Institutional improvement measures for environmental assessment in the pursuit of eco-friendly ocean renewable energy development in South Korea

This paper aims to identify institutional improvement measures to promote environmentally sustainable ocean renewable energy development by analyzing how the environmental assessment systems in South Korea are integrated into this development. The measures identified in the paper include (1) consideration of subjecting ocean renewable energy development to strategic environment assessment in order to assess the adequacy of relevant project plans and the validity of site selection at early stages, (2) new standards, such as the area of occupancy, integrated within the environmental impact assessment at the project implementation stage, (3) integration of the environmental impact assessment with the procedures for Consultation on Utilization of Sea Areas to reduce development cost, and delays and (4) reinforcement of post-development environmental monitoring processes to eliminate uncertainty or lack of knowledge about potential impacts on marine environment and habitat caused by development. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.