SEA IN THE CONTEXT OF LANDTUSE PLANNING

ut is strongly linked to the existing planning system and the environmental and sustainabilityconsiderations.8.1.1 Findings from the review of the national implementationReturning to the aim of the thesis, i.e. to shed light on the experiences of the introduction ofthe SEA directive 2001/42/EC in Sweden, Iceland and England and the overall researchquestion; how the transposition of the SEA directive to the national legal framework differ andhow do those differences relate to the countries’ national planning contexts? On the basis of theresearch the following conclusions can be presented: the way that the SEA directive has been legallytransposed in three countries differs with regard to the legal context to which the requirements havebeen introduced. The SEA requirements have been introduced to the existing Environmental Code inSweden, as a separate SEA Act in Iceland and SEA Regulations in England. The national SEArequirements follow closely the contents of the SEA directive, with minor adjustments to existinglegislation.When looking beyond the legal requirements of SEA in national legislation, i.e. the way that thedirective’s requirements have been presented in the planning context, the expectations of thedirective’s implementation and the contents of national guidelines more prominent differences appear.The context to which SEA is introduced differs to a great degree, i.e. the existing practice of planningand environmental integration as well as the existing requirements on environmental assessment andexperience of SEA application prior to the directive. In that way the supposition presented at thebeginning of the thesis can be argued to be partly true, i.e. the differences of the legal transposition ofthe directive can be regarded to be insubstantial, but the national context, expectation and guidelinesfor application and the planning context differs and is likely to have effect on the actual application ofenvironmental assessment in planning.8.1.2 Findings from review of the academic discussionThe academic discussion on SEA traces back much further in time than the discussion of theneed of SEA within the European Commission or the introduction of the directive2001/42/EC. Similarly, the discussions on the need of SEA and pilot studies in the nationalcontext were carried out long before the directive 2001/42/EC was introduced to nationallegislations. The expectations and ideas of SEA have changed over time, and a certain trendcan be identified although the ideas reflected in the discussions are still quite diverse. Amongthe noticeable trend is that the SEA discussion has moved from its past concerned withcomparing and separating the instrument from Environmental Impact Assessment;discussions on the appropriate timing of the application and the scope of the assessment,towards SEA promotion as an instrument for supporting decision making for sustainabledevelopment, taking a broader approach than just the environmental aspects of theassessment and addressing social and economic aspects on par with those (Dalal-Clayton,Sadler 2005). As a part of this move, several researchers refer to the need of developing SEAbeyond the environmental focus and promoting the term impact assessment (IA) instead.Furthermore, the importance of knowledge of the context to which SEA is introduced isbeing highlighted by a growing number of researchers. The SEA instrument is inseparablefrom the existing planning system and knowledge of the planning and institutional context isa prerequisite for understanding for the potential role and achievements that SEA can have.When examining the SEA literature in order to shed light on how the issue of context hasbeen dealt with, it was found that much of the SEA literature presents general SEA principlesthat shall be introduced to and eventually change existing decision making, or introducesquite stringent methodological aspects, introducing steps of the SEA conduction that shall befollowed. Neither of these approaches have much acknowledgement of the contexts in whichthe SEA is introduced. Nevertheless, several authors within the SEA field have acknowledgedthe importance of context in relation to SEA implementation. According to Hilding-Rydevikand Bjarnadóttir (2007), the recognition of context has most often appeared in relation to the114