SEA IN THE CONTEXT OF LANDTUSE PLANNING

4.4 Preparation work for SEA application (guidelines, research studies etc)Although the overall framework for transposing the SEA directive to Swedish legislation isgiven by the Environmental Code, relevant changes need to be made in respective sectorregulations; regarding both procedure and decision-making, and sector guidelines willprobably also be prepared.The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (Naturvårdsverket) is assigned by thegovernment to publish guidance for the environmental assessment process; both bindingdetailed regulations (‘Allmänna Råd’) as well as supporting guidelines. In November 2006 thedraft detailed guidance and guidelines were circulated for referral and in a second version wasmade available in February 2008. Previously, the Agency has made guidance on theintroduction of SEA and it application available at its website.Guidance for the application of the requirements in the Planning and Building Act werepublished by the National Board of Housing, Building and Planning (Boverket) in March2006. Among the issues covered by the guidance were the reasons behind the EA, whichplans are covered by the requirements, the main steps of the assessment process and moredetailed guidance for comprehensive municipal plans and detailed local plans.4.4.1 Previous guidance and governmental studiesA number of guidance and reports have been carried out by governmental authorities inrelation to requirements of environmental assessment in land use planning. These includegeneral guidelines for how SEA can be applied to different planning contexts, includingmunicipal plans and the regional plan of Stockholm (Strategiska miljöbedömningar – ettanvändbart instrument i miljöarbetet, Naturvårdsverket, 2000), as well as the use of SEA inrelation to sustainable development (Land use planning and SEA for sustainability, Boverket,2000). Furthermore, guidelines have been presented for the application of SEA in othercontexts, e.g. in relation to planning of transport systems (Naturvårdverket, 2001),presentation of methods developed for SEA within the energy sector, using the developmentof natural gas as an energy source (Nilsson et al 2001) and the potential of SEA as a tool inthe programming of the EU structure funds (Naturvårdsverket and Riskantikvarieämbetet1999). Studies of economic development programming have been made in four regions and amanual with guidance for SEA was produced (Balfors and Schmidtbauer 2002). Moreover,several studies have been carried out by the National Heritage Board and the Swedish RoadAdministration on the application of impact assessment at a strategic level.Among studies that have been carried out SEA is the most extensive a developmentproject titled ‘Environmental objectives and indicators in spatial planning and strategicenvironmental assessment’, commonly known as SAMS. The project was undertakenbetween 1997 and 2000 was led by the National Board of Housing, Building and Planningand the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, along with several municipalities andregional authorities. The section that focused on SEA looked in particular at the experienceof applying SEA in physical planning from 1996 onwards. A series of reports were publishedas a part of the project, many of which have been influential in the SEA discourse in Sweden(Boverket and Naturvårdsverket 2000a, 2000b and 2001).51