A Model for Considering the Crossed Effects of Plans in the Strategic Environmental Assessment

The variety and number of urban and territorial plans, general and sectoral, present in the Italian regulatory framework, requires a systematized recognition of the same for the purpose of a conscious and exhaustive consideration within the environmental report, as a technical elaboration foreseen in the context the strategic environmental assessment procedure (SEA) of plans and programs, where the significant effects that the implementation of the plan or program could have on the environment are identified, described and evaluated, as well as reasonable alternatives in light of the objectives and territorial scope of the plan or program. The SEA, in turn, is intended as an evaluation of the plan because it integrates the process by pursuing the objective of environmental sustainability of the plan’s forecasts. Furthermore, since human actions are the main cause of climate change, spatial and urban planning can play a key role in opposition to it increasingly recognized. The aim of this work is to propose an operational tool useful for verifying which other plans, in addition to the one for which the SEA is conducted, operating in the same area concerned, should be considered in order to evaluate their possible effects on the environmental components. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.