Book Description

The book is useful, easy to read and a good addition to the references list of practitioners who use strategic environmental assessment as a day-to-day tool. Eagle Bulletin The European Directive on strategic environmental assessment requires implementing legislation and guidance in each of the European member states. Other countries worldwide are also establishing procedures for strategic environmental assessment. This very timely book on analytical strategic environmental assessment (ANSEA) deals head-on with the decision-making systems that these regulations and guidance documents are supposed to influence. ANSEA focuses on the quality of the decision-making process rather than on the impacts of the decision; on describing the decision process rather than the output of the decisions, and on ensuring full integration of environmental values in decision-making. From the foreword by Riki Therivel Analytical Strategic Environmental Assessment (ANSEA) is an insightful new approach to environmental evaluation, based on decision theory, policy analysis and environmental considerations. These concepts, though not new in their own fields of application, are combined and integrated in an innovative fashion. This book presents recent research on the implementation of the ANSEA approach which aims to ensure environmental values are properly integrated into the decision-making process. ANSEA was developed to contribute to the systematic integration of environmental protection objectives in strategic decision-making which, in turn, will contribute to the promotion of sustainable development. The method can be applied to analyse how environmental and sustainability issues are addressed in decision-making processes at both the national and local level for a variety of different policies. Importantly, the focus is on evaluating the decision-making process itself, rather than the quantitative output of an assessment. With explicatory examples and practical case studies, the distinguished, interdisciplinary authors clearly illustrate how a decision-centred approach to environmental assessment can be successfully achieved. At a time when a new European directive requires the implementation of strategic environmental assessment (SEA) into all relevant decision-making processes, this timely book will be required reading for environmental policymakers in all EU member states. It will also be a valuable source of information and reference for researchers, academics and consultants in the fields of planning, environmental evaluation and environmental management.