COMPARING STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT AND INTEGRATED ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT

Abstract

Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) aims to assess the environmental effects of proposed policies, plans and programmes (PPPs), governing sectoral activities such as transport, agriculture, industry and tourism. Integrated Environmental Assessment (IEA) aims to assess the environmental effects of societal activities and government policy, not in respect to a particular proposed PPP, but in general. The thesis of this paper is that, in particular at the national and international level, SEA and IEA are instruments with complementary roles in the policy making process. A truly pro-active approach requires application of IEA next to SEA. They can also strengthen one another by making use of the same assessment tools. The paper makes use of the experiences of European practitioners of SEA and IEA. It makes no explicit reference to the general theory of planning and policy making, but the experiences and ideas are considered to be of use to practioners as well as policy makers and academics. The paper first describes the context of SEA and IEA — mainly in Europe — and then compares them on key characteristics. This leads to a discussion of the relationship between the two, possibilities for improvement and conclusions.