الفهرس 
IntroductionOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
In Egypt, environmental impact assessment (EIA) is well established as a planning tool that identifies the likely impacts associated with developments and determines their level of significance. Notwithstanding its extensive use in the Egyptian context, certain limitations are now being increasingly recognized with regard to achieving sustainable development within planning processes. This research advocates the adoption of strategic environmental assessment (SEA) as a mean to achieve sustainable development in planning processes, because of its role in enhancing environmental assessment practice. The current study develops a framework and procedures for integrating SEA into Egyptian urban planning, for the purposes of achieving sustainable development. It first reviews the theory of SEA and discusses its benefits and principles; it identifies the context factors supporting the potential adoption of SEA, then a set of core structural elements around which an SEA system should be composed is identified. A comparative analysis for 10 selected SEA application systems is undertaken in order to explore the international practice, and to identify how SEA systems are regulated in these countries. This assists in setting up a framework of alternatives related to the structural SEA core elements, then a generic model for designing SEA systems which is used as guidance for designing an SEA system for Egypt. In the light of the main aim of the thesis, the study investigates the Egyptian context in order to explore the status and potential of adopting SEA; it evaluates the environmental context against the designing model criteria to justify and form the basis for the proposals. To clearly understand the Egyptian context, 42 interviews were carried out to obtain evidence of the actual situations in this area. Finally, a proposed framework for SEA application and suggestions for better integration between SEA and the urban planning process are proposed. As recommended in the framework of the Egyptian National Strategy for Sustainable Development (2006), a formal provision for strategic environmental assessment should be introduced in the Egyptian context to overcome the challenges associated with current development trends. This research is the first contribution to strategic environmental assessment in the Egyptian context, particularly related to urban development policy making; its contributions lies in introducing SEA to be an appropriate tool for incorporating environmental issues at early stage of urban policy making in order to achieve more sustainable development in Egypt.