Journal
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT REVIEW
Volume 31, Issue 2, Pages 154-160Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC
DOI: 10.1016/j.eiar.2009.12.003
Keywords
Strategic environmental assessment; Cumulative effects assessment; Conceptual challenges; Methodological challenges; Integration
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The constraints to assessing and managing cumulative environmental effects in the context of project-based environmental assessment are well documented, and the potential benefits of a more strategic approach to cumulative effects assessment (CEA) are well argued; however, such benefits have yet to be clearly demonstrated in practice. While it is widely assumed that cumulative effects are best addressed in a strategic context, there has been little investigation as to whether CEA and strategic environmental assessment (SEA) are a 'good fit' - conceptually or methodologically. This paper identifies a number of conceptual and methodological challenges to the integration of CEA and SEA. Based on results of interviews with international experts and practitioners, this paper demonstrates that: definitions and conceptualizations of CEA are typically weak in practice; approaches to effects aggregation vary widely; a systems perspective lacks in both SEA and CEA; the multifarious nature of SEA complicates CEA; tiering arrangements between SEA and project-based assessment are limited to non-existing; and the relationship of SEA to regional planning remains unclear. (c) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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