Methods for Strategic Environmental Assessment of Transport Infrastructure Plans

Environmental impact assessment (EIA) plays an important role in the design on transport systems that ensure efficient transport of people and goods. As a new instrument of environmental policy, strategic environmental assessment (SEA) is discussed in European legislation. In the Guidelines for Trans-European networks (TEN) it is stated that SEA is compulsory for projects of the TEN. However, in contrast to the EIA of projects, no standardised procedures and only few application cases exist for the strategic level.
The author develops in his work an integrated decision support system that provides tools for the network wide and inter-modal assessment of environmental impacts for large-scale transport planning. For the evaluation of global and long-term impacts the goal-driven backcasting approach is identified superior to conventional approaches. Its practical applicability is supported by the tools developed and demonstrated on the basis of extensive case studies. Thus, that this book goes beyond a pure scientific exercise and is a valuable guide for professionals on the field.