ABSTRACT
Strategic environmental assessment (SEA) is the evaluation of the impacts of policies, plansand programmesupon the environment. SEA is closely related to environmental impact assessment (EIA), which is the evaluation of the impacts of projects upon the environment. SEA should strengthen EIA (which is often applied late in the decision-making process), because it addresses impacts at higher or earlier levels of the process, and thereby aims to avoid them at the lower levels or at a later stage. It also specifically advocates integrating environmental factors into decision-making, in order to advance sustainability.
