An overview of strategic environmental assessment for watershed development planning in China: Moving towards more effective involvement in green development

Among all kinds of developmental plans under the legal requirements for strategic environmental assessments (SEA) in China, SEA involving watershed development planning (WDP) is characterized by the longest evolution history, the most time-consuming procedure, and the most complicated assessment. In order to help under-standing of the development and context of Chinese WDP-SEA, an introduction was made here to display its management rules, technical framework, and the progress in practice. Besides, by collecting 25 state-level cases completed during the period of 2014-2019, the substantive SEA performance was portrayed through the chief elements of evaluation indicators, recommendations on planning improvement and the mitigation measures. A literature review invovling 46 researches showed the procedural effectiveness has been ensured by increasingly complete regulations, technical guidelines, and rigorous review. To further promote contributions of the WDP-SEA to watershed environmental management and green development, it is suggested to strengthen the impact assessments related with biodiversity and climate change and linking SEA works with such new governing de-vices as the three-lines & one-list, and the river chief system in China.

Automated summary

Among all kinds of developmental plans under SEA in China, WDP is the most complex and time-consuming. This article introduces the management rules, technical framework, and progress in practice of Chinese WDP-SEA. The substantive SEA performance is portrayed through evaluation indicators, recommendations, and mitigation measures collected from 25 state-level cases. The procedural effectiveness has been ensured by complete regulations, technical guidelines, and rigorous review.