Strategic Environmental Assessment: Policy Integration as Practice or Possibility?

2011 ◽  
Vol 13 (01) ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
ELSA JOÃO ◽  
ANNA MCLAUCHLAN

Strategic environmental assessment (SEA) has often been identified as a key tool to contribute to sustainable development. This special issue of the Journal of Environmental Assessment Policy and Management focuses on European SEA practice between 2003 and 2010 to critically evaluate SEA links to sustainable development and similar, difficult to define, high-level policy objectives: democratisation, good governance, agri-environmental objectives, and environmental justice. The papers centre upon the three main topics covered by the different research: SEA outcomes being directly related to policy goals; an analysis of the absence of SEA applied to "positive" policy objectives; and the realism of associating SEA with high-level policy objectives. In particular, this paper calls for greater critical engagement with this latter topic, identifying a need to examine why associations are made between SEA and policy goals.


Author(s):  
Md. Sahadat Hossan ◽  
Md. Shafiqul Bari ◽  
Md. Shoaibur Rahman ◽  
Md. Abu Hanif ◽  
Md. Manik Ali

Strategic environmental assessment (SEA) is an appraisal device of policies, plans, and programs and has evolved from an alternative of environmental impact assessment (EIA) to a potential environmental policy integration tool in national policy planning. Bangladesh has likewise rendered SEA in its environmental evaluation framework to consider environmental and social outcomes of policies, plans, and programs(PPPs), but the practice and current situation of SEA in Bangladesh is unknown to all. Considering this crisis the study was carried out to analyze the present status of SEA as well as to find out the constraints for successful SEA implementation in Bangladesh as an approach to integrate environmental considerations in the PPPs. The data were collected through multiple methodological techniques including document review as well as survey by standard questionnaire and key informant interviews (KIIs) with different stakeholders of the various backgrounds of Bangladesh related to policymaking. The study showed that SEA first appeared in Bangladesh in 2006 with the support of the World Bank as a donor agency and the first SEA was done in Bangladesh on the Dhaka metropolitan development plan in 2007. But through the enactment of the National Environmental Policy 2018, SEA gained formal status in the country. Now, This study also revealed that most of the organizations (government and non-government) i.e. 55.77 percent never practice SEA whereas only 15.38 percent of organizations of Bangladesh practice SEA on regular basis, and 28.85 percent of organizations practiced partially for assessing SEA in their proposed PPPs. A diverse list of constraints such as lack of political will, lacking awareness of SEA, inadequate finance, weak enforcement of environmental law, and inadequate knowledge of the implementation of SEA in PPPs were identified. Therefore, awareness building, capacity development, and proper training on SEA in Bangladesh are urgently needed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 122
Author(s):  
Teodoro Semeraro ◽  
Benedetta Radicchio ◽  
Pietro Medagli ◽  
Stefano Arzeni ◽  
Alessio Turco ◽  
...  

Strategic environmental assessment (SEA) can support decision-makers in constructing more sustainable plans, programs, and policies (PPPs). To be more coherent with new frontiers of sustainable cities, PPPs need to include conservation objectives and to increase ecosystem service (ES) strategies. The ES concept is not intrinsic to the SEA process; therefore, it is necessary to develop an approach and methodology to include it. In this paper, we propose a methodology to integrate the concept of ecosystem services in all phases of the SEA process for a sub-urban plan, including the design of mitigation measures. The case study is represented by a peri-urban development plan in the municipality of Gallipoli in South Italy, characterized by a strong tourism economy and valuable agro-ecosystems. The analysis shows the priority ecosystem services that are selected considering the sustainable development and environmental goals, the context of referment, and the aims of the peri-urban plan. After, we highlight the potential ecosystem services developed considering the design of mitigation actions like green infrastructure, which could be implemented in the peri-urban plan. The capacity to develop green infrastructure in SEA processes can configure the SEA as a tool for ecological urban design that is integrated with urban planning. This requires the ability to transfer ecological and planning theories into practical actions and the capacity of different disciplines to work in a transdisciplinary approach.


2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 356-368 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chaunjit Chanchitpricha ◽  
Angus Morrison-Saunders ◽  
Alan Bond

2012 ◽  
Vol 178-181 ◽  
pp. 820-824
Author(s):  
Li Li Tian ◽  
Ya Fei Zhao

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.


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