Implementing Sustainability Through StrategicEnvironmental Assessment: IndicationsFrom The Experience Of The Autonomous Province Of Trento, Italy

Three different approaches to Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) can be identified in current practices. The first one considers SEA as a mere extension of Environmental Impact Assessment to policies, programmes, and plans (PPP). The second approach assigns to SEA the task of incorporating environmental concerns during the drawing up of PPP. Finally, the third approach places the procedure of SEA in the context of the emerging policies aimed at promoting sustainability. Thls contribution addresses this last approach by describing the on-going experience of the Autonomous Province of Trento, in northern Italy. Firstly, the paper addresses the process through which the local government has built-up a strategy for sustainable development. Afterwards, it presents the way in which this strategy is being used as a reference to assess strategic choices, such as the writing and approval of PPP. This assessment required the selection, the measurement and the forecast of a set of suitable criteria and indicators referred to both environmental and socio-economic issues. The effectiveness of the approach is discussed by illustrating three fields of application: urban planning, water-resource management, and mining-activity regulation. A general conclusion is that SEA can offer a relevant contribution in the "path toward sustainability", especially where the public administration has to play a key role in orienting environmental decision making, due to the ineffectiveness of public-participation mechanisms. Transactions on Ecology and the Environment vol 67, © 2003 WIT Press, www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541