Quality review package for strategic environmental assessments of land-use plans

Summary, in English

Increasing application of strategic environmental assessment (SEA) of land-use plans has been accompanied by concerns about their quality. This paper suggests a tool for the systematic evaluation of the quality of SEA reports, based on criteria derived from formal SEA provisions, including the draft European Union SEA Directive, general objectives and principles of SEA and reports of good SEA practice. These criteria are reflected in 70 ‘review topics’ organised in a ‘package’, similar in its structure to the Lee-Colley EIS (environmental impact statement) Quality Review Package. The paper discusses the results of the pilot application of the review package in the UK and Sweden and concludes that it sets a sufficiently high yet practically achievable standard for SEA reports. The suggested review package can be used not only as a tool for quality control but also as a checklist in preparing SEA reports and for drafting SEA guidance.