sea application in major sectors: lessons learned and future visions sea application in the uk,...
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SEA APPLICATION IN MAJOR SECTORS: LESSONS LEARNED AND FUTURE VISIONSSEA Application in the UK, Poland and Portugal – A consultant’s perspective
Cristina West (Atkins UK), Joanna Borzuchowska (WS Atkins – Polska) and Ana Ferreira (WS Atkins Portugal)
21st September 2011
Prague
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Structure of presentation
● Review of SEA application – enactment, sectors, planning levels
● SEA guidance - comparison
● SEA case studies in England, Poland and Portugal - findings
● Main strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in current practice of SEA
● Future vision and way forward
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Enactment of the SEA Directive
EU Directive 2001/42/EC on the Assessment of the Effects of certain Plans and Programmes on the Environment (known as the SEA Directive) :
- published in 2001
- deadline for transposition by Member States of July 2004
The SEA Directive became law:
- UK (England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland) in July 2004 through the Environmental Assessment of Plans and Programmes Regulations 2004
- Portugal by the Decree Law 232/2007 of 15 June
Previous to this there was no formal requirement for environmental assessments of plans and programmes in either country .
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Enactment of SEA Directive (contd.)
In Poland:
- a formal requirement for the preparation of “environmental reports” applying to local land use plans already existed since the 1990s.
- Act of 2000 (Access to Information, public participation in decision making and environmental impact assessment) and Act of 2001 (Environmental Protection) further regulated environmental assessment of certain plans and programmes requiring coverage of a wider range of plans as opposed to just local development plans.
- formal transposition of SEA Directive took place through successive amendments to the Act of 2001 and finally through the new Act of 2008 (Access to Information, public participation in decision making and environmental impact assessment with further amendments).
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Application - UK
Sectors● Transport
● Land use (SEA as part of SA in England)
● Waste and minerals (SEA as part of SA in England)
● Water
● Energy
Second generation SEAs already taking place in sectors such as Transport and Water as planning cycles re-start
Planning level● Local
● Regional
● National
Atkins UK has been involved in over 60 SEAs in the UK covering most sectors and at the three levels of planning.
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Application - Poland
Sectors● Land use
● Transport
● Energy
● Cross-sectoral
Planning level● Local (mainly)
● National
WS Atkins - Polska has been involved in the national level SEAs of The Polish Spatial Development Concept and of The High Speed Rail Programme as well as a number of local level SEAs for spatial development studies and local land use plans.
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Application - Portugal
Sectors● National Strategic Framework
for European Funding (QREN 2007-2013 (cross-sectoral)
● Regional Operational Programmes (cross-sectoral)
● Land use
● Transport
● Water
● Energy
Planning level● Local ● Regional ● National
Atkins Portugal has been involved in over 10 SEA processes in waste sector at the national level, water sector at the river basin and reservoir levels, the transport sector at regional and municipal level and in the electricity sector.
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SEA Guidance
Countries generally took upon them to develop specific guidance on how to undertake SEA:– ‘A Practical Guide to the Strategic Environmental Assessment Directive’
was published in the UK in 2005
– ‘Guia de boas práticas para Avaliação Ambiental Estratégica - Orientações metodológicas’ was published in Portugal in 2007
– No specific guide in Poland (apart from 2008 legislative act)
All three countries arrived, although in different points in time, at a five staged process with many similarities:
– Scoping & Scoping Report
– Assessment & Environmental Report
– Public consultation
– Environmental Statement
– Monitoring after implementation
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SEA process in Poland
Preparation of the document
STAGE A:Scoping
STAGE B:
Environmental assessment including
preparation of the environmental report
STAGE C: Consultations
STAGE D: Preparation of the environmental
statement
Approval of the document
Monitoring
Adoption of a decision on undertaking works to prepare the document
Consideration of remarks and opinions
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SEA Guidance (contd.)
But also with some differences:
– Poland more reliant on EU guidance published than other two countries. Handbook on SEA for Cohesion Policy 2007-2013 and the Handbook “Assessments of plans and projects significantly affecting Natura 2000 sites”
– A clear objectives-led and evidence based process in the UK; not so clear in the other two countries
– A clear requirement for an iterative process for the development of the plan and the SEA in the UK and to some extent in Portugal; not so clear in Poland
– Clear mention of alternatives in UK and Portuguese guidance; not so clear for Poland
– In Portugal, after the public consultation process, a Consultation Report is issued with the analysis of the results and the decisions taken. This is in addition to the Environmental Statement
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SEA Case Studies
England
• Derby Local Transport Plan 3
• Southern Water plc Water Resources Management Plan
Poland
• Polish Spatial Development Concept (together with the Institute for Sustainable Development)
• Spatial Development Study of Opole City
Portugal
• National Waste Management Plan and Strategic Hospital Waste Plan
• Alentejo and Algarve coastal areas Roadway Network Plan
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Aspects considered:
● Relationship of SEA team with the planning team: How was it?
● Scoping exercises: How difficult or easy where they?
● Plan objectives setting: Did SEA influence these?
● Development and assessment of alternatives: where there alternatives? Did the most sustainable alternatives make it to the final plan?
● Take up of SEA Recommendations: where these taken up to the extent considered necessary?
● Consultation exercises: where these useful? Was a wider engagement achieved?
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Water Resources Management Plan
Strategic Environmental Assessment
Options Identification and assessment of significant environmental
effects of options
Scoping Identify baseline, set objectives and agree
framework for assessment of options
Scoping report consultation
Issue Final Environmental Report
Issue SEA Statement
Produce Environmental Report
Initial Options Screening
Definition and agreement of WRMP process, data and
assumptions
Assessment of WRMP – Draft for Consultation Preferred
Strategy
Issue Final WRMP
Public Consultation on Water Resources Management Plan - Draft for Consultation and Environmental Report
Produce WRMP – Draft for Consultation
Incorporate comments in WRMP, undertake any
additional modelling and assessment of options
Prepare SEA Statement
Technical supporting studies and analysis
Options appraisal and refinement
Identification of preferred strategy
Analysis of alternatives within preferred strategy
Analysis of regional context of preferred strategy
Incorporate comments and update Environmental Report
as required
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Strenghts
● A good degree of alignment between countries with national legislation and guidance recommending an integrated process for plan and SEA development potentially leading to comparable SEA processes and results.
● SEA is contributing to an improved organisation and structure of the whole planning procedure leading to more transparent processes, for example through the requirements for public consultation and the preparation of environmental reports and environmental statements.
● SEA is making a positive contribution to plans in various sectors and at various planning levels, as a minimum as an awareness raising exercise and as a maximum through delivering real change in direction.
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Weaknesses
● Assembling the right baseline information often proves to be difficult as decisions have to be made on how much of and what kind of information should be collated. This may result in not very well targeted exercises (and very lengthy reports) which aren’t effective decision-making and public consultation tools.
● Many plan makers have difficulty in generating reasonable alternatives, in particular for higher level plans.
● The SEA Directive doesn’t indicate what constitutes a ‘reasonable alternative’ and that has led to different interpretations of ‘reasonability’ and in some cases to no alternatives being considered at all.
● SEA is changing the contents of the plans only slightly in most cases. There is a fairly widespread perception among plan makers that they merely need to show to be taking account of the Directive rather than actually changing the plan to accommodate major SEA recommendations.
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Opportunities
● As SEA as an iterative process during plan development evolves and matures this will provide opportunities for shorter and more focussed plan making processes. Recessionary trends will very likely accelerate this.
● Early influencing of the objectives of the plan through the SEA provides an excellent opportunity to embed the SEA objectives in the plan objectives.
● As plan makers become more familiar with the SEA process there is more scope for real change of direction to be achieved (rather than just minor changes being made to the plans) as plan makers themselves can be advocates for SEA.
● Closer cooperation between the planning and environmental teams in the preparation of plans and in extremis the fusion of the two teams into one single team will lead to plans which are more environmentally sustainable.
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Threats
● SEA process has proved to be relatively lengthy, introducing additional iterations into plan making and additional and wider consultation. Processes in England and Portugal appear to have coped well with these additional requirements by building in additional time. In Poland there appears to be an issue with the length of time allowed to the extent that SEA is undertaken in a rush to the potential detriment of its quality.
● Undertaking SEA as EIA (ie. very little or no iterative process as the plan develops) works against achieving the desired result of improving the environmental performance of the plan.
● It is particularly difficult to ensure that environmental recommendations which are not in alignment with the prevailing political vision are implemented in the plan.
● Also, there is often not much place for ‘negative’ assessment with attempts being made by plan makers to change the direction of the assessment.
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Future vision and way forward“SEA must be embedded in plan making and achieve a real change of direction
in the plans”
● During SEA Scoping, there is a need to target the information to address the significant decisions that the plan is making and effectively scope out issues and information which aren’t relevant.
● More emphasis should be given to start the SEA process as soon as the planning process begins.
● Sufficient time needs to be built into the planning process to accommodate the requirements of SEA.
● More guidance is required on how to generate alternatives and on what constitutes a ‘reasonable’ alternative.
● Time must be invested by those undertaking SEA in early discussions to ‘educate’ planners on SEA matters and then throughout the process to ensure that the SEA has a real influence on the plan.
