SEA IN THE CONTEXT OF LANDTUSE PLANNING

At the same time HB has had access to officials and experts at the national level how havebeen involved and have had first-hand knowledge of the process of introducing the Directive2001/42/EC to the Icelandic system. In Sweden HB has had both access to officials, partlyparticipated in the process as well as a large amount of research results in the field. In the caseof England HB has not carried out complementary interviews, but has relied on writtendocumentation, as well as HB got an glimpse of the current academic planning discussionduring a brief stay as a visiting PhD student at the Planning Department at the University ofSheffield in the autumn of 2005.8.5 Issues for further studiesHaving shown the importance of the national context in understanding the possibleoutcomes of the directive, empirical evidence from the actual application of the directive inplanning would be a valuable continuation of the research. An interesting aspect in thisrespect would be study the application of SEA to the planning process at the municipalplanning level, which is the most compatible between the countries; hence the three countrieshave a legal requirement of preparing spatial plans at the municipal level, which fall under thedirective’s requirements in all the three countries. Such as study could have a special focus onthe aspects identified as important at the national planning level, the variation in the legalcontext of the SEA introduction, the level of and the type of guidance provided nationallyand the expectations towards the directive. Such as study would provide not only insights onthe potential effect of the SEA directive in the different planning contexts, but also the statusand development of the municipal planning system and the integration of environmentalconsiderations in the system with respect to practice prior to and after the SEA introduction.117