SEA IN THE CONTEXT OF LANDTUSE PLANNING

Chapter 1 IntroductionThe topic of the thesis is the introduction of the European Union directive ‘On theassessment of the effects of certain plans and programmes on the environment’ 2001/42/EC(the so-called Strategic Environmental Assessment or SEA directive) to three nationalplanning contexts: Sweden, Iceland and England. The research focuses on the way that acommon European directive is transposed to different national contexts and how its contentsare implemented in the existing framework for spatial planning.The SEA directive was agreed upon by the European Commission on the 21 st of June2001 and according to European Union Law the directive must be transposed to nationallegislation in the 24 member countries as well as in the countries subject to the Agreement ofthe European Economic Area 1 . However, many EU member countries, including thosestudied in the thesis, have some experience of environmental assessment of plans andprogrammes prior to the introduction of the SEA directive. Strategic EnvironmentalAssessment (SEA) has developed as a tool in planning through widespread practicalexperience of environmental assessment and the notion of Strategic EnvironmentalAssessment has developed in national and international debate on EnvironmentalAssessment and planning for the last two decades. Hence, the SEA directive is introduced toan existing context of environmental assessment in planning and the preparation of thedirective has drawn on substantial conceptual development and practical experience ofstrategic environmental assessment in various forms.On the basis of the experiences of applying SEA in planning and the mounting academicresearch, the role of the context in which SEA is implemented has been the subject ofattention. The issue has been addressed by several scholars (e.g. Cashmore and Nieslony2005; Bina 2003; Bina and Wellington 2005; Hilding-Rydevik 2003; Bjarnadóttir 2006;Hilding-Rydevik and Bjarnadóttir 2007; Kørnøv and Thissen 2000; Noteboom 2005;Partidário 2005; Sach 2001) who have highlighted the need to understand the implementationcontext of SEA, as well as the need to adapt SEA to the existing planning context to ensurethe successful implementation of SEA. This has generally been done in recognition of thefact that our understanding of the nature of the planning context needs to be broadened (e.g.Emmelin 1998; Fischer 2003; Hildén et al 2004; Kørnøv and Thissen 2000; Marsden 1998;Richardson 2000, 2005). The aspects of the context of relevance can be the existing planningsystem, planning practice and the administrative and institutional system. Few attempts havehowever been made to explore this question in greater detail (Hilding-Rydevik andBjarnadóttir 2007).1 The contracting parties to the EEA Agreements are Iceland, Lichtenstein and Norway.9