Strategic environmental assessment

Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) is currently the single most important direction in EA. The main forms of SEA include policy, issue-based, geographical, temporal, technological, sectoral and generic-project EA. SEA of policies and associated legislative proposals is most critical. Without policy SEA, governments can and do adopt unsustainable policies that override the effects of project-scale EA. Policy SEA has been provided for in formal EA frameworks in some countries, including the USA and Australia, since these were first established decades ago; but is is rarely carried out in practice. Formal and enforceable mechanisms to trigger SEA of government policies, and incorporate the outcomes into policy and legislation, need to pursued worldwide.