The handling of causality in SEA guidance

Causality, or the relation of cause and effect, is a fundamental notion in science, planning, and management. It is also a fundamental notion in impact assessment, as it relates action proposals with environmental impacts. Building on recent research about causality in impact assessment, this article turns to Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) and examines eleven guidance documents to see whether and how they handle causality. The findings of this research, in line with results from similar research in EIA, indicate a weak handling of causality with regards to instruction, obligation, and theoretical support. The recommendations are to investigate the reasons for the observed trend, as there is no evidence in the guidance documents themselves, and to have the fundamental premise of causality in impact assessment safeguarded in future SEA guidance.