Challenges to integrating planning and policy-making with environmental assessment on a regional scale – a multi-institutional perspective

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Abstract

Regional environmental assessment (EA) requires the participation of policy- and plan-making institutions to formulate, implement and monitor regional environmental management strategies. However, there is little understanding of what effective integration is in the context of regional EA and from the perspectives of planners and policy-makers involved. This paper seeks to explore how institutional actors perceive cross-domain integration vis-à-vis their own involvement in regional EAs. Thirty-eight participants from four regional EA initiatives in Canada shared their perspectives in an online survey. Three types of silo effects are identified: (1) institutional – intricately linked to factors such as coordination, goals and expectations, leadership and capacity; (2) disciplinary – characterized by limited communication and scepticism around data sharing; and (3) transactional – tendency of actors to emphasize individual narrow perspective rather than collective social and environmental outcomes. Additional findings reveal the importance of learning and multiple domain expertise as opportunities for enhancing cross-domain integration in regional EA practice. Finally, the study concludes that proactive consideration of potential silo effects is necessary for improved regional EA outcomes, and to facilitate more effective regional resource governance.

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Olagunju, A., & Gunn, J. A. E. (2016). Challenges to integrating planning and policy-making with environmental assessment on a regional scale – a multi-institutional perspective. Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal, 34(3), 236–253. https://doi.org/10.1080/14615517.2016.1176412

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