Ⅰ. Background and Purpose of the Study
1. Background of the study
ㅇ Strategic environmental impact assessment is becoming increasingly necessary as an institutional device to ensure sustainability by integrating and/or mainstreaming government environmental policies and measures into policy plans due to changes in global environmental conditions.

2. Purpose of the Study
ㅇ This study aims to expand the scope of strategic environmental impact assessment for policy plans to secure sustainability of policy plans, and to derive institutional remedies for the evaluation process of strategic environmental impact assessment.

Ⅱ. Current Institutional Arrangement and Problems
1. Criteria and Methods for Selecting Target Plans
o Existing Institutional arrangement
ㅇ The considerations for determining whether to implement a strategic environmental impact assessment are listed in Article 10-2 of the Environmental Impact Assessment Act (Procedure for Determining Plans Subject to Strategic Environmental Impact Assessment), and they include: ① The significance of the environmental impact of the plan, ② The possibility of environmental assessment of the plan, ③ The impact of the plan on other plans or developmental projects, etc.
ㅇ Although the method of which plan is subject to strategic environmental impact assessment is not adequately elaborated in the law or administrative rules, most of previous studies tend to use simple checklists (yes or no) to determine whether a plan is subject to strategic environmental impact assessment

o Existing problems
ㅇ The problems with associate