Strategic Environmental Assessment Framework Research Articles

Strategic environmental assessment and SDG integration: enhancing sustainable development in Egypt

AbstractThis research delves into the integration and alignment between strategic environmental assessment (SEA) practices and Egypt's united nations sustainable development goals (SDGs), with a focus on incorporating environmental, social, and economic considerations into policies, plans, and programs. The study assesses Egypt's strategic environmental assessment framework, identifying its strengths, weaknesses, challenges, and gaps in sustainable development. It critically analyzes institutional coordination, stakeholder engagement, monitoring, reporting, and evaluation (MRE) frameworks, and policy coherence. The key findings underscore the commendable emphasis on environmental integrity in SEA practices, while also highlighting significant deficiencies in integrating broader sustainability criteria and aligning with the SDGs. The research concludes with policy implications, practice recommendations, and future research directions that aim to bolster the effectiveness of strategic environmental assessment in contributing to sustainable development in Egypt.

Implementation of climate change mitigation initiatives in land management measures and in the context of strategic environmental assessment

The paper considers the possibilities of implementing climate change mitigation initiatives in environmental land management measures, since land management itself is, by definition, a set of socio-economic and environmental measures. It is proposed to update land management projects providing ecological and economic substantiation of crop rotation and landscaping within the framework of decarbonization as an element of the European Green Deal with calculations of carbon sequestration from the atmosphere, depending on the crops provided for in crop rotations. The implementation of climate change mitigation initiatives is also proposed as part of the strategic environmental assessment of land management documentation in Ukraine, in particular, to assess planning decisions for the Climate and Air Quality criterion in the context of assessing changes in CO₂ release/absorption as one of the greenhouse gases that affect climate change. In the context of The European Green Deal, the article examines approaches to assessing greenhouse gas absorption (decarbonization) which can be implemented in Ukraine both within the framework of strategic environmental assessment of land management documentation and in environmental measures for land management, since the principles of land management include ensuring the priority of environmental safety requirements, protection of land resources and restoration of soil fertility, productivity of agricultural land, and establishment of a regime for environmental protection, health, recreation, and historical and cultural purposes.

Procedure for implementation of strategic environmental assessment in the field of land management on the basis of integration models

This article analyses the legal framework for strategic environmental assessment of state planning documents in the EU, where such an assessment has been conducted for a long time, as well as in Ukraine. The lack of scientific and methodological bases for the implementation of the procedure of strategic environmental assessment in the field of land management has been established. The procedure for implementing the SEA in land management has been updated, namely for land management documentation, that is a subject to such assessment. The stage of development of such documentation on which it is most expedient to carry out SEA is offered. In the framework of this study, land management documentation, that is a subject to strategic environmental assessment, as well as the conditions under which individual documents are subject to SEA are defined. The goals and objectives of the SEA in the field of land management are defined, as well as the main stages of the SEA, in particular in the field of land management. We have analysed the models of integration of strategic environmental assessment into land management and found that the introduction of partial and complete models of integration of SEA into land management is the most appropriate. The list of components which should be contained by the SEA of land management documentation is offered, and also the most expedient analytical tools necessary at realization of SEA are defined.

DESIGNING A MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK FOR STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT OF URBAN PLANS IN CHINA

Based on the revision of the Methods for Urban Plan Formulation and the Technical Guidelines of Environmental Impact Assessment for Urban Master Plan (in draft), this paper proposes a management framework for Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) of Urban Plans. In this context, the urban plan compilation system and the requirements for Urban Plan SEAs are explained. This is followed by the introduction of three types of urban plan SEAs, namely forecasting SEA, monitoring or follow-up SEA, and retrospective SEA. The relationship among the institutions/agencies involved in urban planning SEAs is discussed and three implementation modes are proposed, including an internal-implementation mode, an external-implementation mode and a mixed-implementation mode. Finally, substantive SEA aspects for various types of urban plans are identified.

Strategic Environmental Assessment of Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Options in the Canadian Agricultural Sector

This article presents a methodological framework for strategic environmental assessment (SEA) application. The overall objective is to demonstrate SEA as a systematic and structured policy, plan, and program (PPP) decision support tool. In order to accomplish this objective, a stakeholder-based SEA application to greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation policy options in Canadian agriculture is presented. Using a mail-out impact assessment exercise, agricultural producers and nonproducers from across the Canadian prairie region were asked to evaluate five competing GHG mitigation options against 13 valued environmental components (VECs). Data were analyzed using multi-criteria and exploratory analytical techniques. The results suggest considerable variation in perceived impacts and GHG mitigation policy preferences, suggesting that a blanket policy approach to GHG mitigation will create gainers and losers based on soil type and associate cropping and on-farm management practices. It is possible to identify a series of regional greenhouse gas mitigation programs that are robust, socially meaningful, and operationally relevant to both agricultural producers and policy decision makers. The assessment demonstrates the ability of SEA to address, in an operational sense, environmental problems that are characterized by conflicting interests and competing objectives and alternatives. A structured and systematic SEA methodology provides the necessary decision support framework for the consideration of impacts, and allows for PPPs to be assessed based on a much broader set of properties, objectives, criteria, and constraints whereas maintaining rigor and accountability in the assessment process.

Life cycle assessment of a national policy proposal – The case of a Swedish waste incineration tax

At the core of EU and Swedish waste policy is the so-called waste hierarchy, according to which waste should first be prevented, but should otherwise be treated in the following order of prioritisation: reuse, recycling when environmentally motivated, energy recovery, and last landfilling. Some recent policy decisions in Sweden aim to influence waste management in the direction of the waste hierarchy. In 2001 a governmental commission assessed the economic and environmental impacts of introducing a weight-based tax on waste incineration, the purpose of which would be to encourage waste reduction and increase materials recycling and biological treatment. This paper presents the results of a life cycle assessment (LCA) of the waste incineration tax proposal. It was done in the context of a larger research project concerning the development and testing of a framework for Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA). The aim of this paper is to assess the life cycle environmental impacts of the waste incineration tax proposal, and to investigate whether there are any possibilities of more optimal design of such a tax. The proposed design of the waste incineration tax results in increased recycling, but only in small environmental improvements. A more elaborate tax design is suggested, in which the tax level would partly be related to the fossil carbon content of the waste.

Introducing strategic environmental assessment in Serbia with special reference to the European Union directive and infrastructure corridors

In July 2001, the European Union (EU) adopted the Directive 2001/42/EC of the European Parliament and the Council of 27 June 2001 on the Assessment of the Effects of Certain Plans and Programmes on the Environment, known as the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) Directive. The EU countries will have three years, until July 2004, for the integration of the SEA Directive into national laws. The SEA Directive introduces procedural and technical requirements, according to which environmental assessment is compulsory for certain plans and programs but not for policies, except if they are a part of a plan, as well for plans and programs of national defence, civil emergencies, finance and budgets. According to the scope of the SEA Directive, environmental assessment is compulsory for plans and programs for infrastructure corridors ? transport, telecommunication and energy systems. In addition to the overview of the general framework for Strategic Environmental Assessment and the main requirements of the SEA Directive, the current situation in Serbia regarding the present condition of SEA is presented with special reference to the infrastructure corridors. One of the conclusions of this paper is that the main limitation for the implementation of SEA for plans and programs covering infrastructure corridors is the current legal situation. The main law which is supposed to introduce SEA has not been adopted yet, while the scope of the SEA within the new Planning and Construction Act includes SEA only for urban plans and does not cover, among others, plans for infrastructure corridors.