Abstract More than a decade after the implementation of the EU Directive on Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) into Swedish legislation, a comprehensive study has been conducted to analyze the development of SEA practice in municipal planning. The analysis was based on a nationwide mapping of SEA in Swedish municipal comprehensive plans and municipal sector plans, such as energy plans and waste plans, which were adopted in the period 2004–2014. The mapping was used for obtaining evidence of, and explanations for, the extent to which SEAs have been carried out and to enable an identification of the presence of alternatives and specified purposes of the plan. In this paper, the result of the analysis of the development of SEA practice is presented, which shows that municipal comprehensive plans had an SEA to an increasingly greater extent, up to on average 90% for the period 2010–2014. For waste plans and energy plans, corresponding figures for the same period were significantly lower. In addition, the result shows a decreasing trend between 2006 and 2014 regarding the proportion of SEAs that included more than one plan alternative. The use of a zero alternative, however, increased from 2006 to 2014. A regression analysis was conducted to identify determinants that explain the variation in the degree to which screening and SEAs were conducted. The findings of the study show that a systematic mapping of SEA practice provides empirical basis for the development of policy measures to enhance the use of SEAs in municipal planning. Furthermore, it is argued that strengthening the link between alternatives and the purposes of the plan may foster a more strategic thinking when identifying reasonable alternatives on how to promote sustainable development within the planning. Moreover, it is argued that mandatory SEA should be considered in municipal comprehensive and sector planning.

中文翻译：

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瑞典城市规划中的战略环境评估。趋势与挑战

摘要 欧盟战略环境评估指令 (SEA) 在瑞典立法中实施十多年后，进行了一项综合研究，以分析城市规划中 SEA 实践的发展。该分析基于瑞典市政综合计划和市政部门计划（如能源计划和废物计划）中 SEA 在全国范围内的映射，这些计划在 2004-2014 年期间被采用。该映射用于获取 SEA 执行程度的证据和解释，并能够识别替代方案的存在和计划的特定目的。在本文中，对 SEA 实践发展的分析结果表明，市政综合规划越来越多地具有 SEA，2010-2014 年期间平均高达 90%。对于废物计划和能源计划，同期的相应数字明显较低。此外，结果显示 2006 年至 2014 年间，包含多个计划替代方案的 SEA 比例呈下降趋势。然而，从 2006 年到 2014 年，零替代方案的使用有所增加。进行了回归分析以确定解释筛选和 SEA 进行程度变化的决定因素。研究结果表明，策略性环境评估实践的系统映射为制定政策措施以加强策略性环境评估在城市规划中的使用提供了经验基础。此外，有人认为，在确定如何在规划范围内促进可持续发展的合理替代方案时，加强替代方案与计划目的之间的联系可能会促进更具战略性的思维。此外，有人认为在市政综合和部门规划中应考虑强制性 SEA。