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Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) is a new approach to environmental assessment, global in scope, which considers the environmental impacts of policies, plans and programmes. It is already in use in a number of countries and is rapidly being adopted by those involved with environmental management and regulation, including governments, official and voluntary sector agencies, academic courses and consultancies. This text defines and analyzes SEA within the overall context of environmental assessment. It introduces and reviews the current state of SEA, evaluates its application in a number.

More countries are now using Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) than ever before. This timely and comprehensive Handbook describes the implementation of SEA in 18 countries around the world, as well as a critical analysis of different SEA methodologies. The Handbook starts by introducing key SEA principles and the legal requirements of the new European SEA Directive (which became law in 2004). It then describes the implementation of SEA in 11 European Union countries, as well as the USA, Canada and New Zealand. This is contrasted with SEA requirements of four developing countries. The Ha

ATLAS work package 7 presentation at ATLAS 3rd General Assembly Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), as set forth, e.g., by EU Directive 2001/42/EC on the assessment of the effects of certain plans and programmes on the environment, stems from the evaluation of transboundary environmental impacts. This accounts for a widely spread practice where SEA is conducted under an impact assessment-based approach, differing from a traditional Environmental Impact Assessment in that its object is a policy, plan or programme (PPP) instead of a project. A different conceptualization of SEA as a strategy-based approach capable of influencing the development and deployment of PPPs and as such, as a process for influencing the decision-making process and driving institutional change, constitutes the opposite end of the gradient from less to more strategic approaches SEA can assume. Impact of SEA on decision-making will be more significant if it is explicitly used as a tool to develop policy, as opposed to merely being used to review predefined proposals, when SEA still has value but its contribution to the decision-making process is strongly reduced and relevant opportunities are lost. Within this conceptual framework, SEA can and should become instrumental in influencing the political decision-making process towards improved environmental performance, thus assuming a major role for an effective sustainable development (cf. UN 2030 SDGs). SEA will be discussed as an approach to answering key questions pertaining to the policy instruments at stake (SEA scope), and reference to its conceptual structure, main aspects and contents, will be made (namely resorting to case studies). Scenarios development under different policy approaches and management options, and their comparative analysis will be debated as the fulcrum of a "truly strategic" SEA together with the corresponding long-term time frames involved. An overarching SEA of the ATLAS SMP at the North Atlantic scale represents an opportunity for coherent integration and ...

Environmental impact assessments are an essential component of making decisions on transport infrastructure investments. Traditional procedures have proved ineffective for impacts that go beyond the scope of projects in isolation. Strategic environmental assessment has emerged in response, to address large scale effects including impacts on traffic across networks, impacts on climate change and biodiversity and the impacts of policy decisions as opposed simply to individual projects. This report examines recent experience in developing environmental assessment internationally and makes recommendations on maximising the effectiveness of this new tool.

The practical application of strategic environmental assessment (SEA) is becoming increasingly common. A growing number of SEAs are being undertaken around the world, and several countries have issued guidance on how these should be carried out. However, few countries as yet have formal SEA regulations, and few completed SEAs have demonstrated all the elements of current best practice. The Practice of Strategic Environmental Assessment aims to provide a unique analysis of SEAs which have been undertaken, drawing on a variety of methods and circumstances to illustrate how best practice can be a.