SEA IN THE CONTEXT OF LANDTUSE PLANNING

• Process/Strategy Model; i.e. co-ordinated, government-led strategy for environmentalintegration with the use of initiatives such as greening government, sustainabledevelopment strategies, local agenda 21 and land use planning.• Ad-hoc Institutional Model, i.e. which may exist outside of a centrally co-ordinatedstrategy. These include Audit Committees/Independent Auditor, EnvironmentalProtection Agencies and Authorities, National Commissions/Councils on SustainableDevelopment, Round Tables.According to Sheate et al, in reality a mixture of these elements can be found in each countrystudied. From the literature review and surveys carried out, a list of possible ‘tools’ forachieving varying degrees of integration of the environment at the policy level were identified,e.g. SEA, Strategic Environmental Analysis (SEAN), Environmental Appraisal,Environmental Management systems, Environmental Monitoring and Reporting and PublicParticipation, Education and Awareness Raising. Furthermore, on the basis of case studiescarried out in the participatory countries, four broad models of SEA practice were identified:‘EIA inspired SEAs’, ‘policy analysis/appraisal inspired SEA’, ‘policy integratory SEA’ and‘Ad hoc mechanisms of environmental integration’.1.5 The structure of the thesisThe thesis is divided into three main sections:The first section ‘Introduction, methodology and exploration of the concept of SEA’ gives anoverview of the main aims and objectives of the research; how these are formulated inresearch questions and the methodology chosen for the research. Furthermore, the secondchapter of the section presents the contents of the EU directive, its background and the mainmilestones in its preparation. The main focus of the analysis is on the reference to planningmade in the directive; the planning process and planning documents as well as the ideas ofplanning depicted in the directive is described. Lastly, the relation of the directive to other EClegislation is accounted for. The final chapter of the first section; ‘Exploring the concept of SEA’gives an overview of how the concept of SEA has developed and illustrates the presentdiscussion. An overview is given of the academic discussions in the SEA field during the lastdecades, and main trends are identified with regard to definition of the SEA instrument andits application. Furthermore, the theoretical basis for SEA are explored, with main focus onidentifying the overlaps between SEA and planning theory and what planning theory has tooffer for the SEA discourse.The second section ‘National overviews’ examines the legal implementation of the SEAdirective in three countries; Sweden, Iceland and England and is the main empirical part ofthe thesis. This description is complemented by an account of the spatial planning system towhich the SEA requirements are introduced in each of the countries, the experience ofapplying environmental assessment prior to the directive and other initiatives in the field ofenvironmental planning.In the third section ‘Analysis and conclusions’ the findings from the national overviews arecompared and analysed, including the characteristics of the SEA implementation that unitesand differentiates the different countries’ approaches. The results are presented in relation tocommon indicators identified to which the implementation is described when examining theimplementation in the different countries that are presented in the form of a table whichprovide the ground for a discussion of the context of relevance for the outcome of the SEAapplication. Establishing the ‘context of relevance’ is furthermore one of the major research16