Environmental Sensitivity Mapping (ESM) Webtool

For SEA to effectively inform planning processes, a systematic and accessible approach that includes the best available spatial information and ensures comparability between assessments is key. Development pressures on the landscape need to be efficiently examined and the potential for cumulative effects on the environment must be considered. The ESM Webtool enables the creation of environmental sensitivity maps that capture the accumulated concentration of sensitive environmental features on the landscape, which help to address some of these challenges and direct development to suitable locations.

The ESM Webtool provides an opportunity to streamline assessments by centralising information, facilitating public participation, enabling the rapid creation of plan-specific maps and providing a robust evidence-base to inform spatial planning. It supports planners and SEA practitioners by enabling a systematic spatial examination of environmental considerations and their vulnerability or sensitivity, as required under the SEA Directive. To ensure that context-specific considerations are factored in, users are prompted to select environmental criteria relevant to the plan/programme under preparation and assessment, and to assign weights that capture public concerns to such criteria. The Webtool’s aim is to enhance consistency and transparency in impact assessments across planning hierarchies and sectors, as well as to facilitate participative and accountable decision-making.