SEA IN THE CONTEXT OF LANDTUSE PLANNING

A pilot study on impact assessment in comprehensive municipal plans in Sweden (Bjarnadóttir andÅkerskog 2003), illustrated that the goal of sustainability was well established in all of the plans studiedand included in the overall aims of the plans. Several of the plans saw the requirement of impactassessment as a part of the planning process in order to achieve the greater goal of sustainability, whilein others the focus on sustainable development meant a move away from environmental emphasis,arguing that environmental issues cannot be looked at in isolation, i.e. without their economic and socialcontext. The general impression from the municipal plans studied is that when the municipalityconsiders the three aspects of sustainability simultaneously, the results are often quite general; it wasunclear which indicators were used in the impact assessment and the environmental aspects weregiven a lower priority as a consequence.The inclusion of national environmental quality objectives and their relation to the impact assessmentwork was prominent in the municipal plans studied. All of the municipal plans mentioned theenvironmental objectives as a framework for working with environmental issues in the plan, the nationalenvironmental objectives goals, the regional ones or environmental objectives developed in themunicipality.FIGURE 4.3. REFERENCE TO SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY OBJECTIVES IN IMPACTASSESSMENT OF MUNICIPAL COMPREHENSIVE PLANS4.8 Discussion - the introduction of SEA in relation to the national planningsystemThe legal requirements on environmental integration in municipal comprehensive planninghave existed in Sweden during the last 30 years, but despite substantial progress in addressingenvironmental issues at the municipal level, the environmental integration in municipalcomprehensive planning is still in many cases a daily struggle (Asplund and Hilding-Rydevik2001, Håkansson 2005, Nilsson, 2001). Prior to the implementation of the Directive’srequirements in the Environmental Code, two alternatives for the introduction of the SEAdirective into existing legislation were discussed (Prop.2003/04:116). The first alternativeincluded the inclusion of the requirements into the existing legislation and the continuation ofthe existing requirements for impact assessment, e.g. the Environmental Code, the Planningand Building Act and the Road and Energy Acts. The second alternative was to integrate EIAand SEA procedures in a separate act. The advantage of this option was considered toprovide for more clarity, in particular with regard to the public and their ability to relate to asingle process (Lerman 2003). According to the committee revising the PBA and presentingoptions proposal for the legal implementation of the directive, the first option was consideredmore feasible as it would simplify the application of the process; linking the new requirementsto the existing requirements on EIA, and making use of existing experience in the field.Emmelin and Lerman (2005) describe the Swedish implementation of the directive asminimalist, with regard to the lack of clear objectives in respect of SEA, as well as a notablelack of clarity on several points relating to the application of the terminology of the directive.Furthermore, the government stated explicitly in instructions to the committee that thedirective should be introduced to Swedish legislation with as little disruption as possible(SOU 2003). Furthermore, the authors argue that the implementation of the directive intoSwedish law is coloured by a professional struggle between the spatial planning professionand an emerging environmental profession.A questionnaire survey carried out by the National Board for Housing and Planning in2006 (Boverket 2008) addressed the application of the requirements of SEA in the municipalcomprehensive planning. Several of the County Administrative Boards reported that themunicipalities have still to find the forms for addressing the environmental assessment andthere exists a substantial uncertainty on how those shall be handled in the plans and the61