Strategic environmental assessment and transport planning: towards a generic framework for evaluating practice and developing guidance

Abstract

In this paper, a generic strategic environmental assessment (SEA) framework for transport planning is introduced and tested. The framework may be used for evaluating existing practice, whilst also serving as the basis for developing context-specific guidance. Based on (a) the evidence provided by transport planning systems in northern and western European countries and (b) suggestions by various authors and guidance documents on what contributes to effective SEA, the framework revolves around assessment tasks that are allocated to four SEA tiers: policies; network plans; corridor plans; and programmes. Although the framework can be directly applied for evaluating practice, in order to support the development of guidance, existing planning and assessment practice first needs to be analysed, enabling SEA to be adapted to the underlying transport planning system. In the paper, the framework is used to identify possible core tasks of the European Union TEN-T (Trans-European Transport Network) related corridor-plan SEAs in Germany and England.