ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF CIVIL EMERGENCY PLANS AND THEIR EXEMPTION FROM SEA

Abstract

Emergency plans are exempt from undergoing Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA). However, the measures they include to minimise the effects of disasters can have environmental impacts. The study underlying this paper assessed UK emergency plans for their possible environmental impacts, identified which types of plan would not fulfil the criteria necessary to require SEA and which ones would but are then exempt. Further consideration of the likely practical involvement of environmental authorities in the plan-making process of regulated processes and in emergency responses provided a view on whether the SEA exemption results in environmental impacts not being minimised. This work has highlighted that the implementation of emergency plans is as important as the plans themselves in terms of providing scope for the protection of the environment for the management of spatially generic disasters. Site-specific disaster management tends to include detailed environmental protection measures through regulatory processes.