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Appendix 6 - Strategic Environmental Assessment
A Strategic Environmental Assessment ( SEA) is a systematic process for identifying, predicting, and where possible avoiding, significant adverse environmental impacts of implementing public strategies, plans and programmes. In Scotland, the Environmental Assessment (Scotland) Act 2005 ensures that all public strategies, plans, and programmes that are likely to result in significant environmental effects, adverse or positive, are assessed.
Section 15 of the Environmental Assessment (Scotland) Act 2005 ('the Act') requires a Responsible Authority to consider, in conjunction with the Consultation Authorities, the scope and level of detail of the environmental assessment. The purpose of the scoping report is to identify the environmental issues to be taken into consideration during decision-making. The scope of the SEA depends on the following:
- What is being proposed, i.e. the remit of the plan, programme or strategy ( PPS);
- The geographical and temporal coverage of the PPS; and
- The nature of the receiving environment.
The END Action Plans fall within the scope of Section 5(3) the Environmental Assessment (Scotland) Act 2005 given their potential for significant environmental effects and therefore require an SEA, accordingly a full SEA consultation of the overall noise action plan, as is required by the Act, will be undertaken in the autumn of 2008 with preparation of an Environmental Report.
The SEA Act requires that the Noise Action Plan ( NAP) is assessed against a range of criteria as set out in Schedule 3. The table below explains what has been scoped in/out and provides a brief justification for that scoping. A full Scoping Report covering each of the Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Transportation Working Groups together with that for the airports is available on the www.scottishnoisemapping.org web site. This report will provide full details of the methods to be used, the organisations and/or individuals to be consulted during the assessment, and the timing and length of the consultation period.
Environmental Characteristic | Key Potential Environmental Effect of NAP | Scoped In Scoped Out | Justification |
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Population and Human Health | Changes to the environment can influence this category. Such changes may include: air quality; accessibility of open space, services and facilities; noise levels; accident levels. | In | Management of noise may lead to reduction in noise levels with consequent reduction in the number of people annoyed, or extent of any annoyance and therefore may have health benefits |
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Biodiversity, Flora, Fauna | Changes to levels of biodiversity; wildlife corridors; stepping stones; valuable habitats and species; levels of fragmentation of habitats. | In | Designation of Quiet Areas may lead to enhancement of habitats |
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Soil | Changes to quality of soil; quantity of soil; amount of contaminated land; amount of prime quality agricultural land. | Out | Changes in noise levels have no impact on soil quality |
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Water | Changes to water quality from construction or other access; changes to the water environment; areas of flood risk. | Out | Changes in noise levels have no impact on water quality |
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Air, Climatic Factors | Changes in air quality; greenhouse gas emissions; dust levels; flooding; prevalent modes of transport. | In | Possible traffic management may result in decrease/increase in emissions such as PM10, NO2 etc |
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Cultural Heritage, Material Assets | Changes to the settings of and access to listed buildings, scheduled ancient monuments, archaeological sites; conservation areas; townscape protection areas; historic gardens and designed landscapes. | In | Designation of Quiet Areas may enhance existing designated landscapes etc |
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Landscape | Changes to landscape character; landscape quality; landscape features; Regional Scenic Area. | In | Designation of Quiet Areas may enhance landscape quality |
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