About the Project

The overall aim of this project, funded by: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Ireland Research and Office of the Planning Regulator, is to review international Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) [Measúnacht Straitéiseach Comhshaoil (MSC)]  practice with regards to health impact assessment and, in doing so, identify and examine current international good practice case studies and put forward recommendations for a proportionate and consistent consideration of human health effects in environmental assessment and plan-making through a practitioners’ toolkit for the Republic of Ireland, which will be transferable to other jurisdictions.

This multi-disciplinary and cross-sectoral project will be delivered in two years to enable this evidence base to inform the preparation of a ‘Good Practice Guidance for addressing health in SEA’ to be issued between 2023 and 2025 by the EPA, a key commitment in the National SEA Action Plan 2021-2025.

The project objectives are as follows:

• Objective 1:To establish how the interrelationships between population and human health and other environmental topics are currently dealt with in practice in considering significant health effects of plans and programmes in SEA, identifying good practice but also any possible gaps and shortcomings, based on a review of the peer-reviewed and grey literature and of international SEA case studies.
• Objective 2:To establish key aspects of proportionate coverage of population and human health in SEA that align with EPA guidance, the SEA Protocol to the UNECE Convention on Transboundary EIA, and the European SEA Directive by systematically reviewing international SEA case studies, covering various planning hierarchies and sectors, and by consulting and working with practitioners in Ireland and abroad.
• Objective 3:To develop a health in SEA Toolkit for competent authorities and practitioners to proportionately and consistently consider and assess population and human health in SEA.
• Objective 4:To build the capacity of SEA and health stakeholders in the proportionate and consistent consideration of health in SEA, while raising awareness in the wider impact assessment community.