The thesis addresses the challenge of applying strategic environmental assessment (SEA) to
provincial level expressway infrastructure planning in China. It first describes the evaluation
process of EA (environmental impact assessment (EIA)) and SEA, then the current Chinese
SEA application mechanism which was established by the Chinese EIA Law (2003) and
subsequent laws and regulations. A comparative analysis is undertaken between the Chinese
SEA system, the UK system and the Canadian SEA application systems. To clearly understand
how SEA is applied in the road transport infrastructure development field, two SEA cases and
one EIA case, and a questionnaire study, were carried out to obtain evidences of the actual
situation of SEA application in this area. Conclusions were made to clearly describe those
deficiencies existing in the current administration system, legal system and application
framework and actual practices of SEA application in China. In the light of improving the
quality of SEA application in provincial level expressway infrastructure development
programme in China, an SEA application framework and indicator system which address
these drawing on advanced experiences and principles of good SEA application from
European countries, is proposed and tested through evaluation by experts. The thesis also
makes recommendations for implementing the proposed SEA application framework and
indicator system for expressway programming.