SEA Approach

Assessment Overview

The SEA process has considerable overlap with the appraisal of the ‘Environment’ criterion within the wider STAG appraisal. The same topic specialists therefore worked on both appraisals and the results of the STAG environment criterion appraisal directly fed into the SEA for all environmental topics and their corresponding ‘SEA Objectives’, as listed in Section 3.3. The appraisal of the STAG ‘Health, Safety and Wellbeing’ criterion also fed into the SEA topic of Population and Human Health, specifically the SEA objective relating to safety.

Scope of Assessment and SEA Objectives

This SEA has developed a suite of ‘SEA objectives’ for each of the environmental topics listed in Scotland’s SEA Regulations. SEA practitioners have used these objectives to assess all key components of the A96 Corridor Review, in particular, the transport packages and interventions. It has therefore aimed to have a positive environmental influence at each of the key stages of the A96 Corridor Review, as listed in Section 2.2.

The SEA objectives fall under the following topics:

• Climatic Factors – including two separate objectives, one for greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction and one for climate adaptation
• Air Quality
• Population and Human Health – including four separate objectives covering the topics of quality of life, noise and vibration, high-quality places and safety
• Material Assets - including two separate objectives, one relating to the sustainability of the transport network and one for reducing use of natural resources
• Water Environment
• Biodiversity
• Geology and Soils
• Cultural Heritage
• Landscape and Visual Amenity

Assessment Approach

As part of the STAG assessment process, the A96 corridor interventions require assessment under environmental and climate change criteria. These criteria and related sub-criteria are very similar to the SEA topics and objectives. The STAG appraisal and SEA appraisal are broadly consistent with each other, except where SEA objectives cover different topics to the STAG criteria.

The cumulative assessment has been summarised in a narrative for Full Dualling, each Package of transport interventions and for each SEA topic in Section 7.3 of this Non-Technical Summary. All assessments are limited to a high-level commentary due to the early stage and strategic nature of the design.

The SEA assessment process has used a similar rating system for the assessment of packages as the STAG appraisal. The SEA rating system was developed to align with the STAG rating system to ensure consistency of approach.

Table 3.1: Rating system for likely significant effects

Rating	Descriptions	Colour Rating
Major Positive Effect	The option has a major contribution to the achievement of the SEA objective	Major Positive
Moderate Positive Effect	The option has a moderate contribution to the achievement of the SEA objective	Moderate Positive
Minor Positive Effect	The option has a minor contribution to the achievement of the SEA objective but not significantly	Minor Positive
Neutral Effect	The option is related to but does not have any effect on the achievement of the SEA objective	Neutral
Uncertain Effect	The option could contribute or detract from the achievement of the SEA objective but this will depend on factors such as design and how the option is implemented. In addition, insufficient information may be available to enable an assessment to be made	Uncertain
Minor Negative Effect	The option detracts from the achievement of the SEA objective but not significantly	Minor Negative
Moderate Negative Effect	The option moderately detracts from the achievement of the objective. Mitigation is therefore required	Moderate Negative
Major Negative Effect	The option significantly detracts from the achievement of the objective. Mitigation is therefore required	Major Negative

Cumulative Effects Assessment

Cumulative effects have been considered at both intra-plan (the impact of a combination of transport intervention options) and the inter-plan (the impact of the plan alongside other plans and policies) levels. The cumulative effects are described in Section 7.