Part III : How to Conduct SEA?

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Nature and Scope

• Usually for very major infrastructure / facilities at an early stage;
• Usually high profile and restricted access during the course of SEA;
• Timely environmental inputs are important, especially for different sitings.

Considerations

Linkages between policy action and environmental issues are key to the SEA. Using trade and environment as an example, it is important to map out the environmental effects of trade agreements at the early stage in order to properly complete a SEA.

Usually need to consider alternative sites over the territory, among other issues including major environmental constraints, e.g. ecologically sensitive areas, air sheds, population centres.

Other alternatives, apart from siting, would also need to be considered, e.g. consideration on the use of natural gas and other fuel options in a strategic power supply proposal.

Examples

Extension of Existing Landfills and Identification of Potential New Waste Disposal Sites, is one of the SEA examples for Sectoral Strategies and Policies. The key points of the example are shown in Table 4 below while project descriptions of the study are in Project Descriptions of Key SEA Examples.

Table 4 Examples of SEA Applying in Strategic Proposals and Options

Study	Key Sectors Involved	Scale	Dimension of Environmental Issues	Strategic Environmental Concerns and Foci
Extension of Existing Landfills and Identification of Potential New Waste Disposal Sites	Land Use Compatibility, Landfill Technology, Waste Planning, Design of Facilities	Across HK Territory	Territorial District Local	Potential environmental implications and acceptability of various site and landfill technology options. Key concerns were waste, water, air quality and ecological impacts.

Process

For PPP proposals which are land-related, the process usually begins by identifying the “Areas of Absolute Exclusion” where project at those areas would not be permitted. It is then followed by environmental screening of a list of possible sites identified. The selection process can be carried out in stages, during which long-listed sites could be screened at a board brush level taking into account the relatively important criteria while further environmental evaluation and screening could be applied for short-listed sites at a more detailed level to ascertain their likely environmental implications.

A typical SEA process for this type of PPP, by referring to the case of “Extension of Existing Landfill and Identification of Potential New Waste Disposal Sites”, is presented in Figure 19 below.