Highly Protected Marine Areas - policy framework and site selection guidelines: socio-economic impact assessment – methodology

1.3 Purpose and Structure of this Report

1.3.1 The purpose of this report is to present the proposed methodology for undertaking the SEIA on the proposed HPMAs, when proposals are available. A Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) of the proposed HPMAs will also be undertaken and the proposed methodology for the SEA is reported separately. The key findings of both the SEA and the SEIA will be summarised in an overall Sustainability Appraisal (SA) document.

1.3.2 The remainder of this SEIA Methodology Report is structured as follows:

• Section 2 provides information on the background to HPMAs and their policy context;
• Section 3 describes the approach to the SEIA and the proposed methods;
• Section 4 describes the general approach to the assessment;
• Section 5 describes the scoping of impacts and presents an initial scoping exercise; and
• Section 6 describes the proposed methodology for the assessment of costs and benefits.

1.3.3 The Non-Technical Summary precedes Section 1. Further detailed information is provided in Appendices as follows:

• Appendix A: Outcome of Scoping;
• Appendix B: Sector Considerations and Assessment Methods;
• Appendix C: Site Assessment Tables Template (template for providing detailed assessments for each site); and
• Appendix D: Abbreviations.