IAIA’08
Perth Australia
4 –10 may 2008
SEA: theory, praxis and methodology in
European and Italian contexts
Some examples
V.Bettini, E. Furlan, C. Rosnati
Bettini@iuav.it
Contents
SEA as an efficient planning tool on an
environmental basis
SEA as interpreted by European and Italian
legislation
SEA in practise: effects of a plan on the territory
and SEA efficiency
SEA as an efficient planning tool on an
environmental basis
Some essential conditions
SEA is a part of a planning process and not an
authorisation procedure
SEA should not be mistaken for just a ‘large’ EIA
applied to plans and programmes
SEA should not follow the same procedural scheme as
EIA
SEA should be based on cumulative effects analysis
and assessment
Some essential conditions
SEA should be involved in selection and assessment of
alternatives and not start when the plan is already
definite
Directive 2001/42/CE:
The environmental assessment referred to in article 3
shall be carried out during the preparation of a plan or
programme and before its adoption or submission to the
legislative procedure
European and national regulations requiring consideration of cumulative effects
EC Directives Environmental
Amendment Directive
Impact Assessment on EIA (97/11/EC)
(EIA) (85/337/EEC) (2003/35/CE)
Habitat Directive
(92/43/EEC)
amended by 97/62/EC
Strategic Environmental
Assessment (2001/42/EC)
Implementing
Italian
Regulations
EIA (L.349/86)
application fields:
DPCM 377/88 and
12/27/88 DPR
4/12/96
Dlgs. 152/2006
DPR 357/97
currently under revision amended by
DPR 120/2003
Dlgs. 152/2006 currently under
revision
Relevant
section of
regulation or
directive
Annex 3 (4): a
description of likely
significant effects of
the proposed
project should
include the
‘cumulative’
effects of the
project
Schedule 4 part I: a
description of the likely
significant effects to
include cumulative
effects & selection
criteria for screening
schedule 2
developments includes
‘cumulation with other
projects’
Part IV (48) An ‘appropriate
assessment’ should be
carried out by a competent
authority before authorising
a plan or project which is
likely to have significant
effect on a European site
either alone or in
combination with other
plans and projects
EC Directive: Annex I:
Information to be provided in
the environmental report on the
likely significant effects to
include ‘cumulative and
synergistic’ effects & annex II
on the criteria for determining
likely significance of effects
should include the ‘cumulative
nature of the effects’
Applications
Projects
Projects
Projects and plans affecting Plans and programmes
special Areas of
Conservation
Requirement
Environmental
statement
Environmental
statement
Appropriate assessment
Environmental Report
SEA and public participation
Public Participation is an essential part of SEA Process
(as defined by the Directive 2001/42/CE and by the
previous conventions of Aarhus and Expoo)
It should start in a preliminary stage of planning,
contribute to the choice of indicators to be used in the
selection of alternatives and the weight to be attributed
to the indicators,
actively involve all the interested stakeholders and it
should not limit itself to a single act of formal public
consultation
The steps of SEA as planning process
on environmental basis
Identification of scenarios
Cumulative impact
assessment
Analysis and
assesment of scenarios
Plan definition
Assessment report draft
SIMULTANEOUS START OF
PARTICIPATION:
- stakeholders identification
- participation method selection
Based on:
- CEA results
- Participation input
Based on previous steps
Including:
- description of the whole
assessment process
- monitoring plan
Public presentation
Possible correction measures
Plan approval
SEA as interpreted in Italian legislation
SEA in the Italian legislation
SEA as an authorization procedure and not a part of the
planning process
SEA follows the similar scheme adopted for the
environmental assessment of a project (EIA)
The need for Cumulative Effects Assessment is
mentioned only once and in an unclear way, within the
definition of ‘environmental assessment’:
Change in the environment that could be qualitative and/or
quantitative, direct and indirect, short, medium and long-term,
permanent and temporary, single and cumulative, positive and
negative.
The steps of SEA
as authorization procedure
Draft plan
Is SEA required?
Exclusion
(with possible prescriptions)
SEA procedure
Preliminary report
including:
- plan description
- information and data
to verify significant
impacts
Environmental Report (ER) draft
Public consultation
ER and consultation results assessment
Announcement of Decision
Monitoring programme
SEA in practise
Effects of a plan on the territory and
SEA efficiency
A case study
Study area
Veneto Region
Venice
Cessalto
Province of
Treviso
Area SIC/SPZ
IT3240008 Olmè wood
Ceggia
Province of
Venice
Wood dimension during the first industrial expansion
(1980
Current
states)
1740
1798-1805
1950s
Olmè Wood area
Alternative A
Alternative B
Alternative C
B
A
C
PTRC
PTRC
Regional Coordination and Territorial Plan
Measures against agricoltural
fragmentation
PGBTTR
General Plan of Rural Territory Drainage and Conservation
High protection
agricultural area
PTCP
Provincial Coordination and Territorial Plan
Ecological networks
A critical analysis of this approach
the use of DC G.I.S. to analyse
impacts
DC G.I.S. to analyse impacts
Dynamic Computational G.I.S. is a Java software tool designed and
implemented for multi-scenario environmental assessments. It is based on
numerical matrix correlation representing stressor elements and
environmental vulnerabilities on/of the territory to assess. DC G.I.S. analisys
follows Risk Analysis and Assessment, Exposure Assessment, Stressor
Identification Process and Environmental Control US EPA guidelines.
Impact analysis is carried out through the characterization of dynamic
interaction levels between human pressure components and environmental
vulnerability components expressed through space-temporal vector
functions.
Stressor Vulnerability Interaction Frame – SVIF
m
û1
v̂1
û2
v̂2
û3
SVIF
v̂3
û4
v̂4
û n
v̂n
K
Conceptual model to assess alternatives
PROCEDURE PHASE
DESCRIPTION
1
Assessment goals definition
Identification and description of
assessment goals
2
Analysis of available data supporting the
assessment
Selection and description of available
data concerning the study area
3
Preliminary considerations on potential impacts
generated by the proposed alternatives
Preliminary hypothesis on potential
impacts deriving from each alternative
analysed
4
Employment of Dynamic Computational G.I.S.
(DC GIS) system to assess impacts
Definition of assessment phases to be
realised using DC GIS software
5
Building of the stressor space
Identification and characterisation of
human pressure elements
6
Building of the vulnerabilities space
Identification and characterisation of
environmental vulnerability elements
7
Building of the Stressor Vulnerability Interaction
Frame (SVIF)
8
Identification of the main impact scenarios
9
Analysis of the impacts detected for every
scenario
Analysis of the possible interactions
between human pressure actions and
vulnerability components of the territory
Building and selection of impact
scenario
Impact assessment based on rules and
urban planning tools in force
San Stino di
Livenza
25130
25484
San Donà di
Piave
3746
Ceggia
Cessalto
3903
7613
San Stino di
Livenza
7849
San Donà di
Piave
Human pressure elements analysed
Indicators used in the assessment
Impact indicators
Indicators of environmental
system conditions
Atmospheric
impact (PM10)
generated by traffic
Biological
territorial capacity
–BTC-
noise generated by traffic
percolation of the
environmental system
Comparison of noise impact from different alternatives
Alternative A
Zero hypothesis
Alternative C
Alternative B
Comparison of atmospheric impact (PM10) from different alternatives:
high population density
Comparison of atmospheric impacts (PM10) from different alternatives:
lower population density
Alternative A
Zero hypothesis
Alternative C
Alternative B
Biological Territorial Capacity BTC
BTC is a synthetic function referred to vegetation, measured in
Mcal/m2/year, that expresses the flux of energy that an ecological
system must dissipate to mantain its degree of organisation and
metastability.
It provides a measure of metastability thresholds of landscape
system. Metastability means a ‘satisfactory condition of the
dynamic balance between natural processes and low impact
human actions’.
Territorial transformations on wide scale, in fact, are difficult to
measure, also in landscape. Often it is impossible to evaluate if a
change would be positive. However, it is possible to assess if the
changes in force are carrying the landscape to an unbalanced
condition, analysing its metastability.
BTC:
current
state
BTC:
post
project
state
Alternative C
Percolation
Percolation theory, formulated to study the behaviour of fluid spreading
randomly through a medium, has found an interesting application in
landscape ecology.
As in fluid behaviour, there is a critical threshold, around it an enviromental
system changes behaviour and conformation. For example, when
landscape fragmentation reaches its critical threshold, a small amount of
deforestation will be sufficient to eliminate the last percolating cluster and,
consequently, drammatically reducing the connectivity of the whole matrix.
Percolation in landscape ecology is an index that shows the ecological
connectivity of a territory. It shows the capability of a species to cross a
landscape mosaic formed by different patches
Percolation: post
current
statestate
Percolation:
project
Alternative C
Some considerations
The alternative B was subjected to 4 different environmental
assessment procedures which have highlighted several problems:
The project did not comply with European, National and Regional
procedures provided for the Appropriate Environmental Assessment
concerning actions in Special Protection Zones and Sites of Community
Importance
Cumulative and synergistic impacts with other present and future
plans/projects were not considered
Ecological systemic investigations at regional and local scale, which are
preparatory to an efficient assessment of impacts on habitats and
biological components, were not carried out.
Different options were not considered, such as do-nothing, traffic diversion
on the existing roads and other projected roads
While the EIA of the project procedes….
What about SEA?
SEA is making the first move now, and only on the
preliminary draft of the Intermunicipality Territorial Plan
SEA should come before, and not after the definite
project
SEA should be carried out at the eco-region scale and
not limited to the municipal boundaries
ASSESSMENT
PLANNING PROCESS
Quantitative and cumulative
assessment of impacts magnitude
deriving from interconnecting
projects
Planning process on territorial scale,
indipendent of administrative scale
Not only conservation, but also active
Impacts analysis on territorial scale,
indipendently from administrative
boundary
SEA as interpretive key for an
integrated and interdisciplinary reading of
the territory
planning aimed at the improvement
of
territorial potential
SEA as territorial strategic
planning and not as administrative duty
The complexity of planning process managed
Monitoring of the effects and
assessment of plan results
through the consensus
attainment
INTEGRATION BETWEEN PLANNING, ASSESSMENT AND DECISIONMAKING PROCESS