TY - JOUR
T1 - Strategic Environmental Assessment in higher education
T2 - Portuguese and Brazilian cases
AU - Ramos, Tomás B.
AU - Montaño, Marcelo
AU - Melo, João Miguel Dias Joanaz de
AU - Souza, Marcelo P.
AU - Lemos, Clara Carvalho De
AU - Domingues, Ana Rita
AU - Polido, Alexandra
N1 - Sem PDF.
PY - 2015/11/1
Y1 - 2015/11/1
N2 - Environmental Impact Assessment is well established in higher education worldwide, with a history going back to the 1970s. In contrast, the teaching and training of Strategic Environmental Assessment is a relatively novel, less consolidated and implanted, but of growing importance as a decision support tool in planning and policy. Therefore, training needs in this domain have grown accordingly, demanding new answers from higher education institutions. Despite the existence of relevant work on sustainability in higher education, and on impact assessment education, there is a dearth of research on education of environmental assessment approaches for strategic levels of decision making. The goal of this research paper is to characterize the profile of Strategic Environmental Assessment in higher education in two distinct situations; Portugal and Brazil. Surveys were conducted to assess Strategic Environmental Assessment integration in their higher education institutions' curricula. Bachelor and masters' programmes and course curricula were analysed through a content analysis based approach. The main results showed a medium state of integration for Strategic Environmental Assessment, while stressing that it is still an unconsolidated area. These results also emphasized that there is a need to discuss the design of Strategic Environmental Assessment specialized courses that respond to societal needs, rethinking the impact assessment educational initiatives and approaches. The integration of this assessment instrument in curricula could have significant implications for the enhancement of higher education practices for sustainable development, by promoting better assessment and management of strategies, policies, legislation, plans and programmes and the decision-making processes involved.
AB - Environmental Impact Assessment is well established in higher education worldwide, with a history going back to the 1970s. In contrast, the teaching and training of Strategic Environmental Assessment is a relatively novel, less consolidated and implanted, but of growing importance as a decision support tool in planning and policy. Therefore, training needs in this domain have grown accordingly, demanding new answers from higher education institutions. Despite the existence of relevant work on sustainability in higher education, and on impact assessment education, there is a dearth of research on education of environmental assessment approaches for strategic levels of decision making. The goal of this research paper is to characterize the profile of Strategic Environmental Assessment in higher education in two distinct situations; Portugal and Brazil. Surveys were conducted to assess Strategic Environmental Assessment integration in their higher education institutions' curricula. Bachelor and masters' programmes and course curricula were analysed through a content analysis based approach. The main results showed a medium state of integration for Strategic Environmental Assessment, while stressing that it is still an unconsolidated area. These results also emphasized that there is a need to discuss the design of Strategic Environmental Assessment specialized courses that respond to societal needs, rethinking the impact assessment educational initiatives and approaches. The integration of this assessment instrument in curricula could have significant implications for the enhancement of higher education practices for sustainable development, by promoting better assessment and management of strategies, policies, legislation, plans and programmes and the decision-making processes involved.
KW - Brazil
KW - Curricula
KW - Higher education for sustainable development
KW - Impact assessment
KW - Portugal
KW - Strategic Environmental Assessment
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84928561970&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.12.088
DO - 10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.12.088
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84928561970
SN - 0959-6526
VL - 106
SP - 222
EP - 228
JO - Journal of Cleaner Production
JF - Journal of Cleaner Production
ER -