,it is not an SEA.,8,Strategic assessment,Several other terms are also used to refer to environmental assessment at the strategic level,including:,policy environmental assessment;,policy impact assessment;,sectoral environmental assessment;and,programmatic environmental impact statement.,The term,SEA report,refers to a report that describes the methods and findings of the SEA process.Preparation of an SEA report is part of most SEA processes.,9,What is the aim of SEA?,The main aim of SEA is to incorporate environmental/sustainability issues in strategic decision-making.,Secondary aims of SEA are to:,improve the strategic action by making it clearer,more internally consistent etc;,involve the public or its representatives in the decision-making process;and,educate decision-makers about the environmental impacts of their decisions.,10,PPPs and Tiering,SEA normally applies to public sector(government)decisions.The(government)body that makes the decision is called the,competent authority,.,SEAs can be produced by the competent authority,independent consultants,non-government organisations(NGOs),other government bodies or a combination of these,but it is the competent autority that makes decisions on the strategic action.,Although policies,plans and programmes(PPPs)are generally all described as,strategic actions,they are not the same things,and may require different levels and types of analysis in SEA.,11,12,PPPs,However this terminology is not consistently used in practice:for instance a set of projects might be called a plan or guidance for action might be called a strategy.And no,it is NOT possible to get out of doing SEA by renaming a plan as a strategy!,13,What is clear from the definitions is that some(higher-tier or strategic)decisions influence and set the context for other(lower-tier or more detailed)decisions.,This is called,tiering,.,Normally,policies set the context for plans,and plans in turn set the context for programmes and then projects.,National-level PPPs often set the context for,in turn,regional and local-level PPPs.,14,Tiering,15,Outcomes of SEA,SEA can help to.,1.Identify areas that are environmentally robust and can cope with development;and areas that are environmentally sensitive and where development should be avoided,.Typically this is done through overlay mapping,for example Baltic Sea,16,Outcomes of SEA,SEA can help to.,1.Identify areas that are environmentally robust and can cope with development;and areas that are environmentally sensitive and where development should be avoided,.Typically this is done through overlay mapping,for example Baltic Sea Drainage Basin layers include population density,arable land,wetlands and land use.,17,Outcomes of SEA,2,.Identify alternatives to a strategic action that are more environmentally sound and/or more sustainable.An example based on the SEA of a UK local transport plan is:,18,Outcomes of SEA,3.Identify a preferred alternative or reject alternatives.Table compares 3 alternatives(A,B and C)using a range of sustainability