STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT PERFORMANCE CRITERIA — THE SAME REQUIREMENTS FOR EVERY ASSESSMENT?

2002 ◽  
Vol 04 (01) ◽  
pp. 83-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
THOMAS B. FISCHER
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Environmental Assessment ◽  
International Association ◽  
Strategic Environmental Assessment ◽  
Performance Criteria ◽  
Land Use Policies ◽  
Assessment Performance ◽  
Main Ideas ◽  
Methodological Aspects

Current interpretations of strategic environmental assessment (SEA) revolve around two main ideas. Firstly, SEA is seen as a concept for improving decision making through the assessment of environmental and potentially other impacts, not following any prescribed form, thus being flexible and leaving ample space for different interpretation. Secondly, a more rational view is taken and SEA is regarded a systematic instrument for improving decision making through assessment of the environmental and potentially other impacts, following a prescribed set of procedural stages and possibly other methodological aspects. Adopting the argument of the latter idea, this paper suggests that SEA performance criteria are not equally valid for every SEA, but differ for three distinct SEA types; policy-SEA, plan-SEA and programme-SEA. In order to provide empirical evidence, 25 assessments for transport and spatial/land use policies, plans and programmes (PPPs) are evaluated, based on the performance criteria introduced by the International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA) at the Glasgow meeting in 1999 and endorsed in November 2001.

Integrating Environment into Development Strategy of Tianjin Binhai New Area through Strategic Environmental Assessment

2012 ◽  
Vol 178-181 ◽  
pp. 820-824
Author(s):  
Li Li Tian ◽  
Ya Fei Zhao
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Development Strategy ◽  
Environmental Assessment ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Strategic Environmental Assessment ◽  
Atmospheric Environment ◽  
Land Resource ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Offshore Area ◽  
Tianjin Binhai New Area

Some strategic environmental assessment (SEA) pilot cases in China strive to integrate environmental issues into the planning from the beginning. One of them is the SEA for development strategy of Tianjin Binhai New Area. The SEA adopted an interactive assessment mode with the decision-making process and predicted the environmental impacts of the development strategy on land resource, water resource, energy, surface water, atmospheric environment, and ecosystem of land area and offshore area. The future development strategy of circular economy and low-carbon economy in Tianjin Binhai New Area was also analyzed. Finally, experience from the SEA case was discussed. The case study shows that support from non-environmental agencies, early integration of SEA process and planning process, interactive assessment mode, and sensible environmental protection strategy facilitate the integration of environment into decision-making.

scholarly journals Development and assessment of development strategy alternatives in strategic environmental assessment

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 95-100
Author(s):  
Marina Stenek ◽  
Bojana Nardi ◽  
Nenad Mikulić
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Public Participation ◽  
Development Strategy ◽  
Environmental Assessment ◽  
Strategic Environmental Assessment ◽  
Assessment Process ◽  
Informed Decision Making ◽  
Legal Requirements ◽  
The Development Strategy ◽  
The City

Development and evaluation of alternatives is a key process in the strategic environmental assessment (SEA), which enables improvement of the environment, informed decision-making, greater transparency and better opportunities for public participation. It is also the most challenging part of the assessment, because the alternatives are often avoided or considered to the extent to meet the legal requirements. The absence of alternatives in the assessment process significantly diminishes the contribution of SEA to the environmental protection system. The paper will outline the generally applicable methodology for the development and assessment of alternatives in the SEA process, on the example of the Development Strategy of the City of Solin, which is based on the development of the environmental alternative, which significantly contributes to the development of sustainable strategic solutions.

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