Handbook of Strategic Environmental Assessment, edited by Barry Sadler, Ralf Aschemann, Jiri Dusik, Thomas B. Fischer, Maria R. Partidário and Rob Verheem, London, UK, Earthscan, 2011, 621 pp., UK£75 (hardback), ISBN 978-1-84407-365-8.
Strategic environmental assessment (SEA) is a term used to describe varying approaches to the environmental appraisal of agenda-setting activities, which take place above or before the project level. This has been a topic of significant scholarly and policy interest for at least the last 15 years and a considerable amount of literature has been published on the subject.
The stated aim of the latest addition to this burgeoning literature, the Handbook of SEA, is to provide “a state-of-the-field review of SEA” that is comprehensive – thematically and spatially – in scope (p. 1). More specifically, the book is said to have three aims: “to take stock of international experience with SEA; to highlight key aspects and areas of process development and application; and to probe issues related to the quality and effectiveness of SEA practice” (p. 1).
The book is a product of a conference held in Prague in 2005, which was organised under the auspices of the International Association for Impact Assessment. SEA (and environmental policy and practice more generally) is a rapidly developing field, and it is therefore unfortunate that it has taken six years to get this book to print. Some chapters have been updated to take account of developments post the conference, but in other instances the content has not been updated. To what degree this book achieves its stated goal of providing a “state-of-the-field” account of SEA is thus contestable.
The book consists in total of 35 chapters. An introductory chapter, written by Barry Sadler, sets the scene with a short discussion of the multiplicity of ways in which SEA may be understood, followed by a précis of the following chapters, and finally a statement of key trends and common shortcomings distilled from the chapters. The remaining chapters are divided into six “parts,” covering: SEA frameworks; SEA application; linkages to other instruments; cross-cutting issues; process development and capacity-building; and finally, so-called integrated sustainability assessment. Each part of the Handbook includes varying numbers of chapters from just two (Part VI) to nine (Part I).
The majority of chapters summarise the proceedings of thematic workshops held during the conference, drawing on the presentations and deliberations which took place therein, albeit to greatly varying degrees. It is by incorporating a diverse range of conference contributions that the book achieves its broad thematic and geographical scope. This is an interesting approach for it holds the potential to systematically integrate a broad base of experiential knowledge into what is intended to be a core text within the field.
Nevertheless, I found the integration of the diversity of conference contributions into this book problematic in its execution. There are marked inconsistencies amongst the chapters in both the manner and extent to which authors have drawn upon workshop proceedings. In consequence, there is a lack of consistency and coherence across the book, which is further exacerbated by the occasional inclusion of chapters that do not report on workshops, but presumably originate from conference papers. Furthermore, in attempting to make use of the breadth of material presented within particular workshops in what are fairly short chapters, the text inevitably becomes superficial. Some weak chapters amount to little more than introduction and conclusion sections sandwiched around multiple boxes that summarise individual presentations (e.g. Chapters 25 and 33).
The chapters I found most interesting were the ones in which the use of material from a workshop was restricted precisely because these chapters tended to be considerably more detailed and coherent. For example, the reviews of SEA policy and practices in particular jurisdictions contained in Part I were invariably lucid, engaging and informative; they will be highly relevant to policy makers seeking to learn from international experiences.
The notion of SEA as a diffuse and contested concept is an issue that is addressed repeatedly in this book. Indeed, the book can be interpreted as an attempt to discursively reconstitute the boundaries of the SEA field. It is within this context – of deliberations upon what constitutes SEA and why, what links exist between SEA and other tools and why, etc. – that I find the book most interesting. In probing these boundaries, a number of critical questions surface. Maria Partidário, in a thought provoking chapter, raises the vexed question, ought SEA “adapt to the existing decision-making process or attempt to transform it” (p. 438); this interjection aptly draws attention to the stark differences in opinions which exist concerning the environmental and governance ambitions of SEA, a topic which tends to be obscured within the SEA literature by the preponderance for narrower discussions on policy models and practices.
Similarly, Bo Elling draws attention to the question of the role of values in strategic planning, which has been all but ignored by most contributors to the SEA literature and beyond. Is SEA then an instrument of ecological modernisation or something altogether more radical? The precise topics covered in this Handbook would probably be markedly different if it was based upon more recent SEA thinking, but the substantive questions raised by Partidário, Elling and other chapter authors remain as pertinent today as they were in 2005.
In summary, this Handbook contributes to the SEA literature by exploring the diversity of perspectives on what SEA constitutes and how it may be used. Through such discussions it highlights, albeit in a rather diffuse manner, a number of important contested topics. The book is aimed at a broad audience, but I think it is likely to be most useful to policy-makers, and to practitioners and scholars new to this field.
© 2012, Matthew Cashmore