Challenges and Opportunities in Early Stage Planning of Transport Infrastructure Projects: Environmental Aspects in the Strategic Choice of Measures Approach

Sofia Eckersten, Berit Balfors and Ulrika Gunnarsson-Östling
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Sofia Eckersten: Department of Sustainable Development, Environmental Science and Engineering, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, S100 44 Stockholm, Sweden
Berit Balfors: Department of Sustainable Development, Environmental Science and Engineering, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, S100 44 Stockholm, Sweden
Ulrika Gunnarsson-Östling: Department of Sustainable Development, Environmental Science and Engineering, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, S100 44 Stockholm, Sweden

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 3, 1-18

Abstract: The Strategic Choice of Measures (SCM) approach aims to integrate different perspectives and identify measures to adapt new infrastructure projects to their local context at an early stage of Swedish transport planning. SCM is a loosely structured framework for collaboration between actors from, e.g., municipalities and the Swedish Transport Administration, in order to facilitate the coordination of transport planning and land use planning. This paper aims to explore the consideration of environmental aspects in early-stage transport planning by analyzing the SCM approach. An explorative research approach is applied based on literature studies, semi-structured interviews, and a focus group interview. The result shows that in the SCM process, environmental aspects such as noise and air pollution generated by road traffic in urban areas, engage the actors, whereas aspects related to landscape and water were perceived as poorly addressed and received less attention. The consideration of environmental aspects in the SCM process is affected by the local and national authorities’ different interests and the competences involved. To consolidate environmental aspects in early transport planning, these aspects need to be explicitly addressed in the SCM guidelines and the link between the SCM and preceding and following planning stages needs to be strengthened.

Keywords: urban transportation planning; transport infrastructure; environmental aspects; collaborative planning; Strategic Choice of Measures; Sweden (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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