Understanding and integrating biodiversity into spatial planning and environmental assessments is key to achieving sustainable development. To support this, three practical notes have been developed to offer valuable insights and tools for planners, policymakers, and environmental practitioners, focusing on tiering, integration, and practical mitigation and enhancement measures.
1. Tiering in Environmental Assessment
This practice note explores the concept of tiering in environmental assessments, demonstrating how strategic and project-level assessments interlink through case studies in Denmark. By analysing onshore and offshore planning contexts, it highlights how tiering can support the systematic inclusion of biodiversity considerations across different governance levels. The report emphasises the role of tiering in ensuring coherence and cascading biodiversity insights into decision-making processes.
Read the practice notice here: Tiering of Environmental Assessment in spatial planning: Analysis of two case studies on and offshore
2. Integrating Environmental Assessments in Spatial Planning
Focusing on the integration of Strategic Environmental Assessments (SEA) and Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) into spatial planning, this note outlines a cyclical framework for embedding biodiversity considerations at every stage of the planning process. It also introduces the Causal Loop Tool, a systems-thinking approach to identify leverage points for improving habitat quality, connectivity, and overall resilience.
Read the practice notice here: Integrating Environmental Assessment and the Spatial Planning Process
3. Enhancement and Mitigation Measures for Biodiversity
This catalogue presents actionable measures within the mitigation hierarchy—enhancement, avoidance, minimisation, restoration, and offsetting—that can be employed to address biodiversity challenges. It serves as a practical guide for integrating these measures into environmental assessments, offering strategies to mitigate negative impacts and proactively enhance biodiversity outcomes.
Read the practice notice here: Enhancement and mitigation measures for biodiversity in Environmental Assessment – a catalogue
If you are interested in this topic, you can read more here:
Benchmark for integration of biodiversity in Environmental Assessment Instruments
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