The Strategic Environmental Assessment as a sustainable territorial planning procedure

The main purpose of this paper is to highlight the role of the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) process applied to urban and territorial planning, as a paradigm of sustainable planning, in order to reconcile environmental protection with the development of cities and the territory. The SEA is analyzed as an instrument for achieving sustainable development and, with this purpose, those existing elements in the territory that affect territorial and urban planning must be detected and must be considered in the SEA process. This includes factors, conditions and environmental risks that have to be detected in the initial phase of SEA (identification). The right to enjoy an appropriate environment and the duty to preserve it requires the authorities to ensure the rational use of all natural resources, in order to articulate through land-use and urban planning, more sustainable cities and territories, being essential for achieving this purpose, a proper assessment of the plan.