Review: Planning has developed considerably from it origins as a land use idea. today, planning covers a wider area of topics and a greater level of government control. One interesting facet, added comparatively recently, is the idea of strategic planning in particular the strategic environmental assessment (SEA). Here, the notion is not just to built/develop/conserve etc. but to attempt to track the implications of decisions and then to compare them with stated goals and objectives. Ideally, this should mean a re-appraisal of plans if the SEA shows negative impacts although, from the cases mentioned here, one would could be forgiven for doubting it.

Although it was stated that the idea was new we are reminded that the USA had forerunners to SEAs in the 1970s and the excellent text Planning and Ecology (Roberts and Roberts, 1984, Chapman and Hall) gave every indication that some variant was common over 20 years ago. What we see here is not a re-statement of SEA theory but an attempt to evaluate their operation as more countries use them. This evaluation is set in a background which is far from uniform. The US has a long history of SEA-type work and much of Europe is going ahead although the UK seems content to follow base EU guidelines. The book opens with three chapters which set the scene. The first gives a brief outline of SEA theory and the areas of work they cover. Chapter two provides us with more detail on the development of the SEA whilst chapter three describes the methodology to be followed in this study. From this point, contributors examine their own nation and the ways in which the SEAs have or have not been put into place. Since all chapters here follow the methodology outlined in chapter three, a single example, UK, will suffice to describe the system. Here we start with an outline of where the SEA comes from and the context within which it is being developed. Other plans with similar aims are noted and then a case study, highlighting key aspects is described. There follow a three-fold evaluation of the SEA in terms of system, process and outcome. The conclusion also has a table which reports on the SEA and the extent to which specific portions are evident. As noted above, this is repeated for 12 nations with the world Bank also being evaluated as the sole developing world source (if one excludes S. Africa).

This is a useful text which aims to update the reader in a rapidly developing area. For beginners, the greatest value is to be had from the first three chapters which provide us with brief guides to key areas - focus, development and evaluation. Such ideas could have use elsewhere in evaluating other planning systems - it makes an ideal focus for developing critical skills. (Sadly, the critical skills do not appear to be present in many nations and the SEA is seen as a work-in-progress). Students studying comparative systems would find this is use not just for the range of examples but the framework methodology developed.