Strategic environmental assessment for sustainable urban development

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0195-9255(96)00071-6Get rights and content

Abstract

Strategic environmental assessment (SEA) evaluates the environmental impacts of policies, plans, and programs. This article examines the use of SEA for sustainable urban development. We first explore opportunities for SEA to promote sustainability principles. Then, we analyze case studies that have applied SEA to comprehensive planning. Our results indicate that SEA can effectively weave sustainability principles into the fabric of urban plans. Finally, we highlight both SEA's potential and its challenges for sustainable urban development.

References (18)

There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (65)

  • Land take in environmental assessments: Recent advances and persisting challenges in selected EU countries

    2021, Land Use Policy
    Citation Excerpt :

    Environmental assessments, such as the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) and the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) are legal instruments that can improve the consideration of environmental impacts that result from plans or projects, promote the identification of more environmentally friendly alternatives and contribute to more systematic and transparent planning (Köck et al., 2007; European Environment Agency, 2019b). The SEA can be an especially useful tool in the context of urban expansion, since it evaluates potential environmental impacts of urban development planning at a larger scale (Shepherd and Ortolano, 1996; Rega et al., 2018). The EIA can target land take for projects outside of settlement areas, e.g. quarries, road developments, ski areas or small urban development, such as shopping centres or health facilities (Geneletti, 2017).

  • Urban sustainable transportation planning strategies for livable City's quality of life

    2018, Habitat International
    Citation Excerpt :

    However, planning frameworks or assessment patterns that address the dynamics of urban planning and demand for transportation deploying are relatively rare. And, most urban planning frameworks or assessments in related fields focus specifically on evaluating environmental impacts and constructing specific analytical frameworks (Deakin, Curwell, & Lombardi, 2002; Shepherd & Ortolano, 1996; Xing, Horner, El-Haram, & Bebbington, 2009) rather than considered the essence of urban development as a dynamic or evolutional process. Furthermore, following the rising advancements in social communication and computer technologies in modern society, the data collection, storage, and processing capabilities of people have improved substantially.

  • Sustainability analysis of pedestrian and cycling infrastructure – A case study for Bangalore

    2018, Case Studies on Transport Policy
    Citation Excerpt :

    One of the advantages of the indicator-based framework is that it captures the sustainability impact of a transportation project before its implementation, and thus assists in an early examination of the projected impacts of policies, plans and programs (Shepherd and Ortolano, 1996). However, for this early assessment, one needs to integrate the methodology of indicator evaluation with comprehensive plans for future (Shepherd and Ortolano, 1996). This step is difficult, and the current study overcomes this issue using a mode choice model.

  • SEA making inroads in land-use planning in Brazil: The case of the Extreme South of Bahia with forestry and biofuels

    2013, Land Use Policy
    Citation Excerpt :

    SEA, therefore, fulfilled its role in the adaptation of the Plan to the laws, sectoral standards and the wishes of the local population. It proved to be consistent with the expected results found in SEA application literature (Noble, 2002; Shepherd and Ortolano, 1996; Termorshuizen et al., 2007; Therivel, 1998). The characteristic of this case is that the SEA is integrated to the forestry management agreement, which is lately the responsible to manage forestry land uses.

View all citing articles on Scopus
View full text