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Project Summary Project Description Application of Tools Opinion of Tools Decision making process Contact Details

Opinion of tools

Name der Fallstudie
Optimisation of planning procedures to implement transport infrastructure
Optimierung von Planungsschritten bei der Umsetzung von Verkehrsinfrastrukturkonzepten


Name of tool
Traffic planning - a SEA-based guideline for the regional level

Opinion of tool - argumentation for choosing the tool
The main reasons for the implementation of the tool were to optimise the planning procedures among the involved sectors and stakeholders. The transport department of the provincial government took the initiative for choosing /the elaboration of the tool. The main criteria for choosing the tool have been – increasing efficiency, providing a standardised procedure, incorporate the public. The procedure was designed after the Strategic Environmental Assessment concept.</p>

Opinion of tool - barriers for the tool implementation
There appear to have been no barriers to implementation overall the idea about the tool has been accepted instantly.


Opinion of tool - assessment by tool users
Due to the use of the tool a more even balance between the environment and socio-economic development could be observed. Therefore the interests from the stakeholders could have been met. Moreover, the guideline proved to be a valuable vade-mecum for the experts to incorporate important issues.

Public involvement starts early in the planning phase. Relevant information is prepared for the public, with consideration given to ensure that an impression is not given that the decision making has been done already. Additionally, external consultants are involved both to provide information for involved stakeholders and to represent public opinions and interest.

There is no information about spin-off?s or unintended consequences.

The tool proved to be a valuable source for guiding the various stakeholders through the project. Some issues nevertheless would need still special attention in the future:
Budgetary questions dominate the discussion and options for planned projects.
The need for an overall, sector-crossing policy
Improving the coordination between sectors on an official basis ? based on a single coordinating unit
A good tool provides good argumentation for people and politicians and improves strategic decision making

A transfer of comparable procedures to other sectors should be considered:
In general, mid-term and long-term programmes are prepared within the traffic unit. These programmes consider spatial development issues, take up discussion with the responsible planning bodies at the local level, and collects data and information on street conditions, traffic frequencies and the like, to picture the importance of planned infrastructure projects in the region.
In this respect it became obvious that the transport and the spatial planning sector should be stronger linked in strategic planning issues. With the establishment of so called "county development programmes (Leitbilder)" a step forward towards that direction has been made.
Practical guidelines would complement this approach.
Moreover, an integration of all relevant players would be needed in order to find joint solutions for the dominating economic developments.
The guidelines should become a standard procedure in the near future.

Opinion of tool - reviewer\'s assessment
As above mentioned, the guideline is applied just for large scale projects. Among the different planning units EIA is an accepted procedure and various steps are adapted in the planning authorities work, SEA however is not yet officially introduced. In addition to that, SEA has a bad reputation (retardation, ?one more evaluation? etc.), perceived as being another procedural burden. Therefore alternative terms or different designations find greater acceptance among practitioners. With respect to strategic planning and decision making a first step was done in producing an internal guideline with respect to the SEA idea. All people involved in this process proved greater interest and commitment in fulfilling the sequential steps, also because they accepted the set up procedural steps in its comprehensive form.

Welche Tools wurden verwendet, um Nachhaltigkeit zu beurteilen?

Traffic planning - a SEA-based guideline for the regional level

Weiterführende Informationen (nur auf Englisch):

Für den vollständigen Bericht hier klicken (pdf)