Jan Nuesink
Consultant Environment
+31 33 468 2713
jan.nuesink@dhv.com
8 - Roads and Regional Development
EIA or SEA
Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) are two related tools with the purpose to promote an environmentally sound development and to provide information regarding environmental effects of the proposed activity to the decision maker. The differences between the two tools is the more strategic approach of SEA, applied to policies, plans and programmes such as the national infrastructure plan, while EIA is focused on projects such as construction of a road section.
The Environmental Assessment (EIA and SEA) is usually summarized in a report, containing different alternatives to reach the goal of the activity, the significant environmental effects of the proposed activity, mitigation measures to decrease the environmental impacts and a non-technical summary.
The benefits of carrying out an Environmental Assessment in a road project are:
- Improved planning of the road construction as the Environmental Assessment brings structure into the road development procedure;
- Decreased the probability of problems occurring during construction as several alternatives have been considered and the most appropriate location chosen for the project;
- Ensure that environmental standards are fulfilled, which otherwise can result in fines or lost credibility of the developer;
- Save costs as all environmental impacts are considered in the planning phase where they can be avoided or reduced to a lower cost than taking measures after the actual construction;
- Reduced use of resources, time and money, as the planning is more structurised, all information are put on the table and considered and maybe most important, the public is involved in the process and by this decreasing the delays caused by appeals and get a more accepted project.
Tools from P4R
Latvia - Latgale Cooperation Project Visit Report - Site Visit of the E22 (A6 and A12) Riga to Terehova - December 2005. With information about the development along E22 in Latvia including undertaking EIA and SEA.
Lithuania and Latvia - Fetch and Deliver - Brief Report of an Expert Visit to Lithuania - August 2005. With information about European guidelines and Directives about habitat fragmentation, noise, air pollution and the general process of EIA.
Links to relevant information on the web
Roads and the Environment: A Handbook (pdf). With general information about the Environmental Assessment process.
UNECE’s Resource Manual on SEA. A manual on how to carry out a Strategic Environmental Assessment.
IAIA - International Association for Impact Assessment. With news and activities for Environmental Assessment experts. IAIA was initiated in 1980 to bring together researchers, practitioners and users of various types of Impact Assessment from all parts of the world.
Netherlands Commission for EIA, a english database of SEAs and EIAs in different sectors, including transport
Strategic Environmental Assessment Information. Is an information services providing a gateway to the latest information on Strategic Environmental Assessment and Sustainability Appraisal.
Environmental Assessment EU: Information from the Euroepan Commission with legal texts and guidance about EIA and SEA.
Road planning between procedure, interactive process and content. A paper with lessons from The Netherlands about how road planners can deal with EIA and SEA procedures.
