Research on Public Participation and Information Publicity in Strategic Environmental Assessment

It has been generally recognized that strategic environmental assessment integrates environment and development into decision-making and becomes an important decision-making tool for implementing sustainable development. This paper firstly introduces the relationships of SEA, public participation(PP)and information publicity(IP),then discusses the key parts in enforcing the effective process of PP: They are the methods for how to make sufficient information open (What), when to implement PP (When), who will determinate the public (Who), and how to make the models of PP (How). Six cases are compared and analyzed. At last, ways to improve the effectiveness of PP in China is also presented.

Quantitative evaluation of air pollution in transport strategic environmental assessment:a case study based on uncertainty analysis and graphic information system technology

Although the impact of road transport on urban air quality has achieved a high profile in China,still greater attention is required as it has not yet been considered fully even in relation to the road network linking cities and urban areas. Strategic environmental assessment (SEA) is a systematic and comprehensive process for evaluating the environmental impacts of a policy,plan or program in publicly accountable decision-making. Air pollution has been recognized as a significant issue in most transport SEA practices. The Strategic Environmental Assessment of the Hubei Road Network Plan (2002-2020) (HRNP) was introduced as one of the World Bank's pilot SEA projects. An effective framework was developed to investigate the functional relationship between the road network and its potential air pollutant emissions. In this study,two indicators were identified:emission intensity/ inventory of pollutants and the spatial distribution of the most polluted areas. Because strategic actions are inherently nebulous and data quality is often disappointing,three alternative scenarios were employed to address uncertainties and data/scale issues. Calculations were made using emission models and results were analyzed with the help of statistical tools and the geographic information system (GIS). The results from the project implementation and the feedback from the World Bank have both shown that the proposed framework is effective in the transport SEA process.

Planning Environmental Impact Assessment Orienting Sustainable Development: Opportunities and Challenges

Strategic Environmental Assessment is a frontier subject in the field of Environmental Impact Assessment. In the past two decades, especially in recent years, much more importance has been attached to Strategic Environmental Assessment. The Environmental Impact Assessment Law of the P.R. China which was promulgated provides a great opportunity for the development of Planning Environmental Impact Assessment and brings great challenges for the development of traditional Project Environmental Impact Assessment and Planning Environmental Impact Assessment at the same time. In order to promote the implementation of "The EIA Law", the inherent limitations of Project Environmental Impact Assessment must be identified sufficiently and the theory research and practice of Planning Environmental Impact Assessment should be strengthened as well. Measures should be taken currently to enforce the operation system. The authors wish to offer a few references to the progress and implementation of Planning Environmental Impact Assessment in China.

The State of Sea Systems and Practices in East and Southern Africa

This paper develops a comparative overview of SEA in Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa regarding legal, institutional and procedural perspectives, in order to assess their effectiveness and unveil main constrains. It is clear from this brief review that SEA is a tool of environmental governance that is of growing importance in East and Southern Africa. With regards to the institutional and legal framework, both Kenya and Tanzania have formal provisions for SEA, but no specific legislation. The main constrains on SEA effectiveness are related to the lack of a clear mandate and institutional framework, guidelines for procedures and public participation. As this analysis and case studies from the three countries examined here reveal, Kenya, Tanzania, and South Africa have expanded their use of SEA as a preventive mechanism for environmental policy and to enhance the efficiency of strategic decisions. While each of these countries has made great strides in developing the SEA process and integrating it into their decision-making processes, much work remains to be done. Ongoing refinement to the SEA process, both within this region and elsewhere in the world, will mean that this important tool integrates sustainable environmental management principles and practices into policies, plans, and programmes and the decision-making process.

Uncertainty analysis on aquatic environmental impacts of urban land use change

Uncertainties hamper the implementation of strategic environmental assessment(SEA).In order to quantitatively characterize the uncertainties of environmental impacts,this paper develops an integrated methodology through uncertainty analysis on land use change,which combines the scenario analysis approach,stochastic simulation technique,and statistics.Dalian city in China was taken as a case study in the present work.The results predict that the Fuzhou River poses the highest environmental pollution risk with a probability of 89.63% for COD in 2020.Furthermore,the Biliu River,Fuzhou River,Zhuang River,and Dasha River have 100% probabilities for NH3-N.NH3-N is a more critical pollutant than COD for all rivers.For COD,industry is the critical pollution source for all rivers except the Zhuang River.For NH3-N,agriculture is the critical pollution source for the Biliu River,Yingna River,and Dasha River,sewage for the Fuzhou River and Zhuang River,and industry for the Dengsha River.This methodology can provide useful information,such as environmental risk,environmental pressure,and extremely environmental impact,especially under considerations of uncertainties.It can also help to ascertain the significance of each pollution source and its priority for control in urban planning.