Article

Is SEA worth it? Short-term costs v. long-term benefits of strategic environmental assessment

Authors:
To read the full-text of this research, you can request a copy directly from the authors.

No full-text available

Request Full-text Paper PDF

To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.

... Unlike the classical Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process, which focuses on predicting, evaluating, and mitigating the environmental impacts of project actions (Wu and Ma, 2019;Bodde and Van der Wel, 2018;OECD, 2006), the SEA process is used for predicting, evaluating, and mitigating the higher-level environmental impacts of strategic actions, including land use planning (Wu and Ma, 2019;Wu and Ma, 2018;Bodde and Van der Wel, 2018;OECD, 2006). Implementing the SEA process has long-term benefits (e.g., environmentally-friendly development, a smoother planning process, greater plan transparency) that can vastly exceed the short-term cost, especially if it addresses the environmental problems to support achieving the environmental goals of plans (Therivel and González, 2020). In some parts of the world, particularly in the European Union, the SEA process has been implemented since 2001 (Kläne and Albrecht, 2005). ...
... Addressing these key challenges may be helpful to improve the environmental sustainability of city-regions, but may not be the answer to all problems, considering the fast rate of urbanization (Mashi and Shuaibu, 2018;Schug et al., 2018;Abubakar, 2014;Basorun and Ayeni, 2013) that planning cannot keep up with and the challenges to control such urbanization by local, regional, and national governments. However, the development of the Abuja city-region from scratch using land use planning strategies (Adama, 2020) makes it the best-case study for investigating land use planning and environmental assessment challenges, considering the long-term benefits of the SEA process that can vastly exceed the short-term cost (Therivel and González, 2020). ...
... Reasons given by interviewees for this included improving environmental sustainability, creating synergy among relevant stakeholders, making the EIA process achievable, addressing socio-cultural conflicts from policy, planning, and program implementation within the multi-ethnic nation. The opinion of the experts to implement the formal SEA process supports the findings of Therivel and González (2020), who show that the benefits of implementing SEA can vastly exceed the costs especially if it leads to environmentally-friendly development of the plans. Our findings showed that the challenges facing the impact prediction and evaluation process in the environmental assessment of land use planning, and thus also any potential SEA-process, include insufficient data availability, lack of relevant tools for analysis, inadequate manpower/dearth of professionals, inadequate funding, corruption in the system (Table 4.8). ...
Thesis
Full-text available
Global urban dynamics are rapidly increasing, posing a great challenge to urban and environmental sustainability. In Sub-Saharan Africa city-regions, land use planning strategies and instruments used to guide urban dynamic patterns for urban and environmental sustainability are faced with various challenges, including insufficient data availability. Focusing on the Abuja city-region as a case study, the goal of this research is to contribute to effective land use planning for improving urban and environmental sustainability using integrated empirical data derived from Geographic Information Systems, Remote Sensing, and surveys to offer detailed and new insights into urban land dynamics. While investigating the mismatches between the past and current urban land cover and land use plans, the supervised classification of the land cover of LANDSAT data from 1987, 2002, and 2017 was used to quantify the non-urban development areas lost to urban/built-up. Expert interviews were applied to guide and develop three scenario alternatives to simulate land cover from 2017 to 2030 and 2050 using the Multi-Layer Perceptron Neural Network and Markov models. The scenarios included Business As Usual that extrapolates past trends; Regional Land Use Plan that restricts urban expansion to the land designated for urban development, and; Adjusted Urban Land that incorporates the leapfrogged settlements into the land designated for urban development. Based on these scenario alternatives, the potential degradation of the protected environmentally sensitive areas by the possible future urban dynamics was investigated. By overlaying and contrasting land use plans, land cover maps derived from satellite imagery, and expert surveys, the spatial inconsistencies and their causes between urban and regional plans, as well as the associated urban dynamics were investigated. The results indicated an increase in urban/built-up areas and large mismatches between the past/current urban land cover and the existing land use plans. Also, the results indicated high, little, and no potential degradation of the protected environmentally sensitive areas by the future urban dynamics under the Business As Usual, Adjusted Urban Land, and Regional Land Use Plan scenarios respectively. Additionally, the results illuminated multiple inconsistencies (e.g., spatial conflicts) between urban and regional plans, most prominently stemming from conflicts in administrative boundaries and a lack of interdepartmental coordination. The methods and the baseline information provided, especially from the Adjusted Urban Land scenario would be useful for effective land use planning. This would support improving the urban and environmental sustainability of the Sub-Saharan African city-regions and across the Global South, where insufficient data availability challenges land use planning.
... Unlike the classical Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process, which focuses on predicting, evaluating, and mitigating the environmental impacts of project actions [26,31,34], the SEA process is used for predicting, evaluating, and mitigating the higher-level environmental impacts of strategic actions, including land use planning [26,31,34,35]. Implementing the SEA process has long-term benefits (e.g., environmentally-friendly development, a smoother planning process, greater plan transparency) that can vastly exceed the short-term cost, especially if it addresses environmental problems to support achieving the environmental goals of plans [36]. In some parts of the world, particularly in the European Union, the SEA process has been implemented since 2001 [37]. ...
... Therefore, environmental assessment and land use planning can be used to improve urban and regional environmental sustainability [3,4,1,5,6,19,[29][30][31][32][33]. While land use planning focuses on the spatial arrangement of land use, environmental assessment can be used to: reduce the environmental risk of the plan; streamline the project action of the plan; faster plan approval; and better plan implementation [36] that reflects socio-ecological idealism in land use planning. The SEA framework for strategic decision-making, including land use planning strategy is used to describe: environmental baseline and identify alternatives land use plans; prepare scoping reports, predict and evaluate impacts of the alternative land use plans; mitigate the impacts of the chosen alternative land use plan; prepare the SEA report for formal decision, and; monitor the implementation of the chosen alternative land use plan [32]. ...
... Addressing these key challenges may be helpful to improve the environmental sustainability of city-regions, but may not be the answer to all problems, considering the fast rate of urbanization [48][49][50][51] that planning cannot keep up with and the challenges to control such urbanization by local, regional, and national governments. However, the development of the Abuja city-region from scratch using land use planning strategies [52] makes it the best-case study for investigating land use planning and environmental assessment challenges, considering the long-term benefits of the SEA process that can vastly exceed the short-term cost [36]. ...
Article
Full-text available
Land use planning as strategic instruments to guide urban dynamics faces particular challenges in the Global South, including Sub-Saharan Africa, where urgent interventions are required to improve urban and environmental sustainability. This study investigated and identified key challenges of land use planning and its environmental assessments to improve the urban and environmental sustainability of city-regions. In doing so, we combined expert interviews and questionnaires with spatial analyses of urban and regional land use plans, as well as current and future urban land cover maps derived from Geographic Information Systems and remote sensing. By overlaying and contrasting land use plans and land cover maps, we investigated spatial inconsistencies between urban and regional plans and the associated urban land dynamics and used expert surveys to identify the causes of such inconsistencies. We furthermore identified and interrogated key challenges facing land use planning, including its environmental assessment procedures, and explored means for overcoming these barriers to rapid, yet environmentally sound urban growth. The results illuminated multiple inconsistencies (e.g., spatial conflicts) between urban and regional plans, most prominently stemming from conflicts in administrative boundaries and a lack of interdepartmental coordination. Key findings identified a lack of Strategic Environmental Assessment and inadequate implementation of land use plans caused by e.g., insufficient funding, lack of political will, political interference, corruption as challenges facing land use planning strategies for urban and environmental sustainability. The baseline information provided in this study is crucial to improve strategic planning and urban/environmental sustainability of city-regions in Sub-Saharan Africa and across the Global South, where land use planning faces similar challenges to address haphazard urban expansion patterns.
... The impact mitigation step is the second most absent step in the analyzed SEA reports, in which some even foresee actions, but not in detail. For Thérivel and González (2020) highlight that the low efficiency of SEA in plans may be the result of not robustly considering mitigation measures, causing them to be ignored by planners and decision makers, compromising the effectiveness of SEA results. ...
... Regarding the step of objectives and critical factors for the decision evaluated qualitatively, it is observed that the SEA reports cover a broad theme, with a higher prevalence of themes: biodiversity, urban mobility, water, air and climate factors. Thérivel and González (2020), Gallardo et al. (2023) and Nadruz et al. (2018) plays in the incorporation of major themes on the global environmental agenda, such as biodiversity and climate change. Table 3 shows the analysis of the six aspects proposed by He et al. (2011) to integrate urban planning and environmental planning to promote urban sustainability guided by the SEA of master plans, as set out in Chart 4. Table 3, considering the individual results of each SEA report, shows that all 17 SEA reports of the master plans meet more than half of the six aspects of integrating environmental issues in urban planning and more than half meet all aspects. ...
Article
Full-text available
Resumo A Avaliação Ambiental Estratégica (AAE) é aplicada em 90 países para integrar o meio ambiente ao planejamento, como planos diretores, mas permanece voluntária no Brasil. A dimensão ambiental em relatórios internacionais de AAE de planos diretores é discutida pelo referencial teórico de boas práticas de AAE para identificar contribuições para o contexto brasileiro. Verificou-se elevado número de evidências dessas boas práticas, de padronização de etapas, de integração entre os planejamentos urbano e ambiental corroborando características intrínsecas e sistêmicas da AAE que permitem integrar a dimensão ambiental em planos diretores, independente do contexto de planejamento do país. Recomenda-se que a AAE seja adotada localmente, pois possibilita fomentar a integração da temática ambiental em políticas intersetoriais urbanas, um desafio no planejamento urbano.
... This assists in improving the consistency of information to aid decision-making, complement sustainability across planning hierarchies [81,82] through strategic considerations such as climate change, and advance sustainable development goals using sustainability criteria during planning [39,83] . The overall scheme is expected to save resources including time [84,85] for project-level EIAs and help overcome its limitations. ...
... Appreciating the limitations of the project-level EIA systems, at least large and integrated projects should be subjected to SEA-sectoral or regional environmental assessment duly backed up with suitable regulatory provisions. Thus, effective SEA [14,19,85,98] as integral to the planning process for economic development, and other forms like sectoral assessment and regional environmental assessment, with a wider public consultation, should be adopted to boost the overall efficiency and effectiveness of the EIA process. The practice of tiering also needs to be adopted to further streamline and strengthen the EIA process, improve the consistency of information to aid decision-making [77] , and save time in the preparation of project-level EIAs. ...
Article
Full-text available
Despite a wealth of literature on the different facets of the EIA, and copious theoretical knowledge and practical experience, the general agreement is eluding definitions of EIA effectiveness, quality, and good practices. There are apprehensions about EIA meeting its basic objectives while project proponents continue to treat EIA as an impediment to development. Governments tend to adopt a “practical” approach, sacrificing pillars of EIA and overlooking the prime objective of environmental protection. Based on an extensive literature study and the author’s long EIA-related experience, some key workable practices for the EIA process are elaborated. Meticulous scoping using different sets of lenses, spotlighting significant impacts to determine the breadth and depth of EIA reports for focussed EIAs, robust EIA review and decision-making, commitment from the regulators for environmental protection, and use of strategic planning, strategic environmental assessment, and tiering practices are expected to address scholars’ apprehensions and project proponents’ concerns.
... In addition, in the upper level of the EIA process, SEA (strategic environmental assessment), the usability of visualization presumably could help SEA practitioners and planners in terms of more environmentally friendly development, a smoother planning process, greater plan transparency, and the like [6]. The visualization should bring public involvement of the EIA and SEA to speed up plans, policies, and projects by reducing the environmental impacts and improving the environmental benefits of plans, acting as an instrument of knowledge brokerage, and improve public participation in both levels [7]. ...
... Furthermore, SEA aims to integrate environmental considerations into plan-making, and so to promote sustainable development and environmental protection. Global visualization of EIA and SEA processes generally entails the preparation of an environmental report that identifies the likely significant impacts of the levels in a plan/programme (SEA) as well as projects (EIA), proposal of measures to avoid or mitigate any significant negative impacts, consultation on the report with the public and government environmental bodies, taking the environmental report and consultation findings, and monitoring of the actual impacts of the plan/programme/projects helping with visualization [7]. ...
... In addition, in the upper level of the EIA process, SEA (strategic environmental assessment), the usability of visualization presumably could help SEA practitioners and planners in terms of more environmentally friendly development, a smoother planning process, greater plan transparency, and the like [6]. The visualization should bring public involvement of the EIA and SEA to speed up plans, policies, and projects by reducing the environmental impacts and improving the environmental benefits of plans, acting as an instrument of knowledge brokerage, and improve public participation in both levels [7]. ...
... Furthermore, SEA aims to integrate environmental considerations into plan-making, and so to promote sustainable development and environmental protection. Global visualization of EIA and SEA processes generally entails the preparation of an environmental report that identifies the likely significant impacts of the levels in a plan/programme (SEA) as well as projects (EIA), proposal of measures to avoid or mitigate any significant negative impacts, consultation on the report with the public and government environmental bodies, taking the environmental report and consultation findings, and monitoring of the actual impacts of the plan/programme/projects helping with visualization [7]. ...
Article
Full-text available
Even though environmental impact assessments (EIAs) have been an important tool for environmental decision-making, most EIAs are published as a mix of text and tabular data that is not easily accessible to or understandable for the public. In this paper, we present a decision support system (DSS) that supports the decision-making of stakeholders in the EIA stage. The system was designed to improve the public’s understanding of stakeholders before and after a construction project by providing visualization of key environmental elements. We recruited 107 participants to test the usability of the system and examined the impacts of individual differences between the participants on their perceptions of the system, including their environmental expertise and computer self-efficacy. The results showed that the proposed system had high usability, especially for users with high computational efficacy and environment expertise. The system could thus help to improve the communication between the public and experts during public hearings and enhance the environmental literacy of the public.
... Since investment and stake is high, it becomes even more imperative to make sure it is being channelized correctly. SEA has the potential to identify significant negative impacts of a plan at a stage where they can still be avoided relatively easily, rather than at a later stage of plan-making or at the EIA stage, where the costs of revising the plan are much greater (Therivel and Gonzalez 2020). This is especially evident when past research findings are considered, which reveals that the main causes of unsustainability are tourism over-development, uneven distribution of tourism costs and benefits in communities, undervaluation and exploitation of cultural heritage by tourism, dominance of economic interests and short-term profits over sustainability along with lack of integrated management on all levels (Richards and Wilson 2006;Loulanski and Loulanski 2011). ...
... Based on the interviews, the re-location was initiated to make way for the doubling of the Bangalore-Mysore railway line that cuts through the island. In this regard, an effective SEA could help reduce conflict and opposition to the plan and subsequent projects, and help to speed up both the plan approval and implementation processes (Therivel and Gonzalez 2020). Furthermore, taking decisions at a strategic level also implies that it may reduce the need of subsequent EA at the lower levels, thereby reducing overall cost (Ashe andMarsden 2012 in Sadler et al. 2012). ...
Article
Sustainability is critical to the delivery of cultural heritage tourism (CHT) since its foundation to attract tourist relies on the preservation of the historic and cultural offerings of the host community. CHT destinations within urban and semi-urban heritage sites in emerging economies find this particularly challenging. To explore this issue and its associated challenges, this paper brings together an interdisciplinary team representing disciplines of heritage management, architectural and cultural history, economics, environmental planning and sustainability to establish the extent to which sustainability principles are integrated within CHT destinations in the semi-urban destinations of emerging economies. An interdisciplinary analysis of the case study of Srirangapatna-Mysore region in India, using a framework for evaluating sustainability principles within CHT reveals environmental considerations to be the weakest link. Accordingly, Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) is proposed as a tool that can compensate some of the caveats identified in the case study by potentially enhancing stakeholder involvement, raising heritage and environmental awareness, facilitating regional approach and avoiding costly mistakes.
... For governments or competent authorities in the process of carrying out SEA, preparing reports, consulting over and reviewing reports, public participation, follow-up monitoring, and measures to mitigate environmental impacts, require significant financial outlay (Therivel and Gonzaĺez, 2020). Imposing global obligations for SEA would overly burden developing countries financially. ...
Article
Full-text available
As a system based on domestic law, strategic environmental assessment (SEA) can take environmental factors into consideration in the formulation of policies, plans, and programmes, and has received much attention in the field of environmental governance of areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ). The recently adopted “Agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction” (BBNJ Agreement) incorporates SEA into its text, but the BBNJ Agreement has not yet entered into force. Of other existing schemes governing ABNJ, some lack provisions on SEA, and some do not set SEA as a binding legal obligation. Conducting SEA in ABNJ faces several challenges, including fragmented rules and reluctance on the part of countries, which lead to unsatisfactory results. Therefore, this study suggests that the BBNJ Agreement should collaborate with regional treaties and international organizations in the future to complement and reinforce current systems and regulations, improving compatibility among them. At the same time, consideration should be given to identifying the protection of BBNJ as a common concern of humankind (CCH) to strengthen the implementation of future SEAs.
... It was developed in the late 1960s and first applied in the United States of America with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969. It has evolved and is now used in a variety of sectors to assess and predict potential impacts, achieve sustainability, and make adequate adaptation decisions [9][10][11][12][13][14]. ...
Article
Full-text available
It is globally recognized that climate change is increasingly affecting sustainable development. Given these challenges, it is imperative to incorporate climate change considerations as part of Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), a tool used for sustainable development and planning strategies. The Thai government is in the process of developing river basin management schemes and updating SEA for all the river basins in the country. Considering climate change in future development planning processes would ensure that the outcomes enable more sustainable development. In this article, SEA reports for Thai river basins that have been completed were examined to determine if climate change was considered and how it was done. Analyses were conducted for each of the four phases of SEA, i.e., establishing the context for SEA, implementing SEA, informing, and influencing decisions, monitoring and evaluating plans. The checklist criteria were used to analyze climate change impacts in the river basin SEA reports, focusing specifically on climate change or global warming impacts that lead to serious disasters in the river basins. The results showed that 7 out of the 9 reports currently consider climate change impacts, but not in all phases of the SEA. The linkage of climate change impact analyses between the different phases was weak. There were only 4 reports that sufficiently considered climate change impacts in the second phase of the SEA. These reports used both qualitative and quantitative tools that were appropriate for predicting climate change impacts and with a link to the third and fourth phases. As a result, most of the SEA reports were insufficient in considering climate change impacts. Download : Graphical abstract
... However, EIA scholars apprehend that such changes and so-called "refinements", "reforms", or "simplification" affect accomplishing goals and benefits of the EIA [6][7][8] . Strategic environmental assessment is generally recommended to address developmental concerns at the levels of policy, plan, and program to determine the available resources and options and to assess environmental and social impacts [9][10][11][12][13][14] . Environmental policies, including EIA-related regulations in developing countries, are primarily driven by international environmental organizations, globalization, international development banks, and the international scientific community [15,16] , irrespective of the level of backing from the domestic players and the scale of environmental degradation taking place. ...
Article
Full-text available
The tenets of environmental policy evolved in India and how precautionary principles of sustainability are sidelined in the draft EIA regulation 2020 are analyzed. The emphasis on exempting several categories of projects from the EIA requirements and public consultation, standardization of sector-specific terms of reference and environmental clearance conditions, and decentralization of the decision-making to simplify and fast-track the environmental clearance procedure for development projects is apparent. The list of projects/activities requiring prior environmental clearance and the procedures reveal that promoting the ease of doing business scores over precautionary principles. Efforts to increase the effectiveness and improve transparency in monitoring the implementation of environmental clearance conditions are visible. Still, the prime issues of improving the efficiency and efficacy of the EIA framework and institutional reforms in the EIA system need to be earnestly addressed. The evaluation using an ex-ante framework unveils the areas needing meticulous attention to revamp the EIA regulation.
... It is based on the principles of environmental thresholds and limits, identifying the best strategic options and trade-offs between benefits and losses to urban development and the ecology (Subekti and Suroso, 2018). SEA is used as a tool for considering the environmental considerations in the early stages of project development for making informed decisions (Therivel and González, 2020). It is a holistic framework integrating socio, economic and environmental factors into the reviewing process. ...
Article
Full-text available
Urban Ecological Carrying Capacity (UECC) is widely studied as a comprehensive measure of urban ecology. Several tools, like an ecological footprint, comprehensive index system, system dynamic models, etc., are used to study UECC. In recent times, ecosystem services (ES) have been applied in analyzing carrying capacity to promote sustainable development. ES-based analysis helps study supply-demand mismatches, identify dependencies on natural systems, and understand trade-offs between strategic plans. The ES approach effectively scopes prioritized services, collects baseline data, makes choices between alternatives, and studies cumulative impacts. However, the lack of application-oriented frameworks hinders the mainstreaming of ES in urban planning. Therefore, the study proposes a framework for using ES-based UECC assessment in urban decision-making. It employs a two-stage methodology: first, a bibliometric analysis of UECC to identify knowledge gaps and trends, and second, the development of a framework for the application of ES based UECC in urban decision-making process based on the gaps identified from bibliometric analysis. The bibliometric results reveal that further research is needed to strengthen the link between ES and UECC. ES provides a comprehensive framework that includes cultural and social subsystems, enhancing the practicality and comprehensiveness of carrying capacity assessments. Based on the literature review Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) is identified as the tool that facilitates the entry of ES in the urban decision-making process. The main aim of the framework is to combine the ES cascade model, SEA, and carrying capacity to establish a comprehensive and practical approach to decision-making that promotes sustainable urban development. The proposed framework considers various aspects, including its environment, societal requirements, and resource constraints. The ES-based UECC concept can be extended to define limits to urban growth for ensuring the sustainable development of urban settlements.
... The literature indicates that one of the key aspects of SEA practice is the procedural effectiveness of SEA practice (Josimovic et al., 2021;Therivel and Gonzalez, 2020;Loomis and Dziedzic, 2018;Bina et al., 2011), whereby the procedural practice of SEA shows whether SEA is paying due attention to procedures, such as early integration, screening and scoping, baseline information, the assessment of impacts, the analysis of alternatives, monitoring and evaluation and community participation (Josimovic et al., 2021;Rehhausen et al., 2018;Rega et al., 2018). There are key elements for each of the procedural stages of SEA that need to be implemented properly, given the local context and the types of plans that exist. ...
Article
The importance of the application of Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) for policies and plans is rapidly growing and will one day make the policies and plans environmentally and socially sustainable. While there have been legal requirements for SEA process and practice available in Australia and New Zealand for more than two decades, there is a dearth of information on how SEA is working in two separate jurisdictions. This comparative study on SEA practice is an attempt to fill this gap. The SEAs of two major urban plans of two major cities of two countries were reviewed and analysed to understand the practice of the SEA process. The SEA process of two urban plans of two countries was assessed against a set of good practice criteria. In addition, interviews were conducted with key informants, who were involved in the planning process, which provided valuable information. The study identified the key characteristics of two separate models of SEA practice alongside their advantages and disadvantages. The findings indicate that there are similarities and dissimilarities in SEA practices in both jurisdictions. The key similarities include the legal requirements for SEA, including community participation, in both jurisdictions. The key dissimilarities of SEA applications include the application of two separate models where the extent of flexibility, rigidity, integrative and separate issues related to the application of SEA varies. Also, there are common shortcomings identified in practice including relatively less attention is paid to socioeconomic issues and cumulative impacts. It is expected that the comparative study will help both Australia and New Zealand to learn lessons from each other, and thereby improve the practice of SEA in their own jurisdictions. The study also provides valuable insights by revealing some key characteristics of the SEA system of both countries. The findings of this study can be useful for the improvement of SEA practice for urban policy and plan by addressing the shortcomings identified in this study in both countries, and in other jurisdictions with a similar context.
... The methods frequently moved from impact assessment-based to strategy-based, with each approach to SEA defined by the explicit goals of SEA application and the extent to which strategic concepts are represented in its design and execution (Noble and Nwanekezie, 2017). Therivel and González (2020), described that it was possible to calculate the cost-benefit analysis of SEA and that SEA's benefits exceed the cost. They suggested that moving from EIA-based SEA to strategic SEA, increasing SEA experiences by planners, and minor changes to plans and SEA policy can further reduce costs. ...
Article
How do Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) evolve in Bangladesh regarding legislation? Who should be in the governance of SEA in Bangladesh? What future challenges lie ahead of this transition to the SEA system in Bangladesh, and how to address them? The application context of SEA is in its early stage of development in Bangladesh as an environmental assessment tool for policy, plans, and programs (PPPs). Nevertheless, SEA has meaningfully started to roll in many PPPs by the political will of some key government institutions in Bangladesh. In such a scenario, we aimed to review the progression of EIA to SEA evolution in line with the current legislative practice and environmental governance by archival research strategy. We have further addressed several significant issues: the future of SEA application in Bangladesh, SEA governance within the authorities and the future obstacles of the SEA system and how to overcome them in Bangladesh. This study shows a potential for applying the SEA for developing PPPs to ensure sustainable development in Bangladesh. However, there are still challenges ahead to make the SEA fully functional. The challenges include the environmental governance concerning SEA, encoding SEA guidelines, and legislations associated with SEA implementation. Moreover, capacity building, technical review of SEA quality, and approval process of SEA reporting and coordination among the government institutions are required. To address the challenges, governance for the institutional authority for SEA and ownership development is necessary. Furhtermore, amendment of existing environmental acts and guidelines to incorporate SEA, institutional capacity building by professional training and awareness development, mainstreaming SEA education and practices are required to overcome the challenges.
... It is also important, given the argument that we make above, that plans should be linked to the delivery of environmental goals and targets, many of which have pressing time frames. Effective monitoring would also serve the credibility and legitimacy of SEA, by alerting governments at all level to the environmental benefits created and costs avoided by embedding environmental goals in plan formulation, and avoiding damaging choices (Therivel and González, 2020). ...
... It is also important, given the argument that we make above, that plans should be linked to the delivery of environmental goals and targets, many of which have pressing time frames. Effective monitoring would also serve the credibility and legitimacy of SEA, by alerting governments at all level to the environmental benefits created and costs avoided by embedding environmental goals in plan formulation, and avoiding damaging choices (Therivel and González, 2020). ...
Technical Report
Full-text available
In this think piece we offer our reflections on what steps might be taken to help embed environmental issues into the planning process, so that they are given due weight, careful attention and suitably influence plan formulation. We focus specifically on the role of Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) in relation to the making of local development plans. Our think piece is focused on Scotland and our argument is cognisant of the reforms to the Scottish planning system triggered by the Planning (Scotland) Act 2019 (hereafter ‘the 2019 Act’). Consistent with the remit of a think piece, we have considered it appropriate to be thought-provoking, speculative and to draw on our own personal experience. To bolster and test our arguments we have made extensive use of the wider research literature on SEA, material emerging from the 2019 Act planning reforms, and interview discussions with experts in planning, environment and SEA, from Scotland and beyond. It is our overall view that efforts to embed (or ‘integrate’) the environment into the planning system, including local development plans, must be multi-faceted and cannot rely on incremental tweaks to SEA processes alone. Instead, proponents of environmental integration need to grasp the dynamics of leverage and power in plan-making; to look to why developmental and economic goals retain their pre-eminence, and to extrapolate relevant lessons for SEA and plan-making. Consistent with this, we organise our ideas into four sets: • Pursuing a ‘strong’ conception of integration, to shift the environmental governance context for planning • Front-loading assessment to the pre- or early plan, embracing the ‘call for sites’ process • Supporting the process of environmental embedding by better liaison and better data • Strengthened monitoring for more effective learning.
... It is also important, given the argument that we make above, that plans should be linked to the delivery of environmental goals and targets, many of which have pressing time frames. Effective monitoring would also serve the credibility and legitimacy of SEA, by alerting governments at all level to the environmental benefits created and costs avoided by embedding environmental goals in plan formulation, and avoiding damaging choices (Therivel and González, 2020). ...
Method
Full-text available
Tjis research report considers ways to embed the environment more effectively under the new Planning (Scotland) Act 2019 when preparing future local developmenmt plans by Scottish planning authorities.
Article
The paper provides implementation results of complex ecological control for safety level at technological objects based on European approach which is in fact environmental influence estimation (EIE). Environmental influence estimation system (EIES) has normative approach and is restrictive, so it doesn’t prevent technological pollution of environment. EIES standards are created according to zero human health risk concept, but real insignificant exceedings of critical concentrations are potentially dangerous for ecosystems. «Zero risk» concept doesn’t ensure ecological economy growth, as it is based upon risk analysis principle of «costs-benefits». It narrows application of sustainable development statements and Ecostrategy-2019, which require ecological natural resources usage, anthropogenic environment influence decrease, ecological activity effectiveness parameters increase. The paper proposes EIE system approach implementation due to complex achieving of economical objects sustainable ecological development. Systemology was examined as base for heterogeneous objects information models creation during interdisciplinary problem solving of complex «object-environment» systems research. Ecological technological safety at business objects control system creation reasonability is noticed in complex aspect according to strategically ecological estimation. It allows to determine current environment state and planned activity potential influence upon population inside determined area. Research object is technological safety at business objects ecological control system with dangerous environment influence prevention strategy. Research subject is technological safety at business objects ecological control system development for petrol station as example.
Article
Full-text available
As human-environmental systems, urban areas rely on natural ecosystems for sustainability and well-being, hence, it is necessary to include ecosystem services (ES) in planning to promote sustainable urban development. Arak as an industrial city with multiple environmental crises are still managed based on the comprehensive planning system in the form of master and detailed plans, which requires an ecological approach in urban development. Despite the growing interest in ES in research, there are significant knowledge gaps regarding its integration into urban planning. This paper seeks to fill this gap by examining the current and potential use of ESs in urban development plans. In order to respond to this goal, content analysis method was used with a directional approach (deductive method based on theory) and the extent of addressing 19 ESs was investigated in three components of the plan (information base, vision/objectives and actions) in Arak development and construction plan. The results indicated the uptake of ESs concept in parts of the mentioned development document; however, this document lacks a holistic view of urban ecology and its benefits. In the three examined components, these services were mentioned 607 times implicitly (312 times - 51.4%) and explicitly (295 times - 48.6%), which received the most attention in the information base component (358 times - 59%). In this analysis, the difference in the score of cultural services (400) with provisioning (274), regulating (198) and supporting (30) services can indicate that cultural services are more inclusive compared to other services in Arak metropolis plan. The lack of consistency in dealing with each of the services or concepts mentioned in the three components shows that there is not a significant relationship between the studies in the collection data and information, analysis, formulation of goal and vision, and plan preparation, rules and regulations.
Article
The prerequisite for the development of a strategic environmental assessment (SEA) is the problem of accumulation related to the environment. From this point of view, the measures and methods of countering threats of a planetary scale are analyzed: global warming and climate change; water pollution and ocean acidification; loss of biodiversity. SEA is considered as a tool for balanced development of the territory, as a tool for verifying management and planning decisions, with the help of which it is possible to reveal risks and alternatives in the process of their implementation, to convey conflict situations regarding the use of the territory. The development of the SEA is interpreted as one of the key tools for the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine. The conditions for developing and ensuring the transparency of the SEO of urban planning documentation in spatial planning, it’s content, legislative support for this process and the degree of its European integration are highlighted. The purpose of the study is to show how the procedure of strategic environmental assessment allows optimizing management and planning decisions regarding the development of territories of territorial communities in the process of spatial planning. The legal aspects of SEA regarding general plans of settlements, complex plans for the development of the territory, zoning plans and detailed plans, stages of integration of SEA in urban planning documentation are analyzed. It is proposed to highlight individual stages of the SEO development process. For this, a graphic research method is used. The expediency of implementing into domestic practice the positive foreign experience of implementing SEO, in particular, regarding: construction projects, for example the formulation of projects and evaluation of green construction, sanitary and other facilities, determination of the ecological life cycle of construction products; determining the effectiveness of SEO by whether its benefits are worth it, presenting it through the prism of knowledge and learning, as well as contextual, pluralistic, substantive, normative, and trans active dimensions; delivery of online registers of all SEO documents; promoting an open and proactive attitude to SEO among planners through the SEO Forum. The proposal to include indicators of the ecological capacity of the territory in the SEO (in the existing state and according to the project): coefficients of ecological stability, ecological danger and anthropogenic load are argued. For this, the tabular and normative method of calculation is used. The scientific and practical significance of the article lies in the introduction of the basic indicators of the ecological capacity of the territory (before and after the project of the Comprehensive Development Plan of the territory of the territorial community) into the SEO, which allows to compare the existing and project state of the territory and the environment in terms of the coefficients of ecological stability, ecological danger and anthropogenic load. The ability of the SEO to comprehensively analyze the possible impact of the planned activity on the environment is demonstrated. Keywords: SEO, spatial planning, urban planning documentation, report, territorial community, public discussion, ecological capacity of the territory.
Article
Full-text available
This study analyzes the five primary ecosystem services and their trade-offs and synergies associated with future scenarios of oil palm plantations in West Kalimantan, Indonesia. Three plausible future scenarios were assessed: 1) business as usual, 2) conservation and, 3) sustainable intensification, based on current land-use policy and spatial planning and projected oil palm expansion. The spatial analysis tool in ArcGIS and the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Trade-offs Tool (InVEST Tool) were used to analyze historical and future land-use change, valuation and trade-offs of ecosystem services. The sustainable intensification scenario generates a positive impact on carbon storages and water yield, although habitat quality nominally declines. In terms of total economic value of ecosystem services, the conservation scenario generates the highest value of ecosystem services, while the sustainable intensification scenario offers a compromise solution for future expansion of oil palm by ensuring the supply of ecosystem services comparable to conservation scenario but without significantly affecting palm oil yield in comparison to the business-as-usual scenario. A detailed study with better information on the economic values of ecosystem services can provide a better understanding of the social and environmental impacts of oil palm expansion.
Article
Full-text available
Land use change has an impact on the ecosystem service value because it changes the structure and function of ecosystems. This paper analyzed the changes in land use during the period from 2000 to 2015 in Shangzhou district, and used the equivalent value of ecological services per unit area of land ecosystem combining the natural and economic conditions of Shangzhou district. Based on this method, the ecological service value of Shangzhou district was estimated, and the impact of land use change on the ecological service value was analyzed. The results showed that: (1) the main types of land use in Shangzhou district were grassland, woodland and farmland, among which the contribution rate of woodland to the value of local ecosystem services was the highest; (2) the overall trend in the ecosystem service value in Shangzhou district increased between 2000 and 2015, from 10.74 × 108 yuan in 2000 to 20.32 × 108 yuan in 2015, which is the result of the combined effects of regional economic development and changes in the natural environment and land use patterns; and (3) the main reason for the value increase of ecosystem services in Shangzhou district between 2000 and 2015 was that the grain-for-green policy transformed a considerable amount of farmland into woodland, while the main reasons for a decline in value was the expansion of built-up land that occupied other types of land.
Article
Full-text available
Since the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, ecosystem service science has made much progress in framing core concepts and approaches, but there is still debate around the notion of cultural services, and a growing consensus that ecosystem use and ecosystem service use should be clearly differentiated. Part of the debate resides in the fact that the most significant sources of conflict around natural resource management arise from the multiple managements (uses) of ecosystems, rather than from the multiple uses of ecosystem services.
Article
Full-text available
In this paper I advocate SEA as an instrument of change towards more sustainable patterns of behaviour and development, by following strategic thinking and constructive approaches. I recommend that the future research agenda of SEA should contribute to make SEA a matured, full-fleshed instrument with a clear identity, and coherent functions and forms. This may be achieved by exploring how to engage all actors in a fundamental new attitude in understanding and addressing the complexity of strategic processes, enabling dialogues towards mutual understanding, offering flexibility, ensuring a long-term and large scale perspectives when exploring development options.
Article
Full-text available
This paper examines the impact of strategic environmental assessment (SEA) – its direct impact on policies, plans and programs (PPPs) and its indirect and longer-term impacts. Criteria for assessing SEA's impact are developed and applied in the Canadian context based on a survey of SEA practitioners, and the perceived opportunities and challenges to realizing the full impact of SEA explored. Results indicate that SEA does have a direct impact on PPPs, but its indirect impacts are either constrained or difficult to distinguish from an agency's normal policies, practices and innovations. Amongst the most significant challenges to realizing the indirect impacts of SEA is the lack of shared vision for SEA by those responsible for implementation, and incongruences between the need for rapid results by way of PPP approval versus the long-term commitment required to realize many of the benefits of SEA. Indirect impacts require more explicit consideration at the outset of the SEA design process than what is currently the case if the benefits of SEA are to be fully recognized.
Article
Full-text available
The impact of environmental regulation on macroeconomic performance has been studied in some depth over the last 15 years. Similarly, impact on profit performance, investment intention and location decisions of firms has also been studied, although in less depth. There has been less academic interest, however, in the impact that environmental regulation has on the strategic objectives of companies.This article reports on a research project that focused on the impact that environmental approvals regulation (predominantly environmental impact assessment, EIA) has on proposed new development in the international mining sector.Based on a large and externally valid survey of senior mining company executives in Australia and Canada in the late 1990s, the research indicated that a significant majority of firms consider the environmental approvals process to be an important determinant of investment strategy. An initial reaction to these figures might suggest that the majority of respondents believe the environmental approvals process to be a negative influence.However, further questioning indicated that only a small proportion of companies in both countries thought of the environmental approvals process as an impediment to development. Instead, it is clear that most firms see EIA as a catalyst for integrating environmental design into the early planning of a project, thereby alleviating the need to spend money on overcoming environmental problems once a poorly designed project has been commissioned.The somewhat surprising conclusion that companies see environmental approvals regulation as important, but as an encouragement to development rather than as an impediment, goes against much previous industry and academic comment and, at least in relation to the mining sector, refutes the idea that EIA is “burdensome”.
Article
Full-text available
It is widely accepted that public participation must be a part of strategic environmental assessment (SEA) procedures, and yet few studies have been conducted on the implementation of SEA public participation procedures. Accordingly, the theoretical and practical aspects of public participation in SEA remain research priorities for environmental policy-making. This paper presents a review of the Quebec (Canada) model of public participation in SEA through an evaluation of six public hearings on proposed directions and policies concerning, respectively, hazardous waste, forest protection, residual materials, energy, water management and pig farming. First, the authors examine the theoretical dimensions of SEA and public participation in the process. Second, they give a summary of the lessons that can be learned from the few Canadian and international experiences. Third, they outline the Quebec experience. Finally, they conclude by evaluating the opportunities and limitations of the Quebec experience and make some recommendations to improve its application.
Article
Full-text available
In the current work, a novel, experimental ‘bottom-up’ approach is used to quantify the economic value of ecosystem services (ES) associated with highly modified arable landscapes in Canterbury, New Zealand. First, the role of land management practices in the maintenance and enhancement of ES in agricultural land was investigated by quantifying the economic value of ES at the field level under organic and conventional arable systems. This quantification was based on an experimental approach in contrast with earlier value transfer methods. Total economic value of ES in organic fields ranged from US 1610toUS1610 to US 19,420 ha− 1 yr− 1 and that of conventional fields from US 1270toUS1270 to US 14,570 ha− 1 yr− 1. The non-market value of ES in organic fields ranged from US 460toUS460 to US 5240 ha− 1 yr− 1. The range of non-market values of ES in conventional fields was US 501240ha1yr1.ThereweresignificantdifferencesbetweenorganicandconventionalfieldsfortheeconomicvaluesofsomeES.Next,thiseconomicinformationwasusedtoextrapolateandtocalculatethetotalandnonmarketvalueofESinCanterburyarableland.ThetotalannualeconomicandnonmarketvaluesofESfortheconventionalarableareainCanterbury(125,000ha)wereUS50 — 1240 ha− 1 yr− 1. There were significant differences between organic and conventional fields for the economic values of some ES. Next, this economic information was used to extrapolate and to calculate the total and non-market value of ES in Canterbury arable land. The total annual economic and non-market values of ES for the conventional arable area in Canterbury (125,000 ha) were US 332 million and US 71million,respectively.Ifhalfthearableareaunderconventionalfarmingshiftedtoorganicpractices,thetotaleconomicvalueofESwouldbeUS71 million, respectively. If half the arable area under conventional farming shifted to organic practices, the total economic value of ES would be US 192 million and US 166millionannuallyfororganicandconventionalarablearea,respectively.Inthiscase,thenonmarketvalueofESfortheorganicareawasUS166 million annually for organic and conventional arable area, respectively. In this case, the non-market value of ES for the organic area was US 65 million and that of conventional area was US $35 million annually. This study demonstrated that arable farming provides a range of ES which can be measured using field experiments based on ecological principles by incorporating a ‘bottom-up’ approach. The work also showed that conventional New Zealand arable farming practices can severely reduce the financial contribution of some of these services in agriculture whereas organic agricultural practices enhance their economic value.
Article
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set a universal agenda intended to stimulate social, economic and environmental action. Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) has the potential to assist in the implementation of actions supporting the SDGs by providing a systematic framework to incorporate them into policies, plans and programmes; and the SDGs in turn, could substantiate SEA's contribution to sustainable development. Therefore, the partnering of both policy instruments fosters a mutualistic relationship, benefiting both. In this paper, we review current engagement of SEA with the SDGs both in the academic literature and in practice. The findings reveal a recognisable subtle shift towards the adoption of a new paradigm in plan-making, particularly supported by governments' growingly proactive embracement of SDGs, albeit through different approaches, initiatives and commitments. This sets a robust foundation for spatial planning and, by extension, a reference framework for SEA. Nevertheless, operationalising the SDGs is difficult. The extent to which SDG objectives and targets are embedded in SEA and, indeed, integrated into plans/programmes seems to be hampered by the broad scope of both sustainability and SEA, and a general lack of awareness and know-how. This suggest a need to clarify SEA's mandate for engaging with the SDGs, as well as to provide training for a more proactive integration of the objectives and targets. Through initiatives such as these, there are opportunities to optimise mutual gains for both policy instruments.
Article
This article reflects on the potential for impact assessment (IA) to be a major vehicle for implementing the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). While it is acknowledged that the SDGs are intended to deliver broader outcomes than IA currently does, we nevertheless argue there is significant convergence between IA and the SDGs, which we explore utilising the key dimensions of sustainability assessment: comprehensiveness, strategicness and integratedness. We conclude that ‘geared up’ IA might be used as a major vehicle to facilitate achievement of the SDGs. However, IA must become more comprehensive and integrated, such that the full suite of SDGs and their relationships, including trade-offs, can be dealt with in a transparent and inclusive way.
Article
There is increasing interest in the use of economic valuation of ecosystem goods and services for a wide variety of purposes. These include relatively familiar uses in project appraisal and more novel applications in advocacy, performance tracking and accounting in public and private settings. Decision makers who use valuation information need to understand the background, strengths and weaknesses of these approaches. The methods have a strong foundation in economic theory and offer a rapidly growing evidence base, improving ability to evaluate a broad range of ecosystem goods and services. Nevertheless, there are theoretical and practical limitations that need to be understood and kept in mind when interpreting results. In this paper, we briefly review the economic valuation methods and situate them in their historical and theoretical contexts. We assess the main critiques, attempts at resolving them, and implications for the usefulness of the methods in different contexts. We examine the main barriers and opportunities for wider uses of valuation evidence, and draw conclusions on the appropriate role of valuation in future, as a tool for aiding reflection and deliberation processes.
Article
Strategic environmental assessment (SEA) was introduced in Thailand in 2005, aiming to direct decision-making at the strategic level (policy, programme, plan) towards sustainable development. Given reforms to the SEA requirements in 2018, it is timely to evaluate emerging SEA experience in the Thai context to inform future practice. The effectiveness of 14 SEAs was investigated based on a version of a recently published framework which substitutes ‘legitimacy’ for normative effectiveness and pluralism, modified through the addition of disaggregated sub-criteria associated with each dimension of effectiveness (procedural, substantive, transactive, and legitimacy), to facilitate a richer understanding of the effectiveness of practice. This more detailed effectiveness framework enabled a comprehensive evaluation of practice, and should be transferable to other contexts. The findings suggest that SEA in Thailand currently partially achieves procedural, substantive, and transactive effectiveness. Achieving some elements of substantive effectiveness where practice is currently weak is considered to be particularly challenging, and also determinative in the achievement of legitimacy. Consequently, the majority of SEAs evaluated in this study failed to achieve legitimacy.
Article
The paper presents the results of an evaluation of the effectiveness of SEA obtained as a result of a survey with the participation of stakeholders. In Poland, several hundred SEAs are conducted annually at the local and regional levels and several at the national level. Although the survey demonstrated that SEA is evaluated as effective or quite effective, the respondents pointed to several irregularities in the non-procedural dimension of effectiveness. The main ones in terms of substantive effectiveness are that SEA is rarely used to help develop plans/programmes and procedures are highly politicised. Moreover, low effectiveness in terms of variant assessment and cumulative impacts and nearly non-existent monitoring of the actual effects of implementing plans/programmes influence substantive effectiveness significantly. The respondents pointed to the problem resulting from the fact that plan-makers are unwilling to take into account the SEA recommended changes. They also emphasised that there are certain attempts to put pressure on SEA consultants to make the conclusions less stringent. Respondents indicate that in Poland the costs associated with conducting SEA often outweigh the profits. The research shows that the society is properly informed about SEA, but public involvement is still low.
Article
Within the ample body of literature devoted to strategic environmental assessment (SEA) outcomes and the assessment of its effectiveness, it is accepted that the performance of SEA systems is influenced by contextual aspects. Procedural aspects, objectives, guidance, approach, timing, amongst others, are reported as key components of the different dimensions of SEA effectiveness but their linkage to SEA outcomes is yet to be adequately investigated. In this paper, contextual aspects and related outcomes of a non-mandatory SEA system were identified through systematic literature review and personal interviews with key actors of SEA, aiming at the identification of the influence of contextual factors on SEA effectiveness. The findings indicate three main aspects that may explain the lengthy process of introduction of SEA in plan- and policy-making in the country: (i) lack of proper SEA legislation, (ii) the influence of Environmental Impact Assessment practice and (iii) the influence of the environmental licensing culture. Nevertheless, SEA contributes to improving communication between stakeholders along the planning process and to providing a better level of information for lower tiers of decision-making. In spite of the minor influences on the nature of the strategic action, valuable lessons credited to SEA have been learnt.
Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) is fairly well-established in Spain, informing decision makers on the likely environmental consequences of their plans and policies. However, limited attention has been paid to the study of SEA effectiveness in Spain, particularly with regards to practitioner and stakeholder views. This paper aims to bridge this knowledge gap by gathering and examining views on SEA's participatory aspects, the performance of the procedural elements and the overall role of SEA in decision-making. The paper describes the legal implementation of SEA in Spain, and discusses current views on its effectiveness, grounded on the authors' own experiences. See free copy: https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/4suIuaIghGCb8rJNuyr5/full?target=10.1080/14615517.2019.1602382
Article
This article focuses on the analysis of strategic environmental assessment (SEA) effectiveness in Slovenia. Apart from some general information on the SEA legal framework and guidance, the article mainly explores the political context, substantive, transactive, normative, knowledge/learning and pluralist effectiveness of SEA in Slovenia. An online questionnaire was prepared to collect information and views related to the stated aspects of SEA effectiveness from key stakeholders involved in the process. The survey results indicate that SEA in Slovenia is only partially effective. The most commonly recognised problems related to the substantive effectiveness of SEA are linked to weak control over the implementation of the mitigation measures and their effectiveness. With regard to transactive effectiveness, the SEA extends the planning process and is mostly assessed to have a low cost–benefit ratio. Personnel and organisations involved in SEA processes have very diverse skills and efficiency. In relation to normative effectiveness, neglect of social and economic components occurs. SEA does not seem to be very successful in changing the way of thinking, which has a negative impact on knowledge effectiveness. Pluralist effectiveness could be also improved, especially with regard to better integration of views from the public into the planning process.
Article
The widespread application of SEA over the last 15 years in the Czech Republic has allowed for a gradual accommodation of SEA procedural steps into the standard bureaucratic routine of public authorities. In this paper, we discuss results of a small-scale survey among Czech SEA practitioners focusing on issues related to the effectiveness and efficiency of the SEA. The results suggest a moderate progress driven primarily by the accumulation of practical experience among both SEA consultants and the planners, and there is certainly no shortage of examples where SEA positively affected a plan. On the other hand, continuation of many negative general environmental trends (e.g. excessive conversion of virgin land for development, continuation of environmentally harmful agriculture and forestry policies, etc.) seem to conform the notion that the SEA, as currently practiced, in the Czech Republic fails to deliver to its full potential.
Article
The first review of strategic environmental assessment (SEA) effectiveness in Ireland examined how a number of selected case studies performed procedurally. The findings pointed not only to deficiencies in the consideration of alternatives, monitoring and SEA Statements, but also in its capability to lead to more informed and sustainable decisions. Six years on from that review, this paper revisits some of the case studies and appraises non-procedural effectiveness via stakeholder interviews to obtain a more comprehensive account of SEA effectiveness across the life of the reviewed plans. The case studies illustrate a general openness to SEA. Overall, consulted experts agreed that SEA contributes significant knowledge to planning decisions. SEA iterations tend to be more efficient as a result of learning; in some cases, the process led to internal organisational restructuring, facilitating better environmental integration in subsequent plans. There is limited implementation of monitoring across the case studies, so while the review points to positive outcomes of SEA (e.g. new data and knowledge, mitigation by avoidance), it remains to be evidenced whether it ultimately prevents adverse environmental effects.
Article
Fourteen years since the implementation of the European SEA Directive, the effectiveness of the English system of Local Plan sustainability appraisals/strategic environmental assessments (SA/SEAs) is analysed, based on 15 case studies, five interviews, and questionnaires of 11 planners. Substantively, SA/SEA leads to fine-tuning of plan policy wording and a more robust choice of development sites, but to only limited wider influence on the plan. Normatively, there seems to be a direct conflict between the requirement that Local Plans must provide enough housing for ‘objectively assessed need’, and environmental protection. From a pluralist perspective SA/SEA reports are very long, and although the statutory consultees often comment on them, the public do so only infrequently. It is in the transactive dimension that the largest changes have taken place: both consultants and planners have had to do more with less. This does not yet seem to have negatively affected the other effectiveness dimensions, but may not be sustainable over time.
Article
This article firstly gives an overview of Austria’s SEA practice. Secondly it explores the effectiveness of a specific SEA approach, the SEA Round Table. The SEA Round Table is a participative SEA model, involving members of public administration, environmental NGOs and external experts throughout the entire SEA process. This SEA team seeks consensus on an environmentally sound plan or programme. The effects of this SEA Round Table approach are presented by a series of four SEAs carried out for the last four Viennese waste management plans from 1999 to 2018. These four case studies are quite specific SEA cases, which do not allow conclusions on overall SEA effectiveness in Austria. However, some of the outcomes give an idea of how SEA can actually contribute to more environmentally sound plans, which are also easier to implement.
Article
This article explores the diversity of strategic environmental assessment (SEA) practice in Canada and lessons for improving the effectiveness of SEA. There are multiple dimensions to effectiveness, but core to SEA effectiveness is its strategic nature. SEA under the Canadian federal Cabinet directive is approached largely as an impact assessment tool, and effectiveness evaluated based on compliance. Practice is entrenched in project-based assessment principles, but with no mandatory provision for public engagement, which limits the potential effectiveness of SEA. External to the Cabinet directive, across Canada’s provinces and territories, SEA and SEA-like practices are occurring in diverse forms and represent the more advanced and exemplary cases. A common challenge to SEA effectiveness, however, is that applications are often limited by their ad hoc nature and disconnected from any larger and formal system of participatory and integrated policy, planning and development decision making.
Article
Discussions on effectiveness have been around in impact assessment for many years, blending multiple perspectives. This paper is about the effectiveness of strategic environmental assessment (SEA) in Portugal. The adopted framework was set by the editors of this special issue and this paper is contributing results obtained through a questionnaire shared with SEA professionals in Portugal, and also from discussions held in a workshop promoted by the Portuguese national authority on SEA. We have tried to understand the influence of SEA in development processes and the perception on SEA added-value to both environmental authorities and other relevant stakeholders in Portugal. Results are mixed and somehow reveal some confusion between expectations with what SEA aims to achieve, and with what it is actually delivering, which question its effectiveness, as expressed by some opinions that SEA ‘magic may be fading away’. However, other outcomes, such as the recognized need for better communication and increased capacity-building, support the conclusion that most SEA practice and experience in Portugal are yet far from SEA full capacity and potential.
Article
The impacts of land utilization change on the ecosystem service values in Daqing during 1995 to 2015 were analyzed based on unit area ecosystem service value of Chinese territorial ecosystem from Mr. Xie Gaodi and ecosystem service value calculation formula from Costanza. Results showed that the ecosystem service value of Daqing decreased from US 4343.1559min1995toUS4343.1559m in 1995 to US 3824.327m in 2015, with the ecological value of US $518.8289 m decreased during the past 20 years. Wetland and water body were the two main land utilization types with the greatest contributions to the ecosystem service value. Ecosystem services value of per capita decreased 23.52%. The sensitivity coefficient of eco-service values of all types of land utilization to their value coefficients were all less than 1 in Daqing area. The sensitivity coefficients followed that wetland > water body > woodland > unutilized land > pasture land > cultivated land in 2015, which indicating that the changes of the land utilization are lack of flexibility to the changes of the ecosystem service value.
Article
This paper explores the concept of pluralism by evaluating different stakeholder views on the expected and realised value of strategic environmental assessment (SEA). The research followed a single embedded case study approach (of a national-level SEA for renewable energy planning in South Africa) and engaged with four different stakeholder groups, namely government, industry, conservation groups, and interested and affected parties (IAPs). A total of 21 different value expectations (VEs) across all four stakeholder groups were identified. However, stakeholder groups contrast significantly in terms of VEs, with government concerned more with process and mandate; industry with cost, efficiency and certainty; conservation groups with data and technical aspects; and the IAPs with local scale issues. In terms of realisation of VEs the results suggest that SEA does provide opportunities for learning; focussing project level EIA and providing spatial guidance on the location of projects. However, SEA was less successful in realising integration of decision making and alignment of policy within government. Recognition and better understanding of the pluralistic nature of expected and realised VEs could potentially improve the legitimacy of SEA processes and methodologies if they are designed and implemented to accommodate pluralism.
Article
This article describes a rapid strategic environmental assessment (SEA) of Namibia's Fourth National Development Plan (NDP4) (2012–2013 to 2016–2017). The authors believe this to be the first application of such an approach to a national development plan that typically charts a country's key over-arching development objectives and targets. It was undertaken over four weeks and involved a preparatory desk review of the objectives and implementation strategies of NDP4, Vision-2030 and key sector policies, as well as several other policies. The results were analysed during half-day, facilitated, multi-stakeholder focus sessions convened for each of five policy clusters that drive development in Namibia: land and agriculture, water, conservation and tourism, mining and industry, and fisheries. Policy performance and synergies/antagonisms within and between policies were assessed, and how policy elements might be improved to enhance synergies/reduce antagonisms and improve their contribution to sustainable development and achieve the goals of NDP4 and Vision-2030. This rapid approach to SEA offers a cost-effective alternative to conventional SEA requiring many months, a team of experts and an extensive process.
Article
This paper is a call for more studies that explicitly demonstrate the benefits of impact assessment to proponents. While the community of impact assessment practitioners generally believe that impact assessment is beneficial (to all stakeholders), empirical demonstration of this, particularly to project proponents, is warranted, and especially in financial terms. While many impact assessment benefits are intangible in nature, learning from the business and management literature shows how such benefits can usefully be measured based upon perceptions of managers within proponent agencies in tandem with archival material. A framework of the nature of impact assessment benefits for proponents, and their relative tangibility, is presented along with a five-step methodology for determining benefits. We now call upon impact assessment researchers and practitioners alike to use this framework and methodology to structure investigations from practice that will contribute to an empirical database for demonstrating the benefits of impact assessment to proponents.
Article
We enlarge on the viewpoint published in the Environmental Impact Assessment Review in 2012 — A viewpoint on the approval context of strategic environmental assessments. Additional alerts concerning the procedural ineffectiveness of the strategic environmental assessment (SEA) process from the cost–benefit point of view are advanced. The major contribution to the long lasting, costly SEA processes, comes from ultraistic treatment of Natura 2000. The case study deals with a plan for constructing a traffic bypass around Škofljica, a town near Ljubljana. Based on their conclusions the authors propose that the following elements of the SEA procedure should be improved and optimised: –CBA for SEA should become a regular component when measuring its effectiveness.–Concretisation of expected SEA inputs to the plan should clarify its role at the earliest stage of the process.–SEA should contribute interactively to the optimisation of alternatives; cost–benefit analysis of the SEA process could support this process.–Nature protection interest should be confronted and balanced with wider development interests as formulated in the plan and should not be applied in absolute terms (e.g. Natura 2000).
Article
Strategic environmental assessment (SEA) is undertaken in more than 60 countries worldwide. Support to the SEA process can range from formal legal requirements to voluntary ‘ad hoc’ approaches. In the cases where SEA is legally required, such as in Europe where the SEA Directive sets a framework for SEA legislation in 28 countries, practitioners may engage with SEA but in a reluctant way. This paper reports on a unique survey of 203 key people responsible for implementing the SEA legislative requirement in Scotland. The majority (53%) of the 187 practitioners who answered the hypothetical question ‘If SEA was not compulsory, would you do it?’ said ‘Yes’. However, results suggest that the responses were much nuanced. Practitioners were asked to explicate their reasoning and, irrespective of whether the answer was ‘yes’ or ‘no’, common themes were evident in accompanying remarks. This paper enables reflection on reasons for acceptance or rejection of the SEA process by discussing: the perception that a similar process to SEA is already being done, the problem with lack of resources, the call for a ‘leaner process’ and the difficulties of undertaking SEA when conditions are already determined at a higher ‘tier’.
Article
The aim of this article is to discuss direct effectiveness of SEA following the framework of the SEA Directive of the European Union in order to recommend measures to increase it. In the article an analytical framework for analysing SEA effectiveness is developed taking aspects of planning theory and social learning, strategicness, integratedness and timing of SEA into account. The framework is applied on the SEA concept of the European Union and put in the context of SEA and spatial planning in Austria. Finally, recommendations are made to enhance SEA effectiveness by different measures addressing different aspects of the SEA system and the SEA implementation in planning processes, such as the abandonment of screening, the advancement of SEA ‘ownership’ by planners and the reflection of a rational-collaborative SEA and planning model, as well as the ways environmental objectives and the appraisal of alternatives are implemented in a planning and SEA process.
Article
Evaluating the substantive effectiveness of strategic environmental assessment (SEA) is vital in order to know to what extent the tool fulfills its purposes and produces expected results. However, the studies that have evaluated the substantive effectiveness of SEA produce varying outcomes as regards the tool's contribution to decision-making and have used a variety of approaches to appraise its effectiveness. The aim of this article is to discuss the theoretical concept of SEAsubstantive effectiveness and to present a new approach that can be applied for evaluation studies. The SEA effectiveness evaluation framework that will be presented is composed of concepts of, and approaches to, SEA effectiveness derived from SEA literature and planning theory. Lessons for evaluation can be learned from planning theory in particular, given its long history of analyzing and understanding how sources of information and decisions affect (subsequent) decision-making. Key concepts of this new approach are ‘conformance’ and ‘performance’. In addition, this article presents a systematic overview of process and context factors that can explain SEA effectiveness, derived from SEA literature. To illustrate the practical value of our framework for the assessment and understanding of substantive effectiveness of SEA, three Dutch SEA case studies are examined. The case studies have confirmed the usefulness of the SEA effectiveness assessment framework. The framework proved helpful in order to describe the cumulative influence of the three SEAs on decision-making and the ultimate plan.