Overcoming implementation barriers: A method for designing Strategic Environmental Assessment guidelines

The effective application of SEA is still limited and needs to be steered through the dissemination of enhanced guidance documents. In this respect, administrative bodies in charge of SEA management have issued guidelines and manuals in order to address the major difficulties that hinder SEA implementation in the day-to-day practice. In this study, we propose a method that assists responsible agencies and professionals in the design of SEA guidance documents. The method uses a comparative approach which builds on the key elements of those documents. We have applied our method to the scrutiny of principles and contents of a selection of SEA guidelines released in the European Union. Results indicate that SEA guidelines should cover a minimum number of relevant issues, including early integration of SEA in the planning and programming processes, development of a fair and inclusive consultation, the construction of credible alternatives, and monitoring strategies. In addition, we found that good SEA guidance documents should build on empirical advice drawn from storytelling referred to a selection of case studies. Our work is intended to support European government agencies as well as practitioners in the design and update of SEA guidelines in a variety of cases, as the general principles that we outline can be systematically applied to any program and plan subject to SEA.