STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT IN FINLAND: AN EVALUATION OF THE SEA ACT APPLICATION

2009 ◽  
Vol 11 (01) ◽  
pp. 1-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
TARJA SÖDERMAN ◽  
TUOMAS KALLIO
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Public Participation ◽  
Environmental Assessment ◽  
Environmental Issues ◽  
Strategic Environmental Assessment ◽  
Assessment Practices ◽  
Planning Tool ◽  
Environmental Reporting ◽  
Definition Of

Experiences from the Finnish Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) Act were studied by surveying 35 SEA processes. Integration of plan or programme preparation and assessment, organisation of assessment, public participation and consultation, treatment of alternatives, scoping, impact assessment methods, effectiveness, environmental reporting, follow-up, effects on plan or programme preparation, assessment costs and consistency of the assessment were examined and evaluated. The results suggest that SEA is not yet used properly in decision-making. Several shortcomings characterised assessment practices in public participation, establishment and comparison of alternatives, definition of environmental problems, recognition of significant impacts and readiness to use SEA as a planning tool to integrate environmental considerations into the planning. In consequence, the assessments had only minor effects on the adopted plans and programmes. The most critical challenges in Finnish SEA practise are focusing on the most significant environmental issues and strengthening the links between planning, participation and 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.

A DECISION-MAKER'S TOOL FOR SUSTAINABILITY-CENTRED STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT

2010 ◽  
Vol 12 (01) ◽  
pp. 1-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
PETER CROAL ◽  
ROBERT B. GIBSON ◽  
CHARLES ALTON ◽  
SUSIE BROWNLIE ◽  
ERIN WINDIBANK
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Decision Maker ◽  
Environmental Assessment ◽  
Comparative Evaluation ◽  
Development Process ◽  
Strategic Environmental Assessment ◽  
Sustainability Criteria ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Key Issues

This paper outlines a Decision-Maker's Tool (DM Tool), designed to guide practitioners and their inter-disciplinary teams through a typical strategic environmental assessment (SEA) process. While SEA properly includes post-decision follow-up, the DM Tool covers the SEA process up to the creation of a Briefing Note for the decision maker. Together, use of the DM Tool and the Briefing Note should facilitate positive contributions to sustainability through well considered and aligned policies, plans and programmes (PPPs), by enhancing the comprehensiveness, consistency, clarity, accessibility and credibility of decision making information. The discussion presumes that the SEA is central to the PPP development process, rather than being a separate exercise. The DM Tool and Briefing Note are designed to recommend PPP action based on clearly stated needs and purposes, addressing the key issues, and application of explicit sustainability criteria in the comparative evaluation of feasible alternatives. Particular attention is paid to recognising trade-offs and residual risks, and presenting all this information concisely for the decision maker.

EFFECTIVENESS OF STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT APPLIED TO RENEWABLE ENERGY IN BRAZIL

2013 ◽  
Vol 15 (02) ◽  
pp. 1340007 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANNE CAROLINE MALVESTIO ◽  
MARCELO MONTAÑO
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Environmental Assessment ◽  
Current System ◽  
Strategic Environmental Assessment ◽  
Energy Planning ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Oil Gas ◽  
Support Decision Making

Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) is assumed to be an important instrument to support decision-making in Brazil. Although not mandatory, nearly 35 SEAs, of which one third are devoted to energy plans and programmes (oil, gas, hydroelectricity and biofuel), have been prepared over the past 15 years in Brazil. The effectiveness of SEA, however, has not been studied in detail. This paper reports on the application of a procedural effectiveness analysis to 9 SEAs prepared for energy planning in Brazil, of which 5 deal with renewable energy plans and programmes. The results indicate no significant difference between renewable and non-renewable energy in terms of procedural effectiveness, with adequate performance in screening, baseline and description of mitigation actions, but serious deficiencies in the definition of SEA objectives, identification of strategic alternatives, description of public participation and follow-up strategies. The variability in the performance to each effectiveness criteria is taken as evidence that Brazil has not achieved consistency in SEA procedures, reinforcing the need for improvements in the current system.

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.

DESIGNING A MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK FOR STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT OF URBAN PLANS IN CHINA

2009 ◽  
Vol 11 (04) ◽  
pp. 451-470 ◽  
Author(s):  
CUN-KUAN BAO ◽  
YING-WEI GAO ◽  
YING-LIE ZHOU ◽  
LI OU-YANG ◽  
HE HUANG ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Impact Assessment ◽  
Environmental Assessment ◽  
Strategic Environmental Assessment ◽  
Master Plan ◽  
Management Framework ◽  
Urban Plan ◽  
Urban Master Plan ◽  
The Relationship

Based on the revision of the Methods for Urban Plan Formulation and the Technical Guidelines of Environmental Impact Assessment for Urban Master Plan (in draft), this paper proposes a management framework for Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) of Urban Plans. In this context, the urban plan compilation system and the requirements for Urban Plan SEAs are explained. This is followed by the introduction of three types of urban plan SEAs, namely forecasting SEA, monitoring or follow-up SEA, and retrospective SEA. The relationship among the institutions/agencies involved in urban planning SEAs is discussed and three implementation modes are proposed, including an internal-implementation mode, an external-implementation mode and a mixed-implementation mode. Finally, substantive SEA aspects for various types of urban plans are identified.

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