View article

Our interest in putting together a special issue on SEA theory arises from what we observe as increasing confusion amongst practitioners, policy-makers and scholars alike as to the particular role of SEA. This confusion has its origins in the recent proliferation of new assessment methods and processes (eg Sustainability Appraisal, Sustainability Impact Assessment, Integrated Assessment and Territorial Impact Assessment), all of which aim to influence strategic-level planning. At the same time, whilst scholars have emphasised that SEA should ‘add value’to existing planning and policy-making activities (cf. Partidário, 1999), evidence that planners and policy analysts already incorporate environmental considerations in their assessment of strategic initiatives (Boothroyd, 1995; Bailey and Dixon, 1999) would imply that a separate SEA process is not required. These developments represent a very real challenge to the …