strategic environmental assessment

A similar technique to environmental impact assessment (EIA) but normally applied to policies, plans, programmes and groups of projects. Strategic environmental assessment (SEA) provides the potential opportunity to avoid the preparation and implementation of inappropriate plants, programmes and projects and assists in the identification and evaluation of project alternatives and identification of cumulative effects. SEA comprises two main types: sectoral SEA (applied when many new projects fall within one sector) and regional SEA (applied when broad economic development is planned within one region).