Abstract
Abstract Over the past few decades, there were many developments about industry, science and technology, tourism etc. in Taiwan. Because the use of land is very intense, we even exploit coast, shore lands, reclaimed land etc. As living in a small island country, we cannot ignore the impacts of these activities. Therefore, besides taking some research and analyzing from domestic and foreign information, I went site visits in Taitung to experience the coastal development about the “Miramar Resort” Case myself. During this visit, I found out the project “Environmental Impact Assessment”（EIA）was not enough to evaluate all of the factors of the coastal development. That is why I advocate we should apply the system of “Strategic Environmental Assessment”（SEA）, which can include many factors to decision-making early and consider cumulative or synergistic environmental effects for the Policy, Programme and Project. On the contrary, there is still a lack of actual examples of many types of SEA in Taiwan, such as the coastal development which is this study focuses on. So this study will use the following perspectives: comparative study of laws and in-depth interview to analyze our country legal system and figure out what in our system should be improved. As a result, I provide the following suggestion: a） to upgrade the legal hierarchy of SEA, b） the scope of SEA should be expanded, c） the way to evaluate environmental impact, d）the evaluation of alternatives and e） the review of SEA etc. The last but not least is SEA is designed to lead and corporate with EIA in order to confirm the policy or programme will be implemented smoothly and in accordance with the “responsible politics” and “the right to know”. Finally, we will return to focus on the development of Taitung County Coast, set an appropriate SEA system for it in order to emphasize the importance of the application of SEA in this kind of issue. That is the way we hope to achieve sustainable development.