In the latest in-depth evaluation of the environmental objectives¹, as well as in the report “Underlag till en färdplan för ett Sverige utan klimatutsläpp 2050”² (Basis for a roadmap for a Sweden without greenhouse gas emissions in 2050), the need for changes in spatial planning is discussed.
The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency invites research groups to submit an application for a research programme on the planning system and its applications in the strategic environmental assessment of plans and programmes, and in the environmental impact assessment of projects³. The size of the call is about 10 million SEK, distributed over three years. The final date for applications is 1 October 2013, at 4 pm.
Challenges in environmental efforts
The overall aim of the research programme is to generate knowledge about effective spatial planning for sustainable development and thereby strengthen spatial planning as a relevant and comprehensive means of attaining the environmental quality objectives and the generational goal that were established by parliament. The intention is also to contribute to spatial planning taking place in accordance with the provisions of the Swedish Environmental Code regarding the promotion of environmental considerations in projects, plans and programmes. The research programme is also to generate proposals that could be used in developing the planning system and its applications in the strategic environmental assessment of plans and programmes and in the environmental impact assessment of projects.
Since 21 July 2004, there have been provisions in chapter 6 of the Swedish Environmental Code that the environmental impact of certain plans and programmes must be assessed. In general, with regards to strategic environmental assessment and environmental impact assessment, laws and regulations refer to the Swedish Environmental Code. However, there is a relatively broad opinion that coordination from an environmental perspective does not work satisfactorily. There are also preliminary studies that show that regulations on strategic environmental assessment and environmental impact assessment are to a considerable extent not followed. This includes, for example, the assessment of which plans and programmes are to be subject to a strategic environmental assessment and the management of alternatives in both strategic environmental assessment and environmental impact assessment.
The in-depth evaluation of the environmental objectives indicates deficiencies in the application of the Planning and Building Act; among other problems, many municipalities lack an overall plan. Furthermore, shortcomings in the quality of planning were discussed, and it was noted that the way in which environmental aspects are included in plans is too variable. There is a particular need for an overall perspective in planning, rather than this being done in sectors. Better guidance is also needed to overcome these deficiencies.
Priorities
There is a lack of comprehensive scientific reviews and analyses regarding which environmental demands form the basis of planning decisions, as well as how the demands for the design of the process are to be managed, the relationship to other forms of environmental monitoring, where important decision are made, how national overall environmental objectives are implemented, etc. To this end, a research programme is needed that considers the following issues: (i) how planning is carried out in practice in relation to legislation, (ii) why there are discrepancies between practice and legislation, (iii) what can be done about such discrepancies and (iv) what can be learned from the planning system in other countries. Transport infrastructure plans, transport infrastructure projects, overview plans and detailed plans should be considered, as well as action programmes in accordance with chapter 5 of the Environmental Code, energy plans and waste plans. More specifically, studies are requested that include the following parts:
1. Description of the current system: identifying, measuring and describing the size of each problem
A description is needed of the use of the planning system for projects, plans and programmes. We need to quantify the deficiencies in the compliance with regulations regarding strategic environmental assessment and environmental impact assessment. We are particularly interested in the management of options in the considered planning processes. This basic knowledge should contribute to efforts to develop the current planning system, and should also be used as a supporting material for other parts of the research programme.
2. Behavioural and social science aspects of the current system: explaining why problems exist
The practical application of the planning system is considered to be complex and difficult to describe; this also applies to what in practice regulates planning. Public agencies need more information about the mechanisms and events that shape the outcome of planning. It is important to investigate the interaction between actors, as well as the characteristics and distribution of the information that they act on. Concepts such as power (–relationships), norms, institutions and incentive structures should be revealed and analysed for the actors involved. Even aspects that concern genus and culture in the various organisations and professions should be considered. The aim of this part of the research programme is to explain deviations from the applicable regulations and systematic variations in the application of the planning system for projects, plans and programmes; in other words, to search for explanations for the results that were found in part 1 of the research programme.
3. The design of incentives – supplementing and adjusting the current system
Based on what has been found in the other parts of the research programme, the task in this part of the research programme is to propose changes that would supplement and adjust the current planning system. The focus should be on changes that could be carried out within the framework of existing EU directives. Any incentive-based proposals must be fully justified and evaluated with regards to socio-economic effectiveness, cost effectiveness, distribution aspects and flexibility/sensitivity. Usability and conditions for rule-based directions and other approaches (informal supplementation and adjustment) should similarly be clarified. In addition, the practical feasibility and usability of the proposals should be justified and discussed, and a sensitivity analysis should be included.
4. Looking outside and looking ahead
This part of the research programme concerns looking beyond Sweden’s borders and considering the planning systems for sustainable development and reduced environmental impact in other countries. Comparative studies of planning systems in different countries in the EU should be carried out. The choice of countries and of case studies should be clearly justified on the basis of the task and the comparative assignment. The intention is that such knowledge will generate a discussion regarding the current planning system in Sweden in relation to the foreign alternatives and, by extension, it will create visions for alternative planning systems in Sweden. Improved knowledge about foreign planning systems can of course indicate alternative planning solutions for our current planning system and thereby could potentially provide information that would be of use in preparing for future, currently unknown, changes and decisions. Based on what is found in the comparative studies, the discussion should be forward looking and include fundamental opportunities that have as their starting point the question of the role that physical and other types of planning should have in the environmental field.Please note that the programme application should include all four parts.
Further information
The assignment of the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency as a research funding body is to fund research that would support operations at the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency and at the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management. In other words, what is requested is applied and policy-relevant research. The results of this research effort are expected to be usable in the work of these agencies.
We welcome multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary studies and we would particularly like to encourage researchers from different social science disciplines to carry out joint analyses. We would also welcome seeing these issues addressed in a trans-boundary manner, by researchers working in projects together with the community. We would like to encourage researchers to involve persons working at our agency and at other agencies, in order to benefit from our knowledge and experience. The application should clearly state how it is intended that an integration of the type described above will be carried out.
Statistical investigations must be documented in order to describe different aspects of these statistics – their quality, how they were obtained and their detailed content. As part of the quality process, the research programme is expected to comply with the quality definitions for official statistics and with the guidelines for the construction of quality declarations that have been developed by Statistics Sweden (SCB) (4). The application should also specify how the researchers intend to work with strategies for the quality assessment of the data and of the final result (5).
Researchers who are awarded grants are expected to participate in the annual conference of the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency and to allocate resources for interacting with public agencies and other relevant actors.
Preliminary schedule
1 October 2013, 4 pm – Final date for applications
December – Decision on funding
January-February – Start of project
Contact person
Martin Gustafsson, Swedish Environmental Protection Agency
Telephone: +46 (0)10-698 1637
E-mail: Martin.Gustafsson@naturvardsverket.se
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(1) Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (2012), “Steg på vägen, Fördjupad utvärdering av mijömålen 2012” (Steps along the way: In-depth evaluation of the environmental objectives 2012) Report 6500.
(2) Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (2012), “Underlag till en färdplan för ett Sverige utan klimatutsläpp 2050” (Basis for a roadmap for a Sweden without greenhouse gas emissions in 2050) Report 6537
(3) The strategic environmental assessment of plans and programmes is a process that includes several different stages, for example, producing an environmental impact statement and holding consultations. Note that the different stages in a strategic environmental assessment are not voluntary, but rather must be carried out. The equivalent is true for the environmental impact assessment of projects.
(4) Statistics Sweden (2001). Quality definition and recommendations for quality declarations of official statistics, MIS 2001:1.
(5) See, for example, Chapter 17 in Särndal, Carl-Erik, Bengt Svensson and Jan Wretman (1992). Model Assisted Survey Sampling, Springer-Verlag.