Strategic environmental assessment: Key issues emerging from recent practice

Many governments and environmental assessment (EA) administrators are currently showing great concern regarding the potential environmental consequences of decisions made at policy, planning, and programmatic levels. Strategic environmental assessment (SEA) is evolving as a mechanism that attempts to assess systematically the environmental impacts of decisions made at, what is conventionally called, levels of strategic decisions. Evidence is emerging in different countries on specific SEA approaches including institutional frameworks, assessment and review mechanisms, and results achieved in specific case applications. Experience is as yet too limited to conclude how effective such systems are but is nevertheless instructive on particular issues implicated in the development and implementation of SEA. A comprehensive review of existing SEA practical approaches was undertaken with the purpose of understanding the existing status of SEA and identifying key practical issues raised by practitioners in the countries reviewed. Such practical issues reflect the strengths and weaknesses experienced with the adoption of particular approaches. This article highlights and reflects on some of the most fundamental policy, institutional, and procedural issues that were found in this research.