A limits-oriented adaptive approach for strategic environmental assessment

In the face of global environmental change, decision-makers need effective environmental assessments to shape policies and plans aiming at sustainable human development. In this paper, we propose a new approach to address the needs of Strategic Environmental Assessment. We develop a Limits-Oriented Adaptive framework that is useful not only to recognize and address existing SEA problems (its limits), but also to incorporate elements of social and institutional uncertainty. This framework conceptualizes the need to first identify existing SEA limitations (e.g. procedural, legislative) through learning loops, and then to address them with incremental or transformative change through adaptive cycles. The first part of this paper presents existing frameworks of adaptive policy-making, adaptive management and loops of learning that can contribute shaping better environmental assessments. In the second part, we present our framework and we illustrate how the contributions from different disciplines relate to the procedural and technical sides of Strategic Environmental Assessment. Last, we present the results of the experimental application of our method in an Australian and an Italian case study. We then discuss our findings, outlining how SEA can learn from adaptive management to overcome its limitations and to embrace incremental and transformational change. We fie these lessons to the needs of different groups of SEA professionals, developers, legislators, and the broad public.