Because this work studies the ecological impact assessment in land-use planning as part of the SEA application, the SEA process is presented within the framework of the Land Use and Building Act (2009). The SEA process under the Finnish SEA Act (2005) is described in de-tail by Söderman and Kallio (2009).
The Finnish spatial planning system as de-fined in the Land Use and Building Act (1999) comprises three levels of spatial planning. These are hierarchical in nature: higher-level plans must be taken into account when authorities prepare plans at lower levels. The three levels of plans are 1) the regional plans prepared by the regional councils, 2) the local master plans, and 3) the local detailed plans prepared by munici-palities. The substantive requirements regard-ing biodiversity are set in broad terms for each plan level. For example, at the regional level, the requirements are ecological sustainability of land use and protection of natural values.
In addition, sufficient areas suitable for recrea-tion should be included (Land Use and Build-ing Act 1999, Section 28). At the local master plan level, these requirements include ecologi-cal sustainability of the community structure and the protection of natural values (Land Use and Building Act 1999, Section 39). Here too a sufficient number of areas suitable for recrea-tion is required. In addirecrea-tion, other requirements connected to ecosystem services are mentioned
Figure 5. The typical Natura 2000 assessment process in Finland.
Preparation of the project or plan starts
Consideration by the planner whether significant adverse impacts on Natura 2000 site(s) are likely
Full Natura 2000 appropriate assessment (AA) regarding the conservation objectives
Screening on the need of the appropriate assessment (AA):
a short report in case of not likely effects a short report/ in case of likely effects straight to full appropriate assessment (AA)
Permit for the project, approval of the plan
Preparation of the appropriate assessment (AA) report
Reject of the project or plan
Consideration of significant adverse effects by the permitting/ approving authority
Yes No
Other alternative solutions exist Redraft of
the project or plan
Statement of the regional environmental authority: adequacy, significance of impacts, proposals for mitigation/ choice of alternatives
Consideration of the likeliness of significant adverse effects by the permitting/approving authority
Yes No
Permit for the project, approval of the plan
– e.g., landscape values and good water supply and drainage. In addition, the Council of State has set national land-use objectives, which steer preparation of plans. With respect to biodiver-sity, these include promotion of preservation of valuable and sensitive nature areas, ecological connections – both between individual pro-tected areas and between propro-tected and other valuable nature areas – and use of the network of protected areas in recreation that does not compromise the conservation objectives (Val-tioneuvoston päätös… 2008).
The impact assessment procedure concerned with local land-use plans commences when preparation of the plan begins. Negotiations between authorities are set up with regional en-vironmental authorities, the ELY Centres, and some other invited authorities. All local master plans with importance in terms of nature values must be negotiated. In this phase, information is provided to the public and stakeholders. Un-like the SEA Directive (2001) and the Finnish SEA Act (2005), the Land Use and Building Act (1999) requires preparation of a scoping report, termed a participation and assessment scheme, at the beginning of the planning pro-cess. The scheme should cover participation and interaction procedures and a plan for the assessment of the plan’s impacts. The authority making the plan may negotiate with the region-al environmentregion-al authority and other interested parties on the adequacy and implementation of the scheme. After the planned baseline studies are carried out, alternative plan options are ad-dressed and their environmental impacts are assessed. In addition, exchange of information and informal negotiations may be arranged if desired. Then a plan proposal including a plan statement, which is equivalent to the environ-mental report of the SEA Directive, is prepared and published – made available for statements from the authorities and opinions of the pub-lic. The municipality then sends responses to the parties who objected to the plan, mediates negotiations between authorities, and finally approves the plan. If the plans cover several municipalities, the Ministry of the Environment ratifies them after approval.
Specific requirements for the impact assess-ment are set forth in Section 9 of the Land Use and Building Act (2009), according to which environmental impacts of the plan and its al-ternatives have to be assessed to the necessary extent for the area on which the plan has mate-rial impacts. Both ‘necessary extent’ (referring to adequacy) and ‘material impacts’ (referring to significance of impacts) have been explained further in the Land Use and Building Decree (1999, sections 1 and 17): the investigation must provide the data necessary for assessing the significant direct and indirect impacts of the plan’s implementation on, inter alia, plants and animals and biodiversity and must present the issues in a manner and extent suitable in view of the purpose of the plan and interaction. The content requirements for the plan statement of a local master plan are set by the Land Use and Building Decree (1999, Section 17). These in-clude
1) an account of circumstances in (i.e., de-scription of) the area, its environmental features, and changes in them, and of other information on the area subject to planning that is essential for investigation and as-sessment of the plan’s impact,
2) the starting point for the planning, the aims of the planning, and proposed options, 3) a summary of the investigations carried out
to assess the plan’s impact,
4) the plan’s impact on community structure, the built environment, nature, the land-scape, traffic arrangements (especially public transport) and technical services, the economy, health, social circumstances, and culture, and any other significant impacts;
5) an account of the plan’s relationship to national land-use objectives, the regional plan, the current local master plan, and the local authority’s other planning,
6) the stages of planning, including partici-pation and interaction procedures, and a summary of the comments expressed in the various stages of the planning process, 7) the key content and principles of the select-ed planning option and an account of how the results of impact assessment and the comments expressed have been taken into
account and of account mitigation meas-ures to prevent potential negative impacts of the plan,
8) the schedule for and monitoring of the plan’s implementation, and
9) when needed, schemes steering plan im-plementation.
In addition, Section 17 of the Land Use and Building Act (1999) states that a summary of the information provided in the above catego-ries should be included.
The typical planning procedure for local master planning in Finland is presented in Fig-ure 2 in Article IV of this work. The phases and their content vary, depending on the extent of the plan and on the municipalities’ planning practices.
5 Material and methods
The empirical analyses utilised four different sets of survey and interview data in examining ecological impact assessment in three distinct planning and assessment processes, including EIA, Natura 2000 appropriate assessment, and municipal local master planning SEA. Compo-nents of the assessment were analysed, and the results are reported upon in articles I, II, IIII, and IV of this work. The first three articles listed present reviews of ecological impact assess-ments carried out via document analysis and a case study. The fourth study (see Article IV) gathers data on actor views on ecological im-pact assessment practices. Table 9 presents an overview of data from articles I–IV. In the fifth study (see Article V), a conceptual approach and practical tool for improving the knowledge foundation and practices of ecological impact assessment by using GIS-based information and map presentations was developed.
5.1 Review of environmental