Integration of a metabolic approach in the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) response to the challenges of energy transition and climate change. The critical perspective of planning professionals
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.59072/rper.vi66.89Keywords:
Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA); Metabolic Impact Assessment (MIA); energy transition; planning for climate change; sustainable development.Abstract
The Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) is designed to play a central role in the decision-making process of policies, plans and programmes. However, its application has generated some criticism of inefficiencies related, fundamentally, to difficulties in generating effective and strategic contributions in response to the challenges of climate change and of the transition of the energy paradigm of urban and territorial systems. The methodological proposal presented in this article intends to contribute to this answer through a pragmatic approach that produces objective and consistent assessments, which help qualified decision-making between the different alternatives of the planning process. Focusing on climate change mitigation strategies, this proposal considers and defends the usefulness of integrating the concept of metabolism in the evaluation of planning alternatives, and explores the receptivity of a group of planners and decision-makers from the Lisbon City Council to an innovation of this type in SEA processes, taking advantage of their knowledge and direct involvement in four real case studies.
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