Environmental Assessment in the light of Sustainable Development

The 5th Nordic Conference on Environmental Assessment will be held in Reykjavík, Iceland 24 – 26^th August 2003. The theme of the conference will be “Planning for sustainable development - the practice and potential of Environmental Assessment”. The overall aims of the conference are to describe, analyse and discuss the role of Environmental Assessment with respect to planning and the political goal of sustainable development. The focus will be both on experiences so far, and on emerging issues with regard to the assessment of policies, plans and programmes through Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), and the assessments of projects in Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). Furthermore, the theoretical basis for environmental assessment will be explored, in particular with regard to the existing theories of planning and policy analysis and recent developments in the field of planning theories with relevance to the impact assessment field will be highlighted.

The role of planning and environmental assessment in the context of sustainable development has been emphasised with the introduction of the EU directive on the Environmental Assessment of certain plans and programmes and the introduction of the requirements for Strategic Environmental Assessment into national legislation. Furthermore, planning for sustainable development is now high on the political agenda in both the Nordic and the EU contexts, something that has been reflected in numerous discussions and policy documents, such as the Action Programme for 2001-2004 adopted by the Nordic Planning Ministers “Spatial planning as an instrument for promoting sustainable development in the Nordic Countries”, which complements the Nordic Strategy for Sustainable Development.

Previous Nordic Conferences on Environmental Assessment
The previous Nordic Conferences on Environmental Assessment, held in 1993, 1996, 1999 and 2001, addressed issues such as the status of Environmental Assessment in the Nordic countries, the challenges and opportunities involved in the introduction of EIA requirements at the national level, as well as the relevance of EA and its linkages to decision making. Furthermore, the conferences have provided a forum for Nordic environmental assessment experts, officials, researchers and students from the Nordic countries to meet, discuss and exchange ideas.

The conference aims to attract participants from the fields of Environmental Impact Assessment and Strategic Environmental Assessment, as well as spatial planning and policy making, and regional development. National, regional and local experiences are all equally of interest.

The conference is open to practitioners, researchers, students and any other persons interested in research and practice concerning EIA, SEA and planning, in order that we may exchange experiences and views on this subject. Participants from outside of the Nordic countries are also very welcome.

Conference venue  Grand Hotel Reykjavík, Sigtún 38, 108 Reykjavík.

Organising committee
Ásdís Hlökk Theodórsdóttir, Planning Agency
Hólmfríður Sigurðardóttir, Planning Agency
Matthildur Kr. Elmarsdóttir, Planning Agency
Þóroddur F Þóroddsson, Planning Agency
Hólmfríður Bjarnadóttir, Nordregio
Tuija Hilding-Rydevik, Nordregio

Advisory group
Hrafn Hallgrímsson, Ministry for the Environment
Björn Gunnarsson, University of Iceland
Júlíus Sólnes, University of Iceland
The Nordic planning authorities
The Nordic group of Environmental Assessment officials.