º£½ÇÊÓƵ

Our team has international experience delivering high quality strategic environmental assessment (SEA) for clients around the world.

SEA is a socio-environmental assessment that assesses strategic plans or programmes. This includes regional planning frameworks or development plans, as well as infrastructure plans of strategic significance.

While EIAs consider the impact of a development, building or masterplanning project on the environment, a SEA examines the impacts and implications of the policies and guidance set out in the strategic plan, as well as considering spatial implications.

Our experienced team of environmental assessors have delivered a number of international SEAs for regional planning frameworks. We are able to coordinate and deliver all stages of SEA, including socio-environmental baseline reports and assessments, scoping and engagement with regulatory authorities.

Strategic environmental assessment best practice

Our approach to SEA is based on best international practice and can be adapted to fit regional requirements and project types. It typically includes both a thematic assessment that evaluates policies and principles, as well as a spatial analysis.

Moreover, SEA is a tool best employed when undertaken in parallel with the development of a planning framework. In order to get the most value out of SEA, it should not be undertaken as an isolated assessment at the end of the framework development process. Nor should it be undertaken as a precursor to the final framework. It is a process that should inform and guide framework policies and plans as they develop. It should also provide an evaluation of their impacts – merits and deficiencies – when considered on a thematic level and as a complete package.

We take an integrated approach to Strategic environmental assessment consulting

The nature of SEA requires strategic input at the early development stages of regional frameworks and plans. We work closely with our in-house consulting teams, which includes economists, infrastructure specialists and other types of environmental experts, to provide efficient and integrated input that supports policymakers through the development of the planning framework.

Our multidisciplinary and global team of consultants draw on their assessment experience and practice within their local geographies to deliver tailored, region-specific insight and analysis. We are also committed to providing solutions that are developed in close collaboration with our clients and the project team. This approach is one of our key differentiators as it adds noticeable value to the relationship we have with clients.

We undertake full social and environmental baseline assessments, which inform the objectives and strategies that feed into the development of the framework as well as those relevant to the assessment. These assessments are then further developed within the SEA scoping process, which presents the methodology and seeks agreement on the approach with national and/or regional regulators. The final SEA report provides a full assessment and synthesis of the final planning or policy framework.