The training workshop on “Current Issues of the Strategic Environmental Assessment Procedure in Ukraine: Practical Application Aspects” was on 26 May 2023.
Meeting objectives, expected outputs and outcomes
- Familiarizing the target audience with a step-by-step procedure for carrying out the SEA of state planning documents;
- Defining the main distinctive features of the SEA for urban planning documentation;
- Explicating responsibilities in SEA;
- Presenting the Unified Register of SEA.
Participants
Representatives of relevant departments (environmental protection, healthcare, urban planning and architecture) in Ukraine’s regional administrations and Kyiv city state administration, as well as representatives of local self-government bodies across the country.
Background
Within the framework of the European Union-funded EU4Environment programme, UNECE is assisting the Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries, including Ukraine, in comprehensive capacity-building and institutional building on Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) and transboundary Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and in finalizing legal reforms in this area.
SEA is a relatively new tool for implementing the country’s environmental policy based on a simple principle: it is easier to prevent negative environmental effects at the planning stage of a strategic document rather than identifying and remedying them during its implementation. The SEA of state planning documents, particularly urban planning documents, enables a comprehensive evaluation of the likely environmental, including health, effects of the plans and using evaluation results to prevent or mitigate adverse effects on the environment in the spatial planning process.
The objective of the SEA is to promote sustainable development of territories/areas by providing for a high level of protection of the environment, including health of the population, and integration of environmental considerations into the development and adoption of state planning documents.
The second of the two training workshops in May 2023 had the target audience focus on the practical application aspects of the carrying out of the SEA procedure, particularly for urban planning documentation, taking into consideration the current amendments to Ukrainian SEA legislation as well as urban planning legislation.