SEA IN THE CONTEXT OF LANDTUSE PLANNING

• Screening: decision on the need to carry out an environmental assessment (Article 11)• Consultation with regard to the need to carry out an environmental assessment (Article 6)• Transboundary consultation with regard to the potential impacts of the plan’s or the programme’simplementation in another country (Article 15)• Scoping of the environmental report (Article 12 – 13)• Consultation of the scoping of the environmental report. Decision son what the environmentalassessment shall include and which areas and effects are regarded most important to focus upon(Article 13)• Environmental assessment. Identify, describe and assess the expected considerable environmentalimpacts that the implementation of the plan or the programme, as well as the reasonable alternativewill convey. This shall also be described and compared to the baseline situation (Article 11).• Consultation on the environmental assessment. Carry out consultation with regard to the proposalof environmental assessment as well as the draft version of the plan or the programme’s proposal(Article 14 – 15).• Considerations of the environmental assessment and comments and viewpoints of theconsultations. Consider the environmental assessment as well as the comments/views receivedform the consultation before the plan or the programme is adopted or forms the basis forregulations (Article 16)• Adoption of the plan or the programme. Those who have participated in the consultation shall beinformed (Article 16)• Reporting of the environmental assessment in a separate summary (Article 16)• Follow-up (Article 18). The considerable environmental effects of the implementation of the plan orthe programme shall be followed-up with the aim of the authorities or the municipalities can takemeasures needed. According to the guidelines, existing monitoring programmes and planningcycles shall be used to the largest extent possible, and complemented as needed.FIGURE 4.1. MAIN STAGES OF THE ASSESSMENT PROCESS ACCORDING TO THE ENVIRONMENTAL CODE4.3.1 ScopingThe scope of the Environmental assessment, i.e. the what assessment shall cover and whichaspects and effects are considered to be important to focus upon shall be decided in ascoping process that is prescribed in articles 12 and 13 in the Environmental Code. Althoughthe aim of the scoping process is to identify relevant aspects, certain guidelines are presentedin article 13, i.e. that the environmental assessment report shall include information that is‘reasonable’ with regard to the assessment methods and current level of knowledge, the plan’sor the programme’s contents and the levels of detail, the public interest, and that certainissues can better be addressed in the context of other assessments.As a part of the scoping process certain consultation shall be carried out. Those areprescribed in article 13, chapter 6 of the Environmental Code and include that on themunicipality level, the municipality or the authority shall consult the municipality, themunicipalities or the CABs that will be affects by the plan or the programme. On the nationallevel the consultation shall be conducted with the Swedish Environmental Protection Agencyand other state authorities concerned. There is no requirement on consultation with thepublic at the scoping stage, however it is pointed out in the draft handbook (2006-11-29remissversion, Naturvårdsverket) that it can be valuable to conduct broader consultationregarding the scoping phase.4.3.2 Environmental reportingThe requirements on the contents of the Environmental report are described in chapter 6,articles 12-13 of the Environmental Code. The list of requirements include a summary of theobjectives of the plan or the programme, a description of the environmental status in the48