Emerging approaches to integrated appraisal in the UK
Paul Tomlinson2005, Impact Assessment …
Sign up for access to the world's latest research
checkGet notified about relevant papers
checkSave papers to use in your research
checkJoin the discussion with peers
checkTrack your impact
Abstract
AI
AI
Integrated appraisal is gaining traction in the UK public sector as a response to sustainable development policies and acknowledging social welfare within environmental regulations. This paper examines integrated appraisal's implementation in UK environmental regulation, highlighting its usage in catchment abstraction management strategies and the planning framework under the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004. It suggests a systematic two-stage approach to integrated appraisal for improving decision-making processes while balancing regulatory obligations with effective integrated assessments.
Related papers
Ensuring effective sustainability appraisal
Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal, 2002
Environmental and sustainability appraisals of development plans have been carried out in the UK for the last ten years. They have been relatively effective in integrating environmental/sustainability considerations in the plans and improving plan-making. However, this system will change in the next two years as European Directive 2001/42/EC becomes operational. This article considers how strategic environmental assessment effectiveness, and factors that contribute to it, can be 'measured'. Based on four questionnaires of UK planning authorities carried out between 1994 and 2001, it summarises the evolution and current status of UK development plan appraisal. It considers likely changes that will result from implementing the Directive's requirements in the UK, and concludes with lessons that should help to ensure that the most effective aspects of appraisal are kept as the regulatory context is changed.
Participation in sustainability appraisal planning policy
Proceedings of the ICE - Municipal Engineer, 2010
UK spatial planning guidance now recognises the importance of engaging stakeholders in appraisal processes at an early stage in the plan-making process. Regional planning authorities are required to consult with a wide range of stakeholders on the development of planning policy and the sustainability appraisal of that policy. However, there is no clear indication as to how they might go about this process, other than to confront the various stakeholders with a sustainability appraisal report. Participation in sustainability appraisal therefore still relies on reaction to a technical appraisal of an existing plan – and in this situation stakeholders might lack the incentive to participate. More thoughtful ways need to be devised to involve people in the sustainability debate so that spatial policy more accurately reflects their knowledge and aspirations. The focus of this paper is to investigate ways in which sustainability appraisal of spatial plans can be made more accessible and t...
Sustainability appraisal: jack of all trades, master of none?
Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal, 2009
Sustainable development is a commonly quoted goal for decision making and supports a large number of other discourses. Sustainability appraisal has a stated goal of supporting decision making for sustainable development. We suggest that the inherent flexibility of sustainability appraisal facilitates outcomes that often do not adhere to the three goals enshrined in most definitions of sustainable development: economic growth, environmental protection and enhancement, and the wellbeing of the human population. Current practice is for sustainable development to be disenfranchised through the interpretation of sustainability, whereby the best alternative is good enough even when unsustainable. Practitioners must carefully and transparently review the frameworks applied during sustainability appraisal to ensure that outcomes will meet the three goals, rather than focusing on a discourse that emphasises one or more goals at the expense of the other(s).
Sustainability appraisal of English regional plans: incorporating the requirements of the EU Strategic Environmental Assessment Directive
Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal, 2001
Current Practice in the Strategic Environmental Assessment of Development Plans in England
Regional Studies, 2004
S M., J C., C J., B M. and W C. (2004) Current practice in the strategic environmental assessment of development plans in England, Reg. Studies 38, 177-190. In the UK, strategic environmental assessment has been applied to the full hierarchy of development plans in the form of environmental appraisal. Government guidance in England contains a forceful recommendation to local planning authorities to assess the environmental effects of proposed development plans by carrying out an environmental appraisal of their policies and proposals. This advice has grown in importance with the adoption of the European Directive on strategic environmental assessment. Research undertaken into current appraisal practice provides a context for the implementation of the Directive in England. The results show a broadly positive outlook towards strategic environmental assessment and a move towards using sustainability appraisal. Furthermore, they show other benefits from the process additional to assessing the core environmental impacts of the plan. However, it is clear that there remain major structural weaknesses and concerns in the manner in which strategic environmental assessment processes are implemented. Thus, more than two-thirds of the respondents to a survey stated that the appraisal had little or no influence on development plan objectives and policies, and nearly two-thirds believed that their plan would have developed in the same manner without any appraisal having been undertaken. Environmental appraisal Sustainability appraisal Development plans Strategic environmental assessment S M., J C., C J., B M. et W C. (2004) Les pratiques en vigueur quant aux études stratégiques de l'impact sur l'environnement des schémas directeurs en Angleterre, Reg. Studies 38, 177-190. Au Royaume-Uni, une étude stratégique de l'impact sur l'environnement est sous forme d'une évaluation de l'impact sur l'environnement quand elle appliqué à toute l'hiérarchie des schémas directeurs. En Angleterre, l'administration centrale recommande avec vigueur aux commissions d'urbanisme des administrations locales d'étudier les effets environnementaux des schémas directeurs proposés en évaluant leurs politiques et leurs propositions.
Strategic environmental assessment of policies and plans: legislation and implementation
Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal, 2000
provisions for third-party standing. The aims of such a framework would be to make policy EA a routine part of policy formulation.
Auditing the Assessment of the Environmental Impacts of Planning Projects
Journal of Environmental Planning and …, 2000
Joining up or pulling apart? The use of appraisal to coordinate policy making for sustainable development
Environment and Planning A, 2009
approaches to policy making are said to be an immensely important ingredient in the effective governance of sustainable development. There are, however, few detailed empirical studies of how well different policy coordination instruments perform in relation to this task. This paper identifies the United Kingdom as a critical test of how to achieve better policy coordination because it has been regularly identified as an exemplar of best practice in international benchmarking exercises. Specifically, it examines the integration of the environment into mainstream policy making through the application of policy appraisal in the strategically important areas of energy, defence, and public spending. Overall, it finds that the UK's much vaunted approach to coordinating the governance of sustainable development has struggled to tame the forces of departmentalism. While deploying carefully packaged combinations of coordinating instruments may address some causes of non-joined-up behaviour, perfectly coherent policy making is always likely to remain tantalisingly out of reach.
Environmental impact assessment: introduction to a policy instrument manifesting sustainable development
Environmental Impact Assessment in the Arctic
The Contribution of Environmental Assessment to Sustainable Development: Toward a Richer Empirical Understanding
Environmental Management, 2007
It has long been suggested that environmental assessment has the potential to contribute to sustainable development through mechanisms above and beyond informing design and consent decisions, and while theories have been proposed to explain how this might occur, few have been subjected to rigorous empirical validation. This research advances the theoretical debate by building a rich empirical understanding of environmental assessment's practical outcomes, from which its potential to contribute to sustainable development can be gauged. Three case study environmental assessment processes in England were investigated using a combination of data generated from content analysis, in-depth interviews, and a questionnaire survey. Four categories of outcomes are delineated based on the research data: learning outcomes; governance outcomes; attitudinal and value changes; and developmental outcomes. The data provide a robust critique of mainstream theory, with its focus on design and consent decisions. The article concludes with an examination of the consequences of the context-specific nature of environmental assessment practices in terms of developing theory and focusing future research.
Related topics
Related papers
Ex-ante sustainability appraisal of national-level policies: A comparative study of assessment practice in seven countries
Berlin Conference …, 2004
An institutional analysis of methods for environmental appraisal
Ecological Economics, 2009
This paper focuses on a set of issues when choosing between methods for environmental appraisal. Approaches like cost benefit analysis/contingent valuation, multicriteria analysis and deliberative methods are based on very different assumptions concerning the characteristics of environmental resources, the capacities of the individuals involved and the role the methods play in framing the process. The present paper views environmental appraisal methods as institutional structures. They are seen as rules concerning a) who should participate and in which capacity, b) what is considered data and which form data should take, and c) rules about how a conclusion is reached. Specifically, the choice of method defines the logic of the appraisal process and next influences the output. While cost benefit analysis is based on the assumption of individual rationality, deliberative methods assume that individuals can act according to social rationality. The first part of the paper is devoted to clarifying what institutions are and their role in the valuation process. Second, the main features of environmental or ecosystem services and the demands they raise for decision-making are described. A general framework for evaluating appraisal methods is then developed. Finally, this structure is elaborated in more detail as a basis for deciding over the choices of methods in the case of evaluating ecosystem services. A set of unresolved issues are identifiedespecially related to how the choice of appraisal methods themselves should be instituted.
Environmental statements, environmental information, environmental assessment and the UK planning process
Project Appraisal, 1997
Since 1988 and the introduction into UKplanning of the requirement for formal environmental impact assessment (EIA) of major projects, there has been much research on the quality of the environmental statements (ESs) submitted with planning applications. Yet the ES is only one part of the total environmental in formation (El); its quality does not necessarily reflect the overall quality of the EIA process or of the decisions which flow from it. Ten case studies demonstrate this point, the complexprocess of gathering environmental information, and its relationship to the ES and decisionmaking. while the ES remains a key feature of EIA, it is open far less significant than the mass of other information assessed by local planning authorities in making decisions on major projects.
Integrated Appraisal Methods
All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the Environment Agency. The views expressed in this document are not necessarily those of the Environment Agency. Its officers, servant or agents accept no liability whatsoever for any loss or damage arising from the interpretation or use of the information, or reliance upon views contained herein. Dissemination Status Internal: Released to Regions External: Publicly Available Statement of Use This report is to inform a variety of Agency staff and limited number of external contacts of the methods available to Agency policy makers to undertake integrated appraisals as part of its decision making process. It will help Agency policy makers select the most appropriate appraisal tools for the decision process they are undertaking.
On the role (s) of (strategic) environmental assessment in ‘greening’decision making
2009
NB: In this presentation, the main focus is on what is normally referred to as strategic environmental assessment (SEA) of policies, plans and programmes. However, at times, relevant information coming out of the project environmental impact assessment (EIA) literature will also be provided. This is because the boundaries between EIA and SEA are far from clear cut. Furthermore, EIA at times covers actions that could also be considered strategic (eg big-project EIA in the Netherlands).
Loading Preview
Sorry, preview is currently unavailable. You can download the paper by clicking the button above.