Strategic environmental assessment 

Strategic environmental assessment (SEA) is an assessment of likely social and environmental effects of strategic decisions (plans, programmes for the development of the region or industry). SEA is a methodical tool being actively developed and implemented in foreign countries. Although it is not widely spread in Russia, where there is still no legal basis for SEA.

In the EU SEA is governed by Directive of the European Parliament 2001/42/EC on the assessment of effects of certain plans and programmes on the environment (2001), as well as relevant national laws. International issues of SEA are defined by Kyiv (SEA) Protocol (2003) and UNECE Convention on environmental impact assessment in transboundary context (Espoo, 1991).

Currently, SEA is basically applied for evaluation of programs and plans of economic activities on early stages of spatial planning. SEA precedes EIA, performing a number of its functions.

Therefore SEA execution in Europe is performed with a use of worked out methods, developed for particular cases and particular countries. In Russia SEA is currently used in a little number of projects, mainly for urban development plans.

Nevertheless early implementation of SEA allows to

• optimize location by selecting the best of alternatives on pre-design stages,
• reduce expenses on follow-up EIA,
• significantly reduce the risk of negative decisions of authorities concerned.

DIEM recommends our clients implementation of SEA as a part of pre-investment surveys, although it is not required by Russian legislation

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