Screening of Industrial Development Policies, Plans and Programs of Strategic Environmental Assessment in the Industrial Sector of Iran

The present investigation deals with the quality of capacity building and institutional strengthening of Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) in the industrial sector as well as determining the environmental strategies for industrial sustainable development in Iran. The leading aim of this paper has been to systematize the environmental considerations in industrial development strategies, policies, plans and programs in the highest strategic decision making processes and to ensure environmental considerations and alternatives together with other economic and social considerations in the procedures, before the research processes. In order to analysis of Iran,s industrial development strategies, a matrix method was used as one of the most practical techniques of strategic programing as; SWOT (strenghts, weaknesses, opportunities and threats). Eventually the result of SWOT analysis in the form of a cell 29*12 matrix, has been an indicative of the degree of need toward performing SEA in conection with the kinds of the country,s industrial strategies in a categorizing priorities system. As among all the industrial strategic policies, have been screened and evaluated 8 strategies in the first priority and 4 strategies in the second priority.The industrial strategies with the first priority require; the emphasis on new industries, supporting and encouraging of the exports, privatization, competative industrial growth, commercial discharging, attracting the foreign direct investments, developing energy oriented industries and priorities of industrial fields strategies.Industrial strategies also require SEA in the second priority including: supporting the small and medium industries,considering the indexes of industrial potentiality measurement,following demands for establishing industrial workshops from spatial development system and developing legal, institutional and physical structures strategies.The basis of the results of this study is achieving and realizing the conditions of environmental quality sustainability and industrial development sustainability in Iran calls for policy making and tremendous and strategic decision making on the basis of these strategies in the framework of SEA methodology and in the pre-research phase(policies, plans and programs) as well as performing EIA projects.