Strategic Environmental Assessment

The government has a new responsibility to undertake Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) in relation to major development plans and programmes. SEA requires a thorough appraisal of the social, economic and environmental implications of alternative future programmes, strategies or scenarios - and communication of this analysis to the wider public - with a view to identifying the best overall options, mechanisms to promote them, appropriate mitigation and an environmental management plan. It goes beyond EIA in so far as it makes a comprehensive assessment of incremental and cumulative issues, which have never been effectively addressed through one-off assessments of individual developments. In so doing it addresses the larger issues of environmental capacity and wider economic impact.

Strategic environmental assessment is a key tool in the delivery of sustainable development, and the implementation of the associated ideas of the ecosystem approach and the precautionary principle.

High quality SEA requires that social, economic and environmental issues are addressed in an integrated way - not by teams of specialist individuals who often fail to communicate effectively with each other - but by a coherent and integrated team of highly experienced consultants, who can understand the varied perspectives of the major players and the constraints acting on them, and who can understand each other. We can provide such a team.

Click here for relevant project experience

Who we are Our Services Project Experience Our Consultants and Advisors Reports & Papers The Big Project Links Contact Us