| China has one of the fastest growing economies in the world and in recent years has achieved significant socio-economic development. However this growth is placing increased pressure on an already depleted natural environment. There is now increasing recognition that environmental and ecological issues are an integral component of national development. Facing the conflict between economic development and environmental protection in developing countries,Strategic environmental assessment (SEA) is recognised by the government and international organizations as an important tool that can be used to evaluate the environmental implications of government policies, plans, and programs in their decision-making processes. Carrying Strategic Environmental Assessment is being promoted through law in many parts of the world with the aim of integrating environmental consideration into decision-making process and improving sustainable development. In China, for the past ten years, there are remarkable progress on SEAdevelopment in many aspects, such as infrastructureconstruction, methodologies and techniques improvement, andpractitioners training. In addition, abundant practical experience wasgradually accumulated through many pilot studies and empiricalcases. Nevertheless, there are many major and serious challenges toSEA implementation in China according to the perception of practitionersactively engaged in the planning and implementation of SEA in China.Although it is generally agreed that SEA plays an important role in the decisions affecting the environment, SEA is currently experiencing increased pressure from decision makers and politicians to argue and prove its effectiveness. Recently, studies concerning this area have been accelerating. However, researches in this area thus far have mainly been conceptual ofnature and focus on how the contribution of SEA can be measured andhow the roles of SEA in its decision-making context can becharacterised and understood. In addition there are some empirical analyses that have resulted in overviews of factors that have facilitated or impeded the use of elements of SEA in decision-making, and studies thus far tend to focus on process aspects.This dissertation tries to study SEA effectiveness from four aspects:Firstly,define the "effectiveness" of SEA and analysis the SEA system form the different aspects. Three sub-systems (institutional changes, institutional implenmentation, andinstitutional innovation) have been identified.The "effectiveness" of SEA has been decomposed into three aspects:the role that SEA owned, the role has been given, and the role that SEA has played.Secondly,a evaluating framework has been constructed based on the logic chain of "institution environment—theoretical research statues—management system—application practice", and the implenmentation status and effectivenss of SEA in China has been analyzed.Weexamine how SEA has been carried out at different levels in China by highlighting the development and inadequacies, and what would constitute "effective" SEA.We find that SEA is only relatively effective in preventing or alleviating adverse environmental impact of plans rather than influencing decision-making process. According to analysis, desirable institutional, organizational changes and cross-sectoral collaboration would help enhance SEA’s effectiveness.Thirdly,in the context of SEA implementation, the improvement of SEA effectiveness is crucial. This would require the identification of the main factors that contribute to the effectiveness in a SEA system. In this study, two research questions are investigated:(i) Key issues and how they affect the SEA implementation in China;(ii) Relational links between the factors associated with SEA effectiveness.based on questionnaire survey, eight critical factors associated with SEA effectiveness have been identified for confirmatory analysis. A Structure Equation Model using the statistical program Analysis of Moment Structures has been developed to test the relational links between the factors associated with SEA and the nature of these relationships.Finally,two main challenges have been addressed. Firstly, the identification and formulation of evaluating indicators, and secondly, finding ways and methods to quantify and measure conformance to the indicators. Ananlysis critically the indicators and criteria on the effectiveness of the impact assessment, four dimensions evaluating indicators, including substantive indicator, procedural indicator, contextual indicator, and incremental indicator, and11sub-indicators have been identified. An evaluating model is developed and a fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (fuzzy AHP) approach for designing and evaluating SEA is established and applied to a regional planning in China. |
