The importance of performing SEA in the structure of urban planning documentation

Strategic environmental assessment (SEA) is a procedure for determining, describing, and assessing the consequences of the implementation of state planning documents for the environment, including public health, justified alternatives, developing measures to prevent, reduce, and mitigate possible negative consequences, which includes determining the scope of the strategic environmental assessment, compiling a strategic environmental assessment report, conducting public discussions and consultations (if necessary, transboundary consultations), taking into account the strategic environmental assessment report, the results of public discussions and consultations in the state planning document, informing about the approval of the state planning document, and is carried out in the manner prescribed by this Law.

This definition is given in Article 1 of the Law of Ukraine “On Strategic Environmental Assessment” No. 2354-VIII. For master plans, comprehensive plans for the spatial development of a territorial community, and detailed plans of a territory, this is not just a theoretical requirement: the law expressly refers urban planning documentation to those documents that are subject to such an assessment, and without it, approval of the documentation is impossible.

Legal basis

SEA in Ukraine is regulated by this very law — No. 2354-VIII, which entered into force on October 12, 2018. By the same law, Article 2 of the Law of Ukraine “On Regulation of Urban Development Activity” was supplemented with a fourth part, which expressly establishes: urban planning documentation is subject to strategic environmental assessment in the manner prescribed by the Law “On Strategic Environmental Assessment”.

The current wording of both acts should be checked on the official portal of the Verkhovna Rada — zakon.rada.gov.ua, since amendments have already been made to Law No. 2354-VIII, in particular by Law No. 2717-IX of 03.11.2022 and Law No. 4510-IX of 19.06.2025.

What are state planning documents

The law operates with a broader concept — “state planning documents”. It includes strategies, plans, schemes, national and state targeted programs, as well as urban planning documentation: master plan of a settlement, comprehensive plan for the spatial development of the territory of a territorial community, detailed plan of the territory, zoning plan. It is for this category of documents that SEA is a legally provided stage of preparation.

What documents are covered by the law

Article 2 of the law defines its scope through a list of industries: the law applies to state planning documents relating to agriculture, forestry or fisheries, energy, industry, transport, waste management, use of water resources, environmental protection, telecommunications, tourism, as well as urban planning or land management (schemes). At the same time, a document falls under the law only provided that its implementation involves activities for which the legislation requires an environmental impact assessment, or a probable impact on territories or objects of the nature reserve fund and the ecological network.

Master plans, comprehensive plans for the spatial development of a territorial community, detailed plans of a territory fall under the law precisely as urban planning documentation within this list. Separately, the law excludes from its scope state planning documents that relate exclusively to national defense or actions in emergency situations, budgets and budget programs, as well as short-term programs of economic and social development.

What the procedure consists of

The SEA methodology provides for a sequence of steps: determining the scope of the assessment, compiling a strategic environmental assessment report, conducting public discussions and consultations with executive authorities (and, if necessary, transboundary consultations), taking into account the report and the results of the discussion when approving the document, informing about its approval and further monitoring of the consequences of execution for the environment and public health.

The key element of this sequence is the SEA report. Article 11 of the law establishes that it is drawn up before the approval of the state planning document and is entered into the Unified Register of Strategic Environmental Assessment. The report must include a description of the main objectives of the document and its relationship with other planning documents, characteristics of the current state of the environment and public health, projected changes in this state in the event of non-approval of the document, as well as characteristics of the state of the environment and living conditions of the population in the territories that are likely to be affected.

For draft urban planning documentation, the law establishes this directly: in accordance with part four of Article 2 of the Law of Ukraine “On Regulation of Urban Development Activity”, the section “Environmental Protection”, which is developed as part of the draft urban planning documentation, is simultaneously a strategic environmental assessment report and must meet the requirements of the Law “On Strategic Environmental Assessment”.

Connection with public discussion

SEA does not exist separately from public involvement procedures. Article 12 of the law generally provides for a separate public discussion in the process of strategic environmental assessment — with the publication of the draft and the report, a period of at least 30 days and mandatory consideration of all comments. But for urban planning documentation at the local level, the law makes a direct clarification: such a discussion is held not according to a separate procedure, but in the order determined by the Law of Ukraine “On Regulation of Urban Development Activity” for public discussion of draft urban planning documentation. That is, residents of the territory actually submit comments both to the draft master or detailed plan itself, and to the report on its environmental consequences within the same procedure.

What failure to perform SEA means in practice

A state planning document that was subject to strategic environmental assessment must be adopted taking into account the SEA report and the results of the public discussion. The absence of a report or violation of the established procedure means that the formal condition for approval of the documentation has not been met. For the documentation customer, this practically means a return to development at a later stage, when the cost of revision is already significantly higher.

Why it is important for the quality of urban planning documentation

SEA allows taking into account environmental and public health-related consequences even at the planning stage, and not after the decision on the location of objects has already been made. This applies both to direct impact — the state of air, water, soil, and indirect — living conditions in territories that fall into the zone of influence of the planned development. Integration of such an assessment into the structure of documentation increases the validity of urban planning decisions and reduces the risk of conflicts between development and the environment at the stage of already practical implementation of the plan.