Journal of Environmental Assessment Policy and Management, Dec 1, 1999
Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) aims to assess the environmental effects of proposed pol... more Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) aims to assess the environmental effects of proposed policies, plans and programmes (PPPs), governing sectoral activities such as transport, agriculture, industry and tourism. Integrated Environmental Assessment (IEA) aims to assess the environmental effects of societal activities and government policy, not in respect to a particular proposed PPP, but in general. The thesis of this paper is that, in particular at the national and international level, SEA and IEA are instruments with complementary roles in the policy making process. A truly pro-active approach requires application of IEA next to SEA. They can also strengthen one another by making use of the same assessment tools. The paper makes use of the experiences of European practitioners of SEA and IEA. It makes no explicit reference to the general theory of planning and policy making, but the experiences and ideas are considered to be of use to practioners as well as policy makers and academics. The paper first describes the context of SEA and IEA — mainly in Europe — and then compares them on key characteristics. This leads to a discussion of the relationship between the two, possibilities for improvement and conclusions.
Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning, Sep 1, 2003
ABSTRACT This article contributes to bridging the gap between theories on Impact Assessment and t... more ABSTRACT This article contributes to bridging the gap between theories on Impact Assessment and theories on (complex) decision making. Impact Assessment theories assume that causal impact analysis may provide information that contributes to better decision making in complex situations. These are situations where alternative courses of action have complex ramifications for impact. However, so-called rational knowledge is often available through Impact Assessment, but not used in decision making. Explanations can be found in two kinds of logic characterizing collective decision making. First, societal problems are complex and, therefore, multi-rational. Providing more information does not help to reduce complexity or to overcome multi-rationality. Second, the increasing need to co-operate results in high process dynamics, where irrationality and emotions prevail and information is gathered to underpin these ‘irrationalities’. At present, Impact Assessment seems to be insufficient to attain the societal transitions that may be necessary for genuine sustainable development. The authors argue that Impact Assessment should incorpor ate tenable assertions about the logic of the decision-making processes in which the assessments should be used. Only, perhaps, in such circumstances can a more effective process based on multi-rational argumentation and plausibility be achieved. It is the authors' conviction that an improved understanding of multi-rational processes can contribute significantly to new types of Impact Assessment that more effectively support sustainable development.
If climate change will occur in line with expectations of the International Panel on Climate Chan... more If climate change will occur in line with expectations of the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), some challenging problems have to be dealt with all over the world. Especially the deltas of our world are facing increased dangers of flooding. The Netherlands is one of the world’s most developed and densely populated delta areas. The Netherlands and many other deltas have a long tradition of flooding protection measures and accompanying measures against dropping of the ground level and related salt water intrusion in the peat meadow areas and for increasing water discharges in large rivers. Some climate experts argue that these ‘traditional’ measures no longer will be sufficient and perceive existing governments’ repertoire as inert: either the measures taken are not decisive enough, or they are only incremental improvements of existing measures which are no longer compatible with the challenges we face. If this is the case, the catastrophe theory, as one of the theories under the rubric of complexity theories, assumes that external tensions on the inert system will build up, even though this is neglected. At a certain moment, however, traditional responses no longer will work. A small variation in the weather system then can trigger unexpected system shocks leading to small or large catastrophes. What happened in the UK and along the Danube in the last
Journal of Environmental Assessment Policy and Management, Dec 1, 1999
Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) aims to assess the environmental effects of proposed pol... more Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) aims to assess the environmental effects of proposed policies, plans and programmes (PPPs), governing sectoral activities such as transport, agriculture, industry and tourism. Integrated Environmental Assessment (IEA) aims to assess the environmental effects of societal activities and government policy, not in respect to a particular proposed PPP, but in general. The thesis of this paper is that, in particular at the national and international level, SEA and IEA are instruments with complementary roles in the policy making process. A truly pro-active approach requires application of IEA next to SEA. They can also strengthen one another by making use of the same assessment tools. The paper makes use of the experiences of European practitioners of SEA and IEA. It makes no explicit reference to the general theory of planning and policy making, but the experiences and ideas are considered to be of use to practioners as well as policy makers and academics. The paper first describes the context of SEA and IEA — mainly in Europe — and then compares them on key characteristics. This leads to a discussion of the relationship between the two, possibilities for improvement and conclusions.
Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning, Sep 1, 2003
ABSTRACT This article contributes to bridging the gap between theories on Impact Assessment and t... more ABSTRACT This article contributes to bridging the gap between theories on Impact Assessment and theories on (complex) decision making. Impact Assessment theories assume that causal impact analysis may provide information that contributes to better decision making in complex situations. These are situations where alternative courses of action have complex ramifications for impact. However, so-called rational knowledge is often available through Impact Assessment, but not used in decision making. Explanations can be found in two kinds of logic characterizing collective decision making. First, societal problems are complex and, therefore, multi-rational. Providing more information does not help to reduce complexity or to overcome multi-rationality. Second, the increasing need to co-operate results in high process dynamics, where irrationality and emotions prevail and information is gathered to underpin these ‘irrationalities’. At present, Impact Assessment seems to be insufficient to attain the societal transitions that may be necessary for genuine sustainable development. The authors argue that Impact Assessment should incorpor ate tenable assertions about the logic of the decision-making processes in which the assessments should be used. Only, perhaps, in such circumstances can a more effective process based on multi-rational argumentation and plausibility be achieved. It is the authors' conviction that an improved understanding of multi-rational processes can contribute significantly to new types of Impact Assessment that more effectively support sustainable development.
If climate change will occur in line with expectations of the International Panel on Climate Chan... more If climate change will occur in line with expectations of the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), some challenging problems have to be dealt with all over the world. Especially the deltas of our world are facing increased dangers of flooding. The Netherlands is one of the world’s most developed and densely populated delta areas. The Netherlands and many other deltas have a long tradition of flooding protection measures and accompanying measures against dropping of the ground level and related salt water intrusion in the peat meadow areas and for increasing water discharges in large rivers. Some climate experts argue that these ‘traditional’ measures no longer will be sufficient and perceive existing governments’ repertoire as inert: either the measures taken are not decisive enough, or they are only incremental improvements of existing measures which are no longer compatible with the challenges we face. If this is the case, the catastrophe theory, as one of the theories under the rubric of complexity theories, assumes that external tensions on the inert system will build up, even though this is neglected. At a certain moment, however, traditional responses no longer will work. A small variation in the weather system then can trigger unexpected system shocks leading to small or large catastrophes. What happened in the UK and along the Danube in the last
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