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The lack of early integration with the planning and decision-making process has been a major problem in environmental assessment. Traditional project-based environmental impact assessment has inadequate incentives and capacities to incorporate critical environmental impacts at a broader temporal or spatial scale. While many applications have been geared towards implementing project-level environmental assessments, comparatively little research has been done to determine how to incorporate strategically critical environmental impacts into local planning. Although the principles of strategic environmental assessment (SEA) are not yet required in local planning in the United States, these principles create a theoretical framework for local environmental assessment. The objective of this study is to examine the ability of local plans to integrate and implement the key SEA principles. This study focuses on increasing the understanding of how and where to integrate environmental impacts into the local planning and decision-making process by converting the principles of SEA into specific planning tools, policies, and implementation strategies. This study develops a protocol with 112 indicators to measure the strengths and weaknesses of integrating strategic environmental assessment into local comprehensive land use plans. A random sample of 40 California local comprehensive land use plans and associated planning processes is evaluated based on this plan quality evaluation protocol. Statistical analysis and multiple regression models identify the factors affecting the quality of plans with respect to their ability to assess environmental impacts. The results identify the relative strengths and weaknesses of the ability of local jurisdictions to integrate the SEA principles. The results show that many strategically important environmental issues and tools are rarely adopted by current local plans. The regression analysis results further identify the effects of planning capacity, environmental assessment capacity, public participation and contextual variables on environmental assessment plan quality. The findings extend established planning theory and practice by incorporating strategic environmental considerations into the existing framework of what constitutes a high quality local land use comprehensive plan and suggest ways to improve plan quality.

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A fundamental purpose of state-mandated growth management has been to infuse regional environmental concerns into local land use planning. Similarly, collaborative ecosystem planning efforts have attempted to encourage local communities to participate in regional planning efforts, and to adopt regional environmental goals and objectives into local land use plans. This paper presents results from a study of state-mandated local planning and collaborative regional planning, addressing in particular local ability to adopt and implement ecosystem planning initiatives for development management. I found that a state mandate not only achieves plans from communities that would not otherwise plan, but also the plans produced are of higher quality than plans made voluntarily without a mandate. However, while these plans generally acknowledge the need for regional resource protection, local plans are rarely go beyond stating support for State minimum resource protection rules. Conversely, I found that participation in a regional ecosystem planning effort had little effect on local land use policy. Within this context, key factors yielding more environmentally focused planning and implementation included local commitment to ecosystem planning, development pressure, and recent natural hazard impacts. Key factors steering communities away from ecosystem management included poor economic conditions, a desire to maintain local autonomy, and consultant-driven planning processes. Challenges for all communities include the ability to adopt policies that address biodiversity and regionally significant landscapes.

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This research presents the first coastal and marine protected areas specific quantitative management plan evaluation protocol. This critical research gap in the coastal and marine protected area (CMPA) research literature was addressed by creating a protocol for evaluating CMPA plan quality utilizing a combination of marine protected area (MPA) and land use planning techniques for the first time, then applying it to a sample of CMPAs providing both descriptive results of CMPA plan quality and analysis of factors that might influence plan quality. A sample of CMPAs (n=40) under the jurisdiction of Florida‟s Coastal and Aquatic Managed Areas (CAMA) was evaluated for plan quality using 96 indicators scored as 0, 1, or 2 and then divided into five plan components: factual basis, goals and objectives, policies, tools and strategies, inter-governmental coordination and cooperation, and implementation and monitoring. Total CMPA plan quality averaged 29.40 out of a possible 50.00. CMPA plan quality ranged from 20.00 to 47.00 with a standard deviation of 7.07. Regression analysis examined the effects of CMPA context, participation, environmental threats and socioeconomic factors on CMPA plan quality. The age of CMPA plans was found to be a significant indicator of CMPA plan quality. Other significant indicators of plan quality included threatened biodiversity, participation, and percent of adjacent developed or agricultural land.

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