Austria

Development

With the support of a study commissioned by the Federal Ministry titled “Integration Possibilities of Strategic Environmental Assessment into Nominal and Functional Spatial Planning”, plans and programs that could be affected by the SEA Directive were identified. The Ministry also initiated pilot projects, such as the SEA for the Tennengau Regional Program, to gather initial practical experience. Implementation proposals were discussed, and information on SEA was shared in various working groups and workshops.

Current Implementation Status and Materials

At the federal level, plans and programs particularly affected include areas such as waste, energy, noise, air, radiation protection, transport, water, and various EU funding programs. At the state level, depending on the type of plan or program, the affected areas include waste, hunting/fisheries, state roads, agriculture, noise, nature conservation, spatial planning, regional development, and water supply and disposal.

At both federal and state levels, various support materials (for example: guidance documents) have been developed for applying SEA, and two studies have been commissioned to assist implementation.

Once a year, an SEA information and experience exchange takes place between the SEA authorities of the federal and state levels. Additionally, in 2013, a SEA practice group was established to discuss practical, relevant issues. The experiences collected are summarized in SEA practice sheets. For several years, the BMLUK has been collecting SEA examples. Both the SEA practice sheets and SEA examples are available at strategischeumweltpruefung.at (Website in German only)

Advantages and Methods

With the help of SEA (Strategic Environmental Assessment), environmental aspects are given equal importance as economic or social considerations. SEA can be applied to all planning activities that precede the project level. In general, these planning levels can relate to policies—including legislative proposals—programs, and plans (PPP). SEA is increasingly used as an instrument for sustainable development.

Past experiences have shown that problems often arise in approval procedures because no planning or programmatic decisions—or only unbalanced ones—were made in advance. SEA enables the timely identification of such problems and helps to prevent them. Environmental aspects can be incorporated into planning processes at an early stage. Early identification of certain environmental issues provides additional information for decision-makers in administration and industry.

At the planning level, there is generally a corresponding scope for future activities. Within SEA, different alternatives to achieve the PPP objectives can be presented and evaluated. By examining various PPP options early on, the environmental impacts and overall consequences of different strategic options can be assessed and weighed. This allows decision-makers to identify more environmentally friendly alternatives and make strategic adjustments based on the information available before adopting a strategy.

This can prevent costly planning errors, as existing environmental burdens and expected future impacts can be identified and mitigated or compensated for in advance. SEA is understood as a process consisting of specific steps (see below). Adhering to these SEA steps or principles helps make the planning process more transparent, as it renders the entire planning procedure more traceable. The currently applied SEA systems generally follow similar steps, such as:

• Screening

• Definition of the assessment framework (Scoping)

• Consideration of alternatives

• Documentation (Environmental Report)

• Public participation

• Consideration of SEA in PPP adoption (Decision-making)

• Monitoring

In the screening, it is checked whether an SEA is to be carried out or not. Ideally, not every planning should be subjected to an SEA, but only those that are expected to have relevant impacts on the environment.

In scoping, the scope of the investigation is defined. It is determined which planned measures will be examined and with which methodology.

With the help of the alternatives assessment, different ways are to be presented in which the PPP objectives can be achieved. The aim is to present possible variants and collect corresponding information about the impacts of the individual variants in order to be able to make appropriate decisions.

As part of the documentation, the individual steps of the SEA should be presented in a comprehensible manner (for example in the form of an environmental statement). In the environmental statement, the relevant environmental impacts of the strategy as well as the alternatives on the protected goods should be described and evaluated. Since individual impacts are not the focus in an SEA, the environmental statement should particularly present interactions and cumulative effects.

The public affected by the planning should be informed and consulted during the planning process. Public participation can take place at various levels, for example in the definition of alternatives or during the scoping process as well as after the preparation of the environmental statement. This leads to an increased acceptance of the strategy by the affected public.

In monitoring, after a certain period of time, it is checked whether the assumptions made have actually occurred and whether the implementation of the planned measures corresponds to the PPP objectives or not. This review provides valuable information for subsequent planning or for intended plan changes.

Online information on Strategic Environmental Assessment

The platform strategischeumweltpruefung.at (Website in German only) provides information on Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), including a methodological toolkit for users to support practical guidance. It describes the contents of an SEA, offers an overview of the most important national and international laws, and provides information on the most essential methodological approaches. In addition, there are brief presentations of SEAs carried out in Austria as well as a comprehensive collection of links. The methodological toolkit, a set of useful and practical approaches, is intended to support the development of an individual process design tailored to the specific requirements of the plan or program.