Municipal administration and citizens linkages in strategic environmental assessment: exploring agency features in participatory decision-making processes of municipal master plans

Radical, structural, and multidimensional transformations are urgently needed in urban systems to advance sustainability on local and global scales. Combining traditional and new local governance arrangements is key in leveraging this change. Local governance research indicates an increased interest in better understanding decision-making processes aimed at sustainability in urban systems. However, there is still limited understanding of how decision-making processes can enable or constrain urban sustainability transformations in diverse local contexts. This research explores interactions and linkages between Municipal Administration and citizens in Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) decision-making processes of Municipal Master Plans in North Portugal through the COMPASS – COncept Map of decision-making Processes of policies, plans, and programs aimed at urbAn Sustainability tranSformation (Ponte et al., 2025). We analyzed the agency features of COMPASS, focusing on ‘learning, information and knowledge’, ‘awareness’, ‘resources’, and ‘shared vision’. Our findings suggest that a more flexible and reflexive local governance arrangement is necessary for effective decision-making processes. Additionally, SEA should depart from procedural and technocratic approaches towards a more transformational functioning. This paradigm shift facilitates the embedding of a citizens’ ‘shared vision’ that is aligned with sustainability and fosters collective and strategic thinking early in urban SEA processes for urban sustainability transformations.