PROJECTS
Funding
European
Duration
-
Status
Complete with results
Geo-spatial type
Infrastructure Node
Project Acronym
BEACON
STRIA Roadmaps
Transport mode
Transport policies
Environmental/Emissions aspects
Transport sectors
Passenger transport,
Freight transport
Overview
Background & Policy context
BEACON addresses the broad issue of Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) of transport infrastructure. BEACON directly addresses all major societal challenges that the European continent is currently facing:
- environment
- employment
- education
- working conditions
- quality of life in general.
Objectives
- Establishing a platform for discussion that, by bringing together all categories of involved stakeholders, can lead to achieving consensus on concepts, methodologies and practice of SEA applied to transport infrastructure;
- Providing explicit opportunities to link research results to policy making;
- Ensuring that the appropriate level of dissemination of research results is reached, notably targeting policy makers and practitioners;
- Issuing methodological recommendations on SEA in the transport sector;
- Identifying and illustrating examples of best practice in transport SEA;
- Providing support to the implementation of SEA for selected sections of the TEN.
Methodology
- Organisation of 2 Workshops, 1 Conference, and a series of technical meetings involving experts, representatives of Member States (in both the transport and environment administrations) and of the European Commission.
- Drafting, discussion and circulation of a large number of technical papers covering all aspects of SEA, providing both methodological and practical insights as well as an updated account of the State-of-the-Art across the EU.
- Production of a large number of Deliverables, which present and summarise the results of the State-of-the-Art analyses carried out by the Consortium, and incorporate the findings of the discussions staged during the Workshops, the Technical Meetings and the Final Conference.
- Establishment and continuous updating of a dedicated website on transport SEA, to serve as a unique reference in the field.
- Revision of the Transport SEA Manual issued by DG TREN in 1999, and drafting of an updated and largely revised version of the latter.
- Contribution to the scoping of selected TEN-T corridors, also to illustrate the potentialities of SEA in transport infrastructure planning.
Funding
Parent Programmes
Institution Type
Public institution
Institution Name
European Commission
Type of funding
Public (EU)
Results
- An updated, comparative appraisal of the current state of development of SEA across the EU (illustrated in the relevant Deliverables and in selected Technical Papers.
- The achievement of consensus (within the BEACON network, which includes representatives of both the research and the policy community, from a large number of EU Member States) on a variety of critical issues associated to the adoption of SEA in the transport sector (illustrated in the 'statements' issued at the end of each main BEACON event).
- The production of the new Transport SEA Manual, reflecting the above consensus.
- The demonstration, through selected examples, of how SEA can support transport planning, notably in the framework of the TEN-T development (illustrated in the relevant Deliverable).
Technical Implications
Future exploitation is directly geared to:
- The diffusion and extensive adoption of the Manual, as the preferred means to foster the application of the 'SEA Directive';
- The consolidation and promotion of the BEACON website, which should become a unique resource for the transport SEA community;
- The consolidation of the BEACON network, as the privileged discussion forum on the future developments of transport SEA.
Partners
Lead Organisation
EU Contribution
€0
Partner Organisations
EU Contribution
€0