SEA IN THE CONTEXT OF LANDTUSE PLANNING

According to their analysis, whenever a Directive is a minimum directive the implementationmust be based upon formal analysis of the minimum requirements of compliance. Basedupon formal criteria one would decide what has to be covered, what elements constitute arisk of being seen as non-compliance and what can safely be left out. According to theintentionalist approach of implementing the directive, the object is to align national legislationwith the intention of the directive, making the appropriate adaptations to achieve the goalsand objectives. According to the environmentalist approach the directive is used as a lever tochange national policy. Emmelin and Lerman highlight that one problem in evaluatingimplementation may be that the approach taken is not as clear-cut as the three types aboveindicate. Furthermore they stress that the approach chosen in the legal system may not befollowed in implementation that brings forward the importance of understanding professionaland organisational culture where the directive is applied which is discussed in Emmelin(1998a, 1998b). These models are further discussed in chaper 7.The view of SEA as a rationalistic process, which draws strongly on natural resourcemanagement, has been addressed by e.g. Therivel and Partidário (2000) and by Ortolano andShepherd (1995). According to the authors, this approach draws heavily on the EIA heritage;both with regard to the environmental assessment methodology, and to the extent that it is aprocess with clearly identifiable steps. The second approach is based upon the discipline ofpolitical science, with more emphasis on the nature of the process. Collaborative andconsensus building elements are central here while this approach is "[...] more concerned withprocess than outcome" (Voogd 1997). According to some authors, the variety of definitions ofand approaches to applying SEA have led to confusion as to the nature and the form of SEA.Tomlinson (2002) argues that by the end of the 1990s the term SEA was used in aninterchangeable manner for a wider range of different kinds of assessments, ranging frompolicy assessment for complex multi-sectoral systems to the assessments of large projects.Fischer and Seaton (2002) argue that this has resulted in that SEA has lost much of itsoriginal clarity and confused the relationship of SEA with other planning and impactassessment tools and that a more structured approach to SEA application is needed so it canact as a clear and effective planning instrument. Others writers claim that SEA does not needto fulfil the same procedural obligations as project EIA and to fulfil its purpose of improvingdecision making, on the quality of the final policy, planning or programme decisions, it needsto develop from the methodological focus to be applicable to decision making contexts, i.e.“[...] SEA has the potential to act as a mediating instrument, bridging problem perceptions withtechnical solutions, steering the assessment to facilitate the integration of environmental values intodecision-making processes, influencing decision-makers’ capacity of acceptance” (Vicente andPartidário 2006: 696).Partidário (2000) suggested that this should be done by shifting the emphasis from themethodological focus in SEA towards developing a conceptual framework that should beintegrated to existing decision-making procedures.The cross-boundary nature of SEA, between the technical and the societal and politicalconcerns has been acknowledged by several authors, and the way that the procedural steps ofdemonstrating environmental effects will lead to more environmental conscious decisionmaking or can contribute to the greater goals of promoting sustainable development.According to Bina (2003), the development of SEA has suffered from a lack of politicalcommitment to, and capacity for, environmental integration, sustainable development andstrategic planning (Caldwell 2000; Bartlett and Kurian 1999), i.e. it has focused on symptomsrather than the causes for difficulties which limits its effectiveness as a tool for environmentalchange.32