Strategic environmental assessment of spatial plans in the light of own research

Abstract

Strategic environmental assessment constitutes the least explored in research kind of an environmental assessment in comparison to environmental impact assessment and habitat assessment. The introduction of a strategic assessment was to ensure the completeness of the assessment system of environmental impact in investment processes and to guarantee a consideration for the principle of caution in early stages of these processes. In the current legal situation, a strategic environmental assessment should anticipate a preparation of commune’s planning documents or making changes in such documents. In the case of local plans constituting minor changes of earlier-accepted documents, a strategic assessment is not made. As a result a strategic environmental assessment may be conducted in a limited scope in numerous communes. Additionally, a sketchy character and ambiguity of the regulations concerning strategic environmental assessments result in a lack of understanding for the necessity of conducting such assessments among investors and community. The aim of this article is to work out methods for strategic environmental assessment of the projects of local plans and to examine which methods of environmental impact assessment have been used in the prognoses of environmental impact, i.e. in the basic assessment documents. The research made shows that the quality of documents prepared for the need of strategic assessments is unsatisfactory in the aspects of methodology.