Scenarios for a common system of Strategic Environmental Assessment for urban and territorial planning in Italy

Abstract

Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) in the field of urban and territorial planning is a peculiar form of policy evaluation. SEA differs from evaluations applied to policies in other fields and is undergoing changes over time. This article briefly analyzes a horizontal comparison between the main aspects of assessment in different fields of public policy and then a diachronic comparison between different approaches to SEA applied to urban and territorial planning over time. From this analysis, it is possible to affirm that SEA, differently from other assessments, is not centralized, doesn’t have external evaluators, is not performance-oriented, and does not imply the allocation of financial resources. Two possible scenarios for the future of SEA are drawn: an optimistic one in which a formal-bureaucratic approach is abandoned in search of more substance, and a more pessimistic one in which SEA is used as a tool to dismiss substantial critiques of urban and territorial planning. Under these two scenarios, some proposals for the improvement of the SEA system are described, also through a critical reading of some innovations in environmental assessment structures in Tuscany.

Keywords: Strategic Environmental Assessment, urban planning, territorial planning, Agenda 2030