Lessons learned from Austrian SEAs

Since 1998, a number of voluntary strategic environmental assessment (SEA) pilot projects have been completed in Austria. This paper deals with the lessons learned, focusing on three main issues: (i) the involvement of stakeholders and the public; (ii) the methods used in the assessment of environmental impacts and (iii) the impact of SEA on decision making. Based on the analysis, a number of conclusions are drawn and recommendations are given for future SEA in Austria. These particularly include aspects of effective participation, communication, presentation and moderation, early scoping, the use of a limited number of indicators, transparent assessment methods and effective monitoring.