Environmental Management Issues Research Articles

Specifics of the legal regulation of environmental management in agriculture

It is difficult to overestimate the importance of agriculture, its effectiveness for the economic and socio-political sector of development of any state in the modern world. However, agriculture relies on the use of natural resources in its activities - land, soil, water, atmospheric air, forests and other vegetation. The quality of these natural components of the natural environment directly affects the functioning and productivity of agricultural organizations. Environmental pollution problems are complex problems of interaction between nature and man. To minimize environmental harm and the occurrence of dangerous environmental consequences, a model of environmental management is needed. For agricultural production environmental management issues are particularly specific since its productivity is directly related, first of all, to the state of the natural environment as consumption resources on the one hand, and the negative impact of agricultural activities on natural resources on the other. In this article the issues of legal regulation of the law of nature use in agricultural activities were investigated, the problems of regulatory support for the rational use of nature in agriculture were identified, and the directions for optimizing the legislative regulation of the use of natural resources for agricultural activities were determined.

Restraining COVID-19: Management of Hospital Waste in Post Pandemic Setting in West Africa

Emerged from the Chinese city of Wuhan, Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) becomes the novel scenario to the face of the Earth where people must learn to live with. This paper reviewed some indispensable environmental management issues during the post-COVID-19 pandemic in Africa with specific reference to hospital waste management in Nigeria. Though not exhaustible, the study assesses how hospital waste and other environmental priorities will adversely help the restraining of the COVID-19 pandemic. In most West African communities where financial and technological challenges are evident, the management of these essential environmental issues requires a coordinated and prompt response from various authorities. Moreover, the provision of sufficient funding is central to every aspect of hospital waste management, therefore, this study suggests the need for thorough informative awareness programs as a panacea since the success of managing these key environmental issues is directly connected to the containment of this pandemic to a minimal level.

THEORETICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL SUPPORT OF TRAINING OF FUTURE TEACHERS OF THE NEW UKRAINIAN PRIMARY SCHOOL FOR THE FORMATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL CULTURE

The pedagogical condition of training a future primary school teacher for the formation of environmental culture that is the use of appropriate traditional and innovative forms and methods in the direction of actualization of needs of children in nature protection activities is characterized. The implementation of this condition is based on the cooperation of lecturers and students of higher educational institutions and was carried out in classroom and during extracurricular activities. Updated curricula on the subjects Fundamentals of Environmental Studies, Methods of Teaching Subjects of the Integrated Course I Explore the World are provided.The program of pedagogical practice for students of higher educational establishments (3rd year, Specialty 013 Primary Education) with environmental content is updated – the purpose and objectives for each lesson for studying topics related to nature protection and environmental management issues are formulated: definition of teaching methods for nature protection and environmental management taking into account psychological and individual characteristics of children, self-analysis of the lesson on the integrated course I Explore the World, analysis of a lesson taking into account the solution of pedagogic and educational tasks set before the lesson. The directions of educational (field) practice are specified: study and assessment of the state of nature of the native land; nature protection; topics and content of ecological excursions as a leading organizational form of educational (field) practice are diversified.The developments of the special seminar Psychological and Pedagogical Foundations of Environmental Education of Primary School Children are provided. The seminar consisted of three parts: 1) the first part Nature as a Universal Value revealed the global problems of the planet, the essence of environmental culture of a teacher; 2) in the second part – Psychological Bases of Environmental Education of Primary School Children psychological methods offormation of environmental consciousness and behaviour were studied; 3) the third part is devoted to the pedagogical foundations of environmental education of primary school children.

REVERSE LOGISTICS AS A TOOL FOR ECOLOGIZATION OF THE ECONOMY BASED ON THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT CONCEPT

The article discusses the issues of environmental management in logistics based on the concept of sustainable development through the introduction of environmental logistics. The problem of human survival in conditions of limited natural resources against the background of the deterioration of the natural conditions of human existence has led to the creation of the concept of sustainable development, which requires taking into account environmental and social factors in all spheres of human life. Logistics as a field of practice makes a negative contribution to the state of the environment. Highlighted the contour of ecological logistics in the framework of the concept of sustainable development. On the basis of the basic rules of logistics, the rules of ecology were formed, which reflect the need for ecologization of logistics. The evolution of the development of ecology is investigated, the features of the ecologization of logistics at each stage of the development of logistics are highlighted. Ecology has been actively developing in recent years and has several promising research areas, one of which is reverse logistics, which focuses on managing the reverse flows of material resources. The essence, tasks and place of reverse logistics in the hierarchy of environmentally oriented directions have been determined. The evolution of logistics chains corresponding to the stages of logistics development has been investigated. Closed logistic chains as the basis of reverse logistics are considered, the composition of the flows forming them is determined.

The role of environmental managers in knowledge co-production: Insights from two case studies

Transdisciplinary collaborative processes like knowledge co-production have been promoted as valuable mechanisms to address complex environmental management issues. Their value is based on epistemic and participatory ideals involving academic and non-academic knowledge and values being elicited and deliberated upon. While idealised processes of participation have been described, the actual nature of non-academic contributions including those of environmental managers has received scant attention. We explore the role and input of environmental managers in knowledge co-production, drawing on two cases from Australia and South Africa. We use an analytical frame based on the co-production idiom which focuses on process legitimacy when involving lay participants in science-informed dialogue. Environmental managers tend to be treated as part of a homogeneous group of ‘policy-makers’ but our research reveals that this characterisation masks individuals with a diversity of motivations, skills and responsibilities who contribute empirical, pragmatic and normative knowledge to co-production. Our results also suggest that environmental managers were not always able to contribute meaningfully to the critical early step of issue definition. These new insights suggest better conceptualisation of decision-maker expertise and roles, and flexibility in design and implementation of collaborative processes, are required if knowledge co-production is to achieve a participatory ideal and substantively better environmental management decisions.

PENGELOLAAN LINGKUNGAN HIDUP MENURUT PERSPEKTIF FIQIH

Islam prohibits human beings from destructing the environment which can provide detrimental effects on their lives and other creatures. The primary sources of Islamic teachings are Al Qur’an and Al Hadist as well as ijtihad (Fiqh). Fiqh as an Islamic jurisprudence is applied based on the development of the community in the context which derives from the authentic dalils from Islamic sources. In the Fiqh, so-called Fiqh Siyasah, the government plays a vital role in designing policy to align with and capitalize on environmental sustainability. So does Fiqh of the environment. It describes how Islam governs environmental management, so that it can be maintained and preserved from the destruction which can be harmful to human beings and other creatures in this world. This article aims to elaborate some Islamic principles concerning the guidance of environmental management issues which have to be followed by human beings to preserve their dignity and integrity as well as to protect nature and other creatures as a sign that they are indeed the best creation of all.

Análise temporal de NDVI sobre a cobertura vegetal da Área de Proteção Ambiental (APA) Costa Brava em Balneário Camboriú (SC)

A Área de Proteção Ambiental (APA) Costa Brava, criada em 12 de julho de 2000, pelo decreto n°1.985 e instituída como Unidade de Conservação (UC) através do decreto n° 9.985 dispõe da legislação para o gerenciamento das questões ambientais. Localizada no perímetro urbano do município de Balneário Camboriú (SC), apresenta um ecossistema com alto destaque ambiental, além de ser uma região de interesse da população, com intenso uso como área recreativa e de grande valor comercial para empreendimentos imobiliários, fatores que contribuem para o monitoramento constante da Área de Proteção Ambiental. O Índice de Vegetação por Diferença Normalizada (NDVI) relaciona a absorção e reflexão do tecido vegetal identificando a densidade da biomassa e a saúde da cobertura vegetal. Deste modo, o objetivo do presente estudo foi realizar a análise temporal da cobertura vegetal, através do NDVI, durante o período de 20 anos (2000 - 2020), utilizando imagens dos satélites Landsat 5 e 8. Para a área de estudo o NDVI retratou uma redução do valor ao longo dos anos, podendo indicar uma menor atividade fotossintética da cobertura vegetal, representada pela resposta espectral das imagens coletadas. Além do retorno positivo da legislação que visa orientar e assegurar a sustentabilidade do uso dos recursos naturais.

К вопросу об управлении природопользованием прибрежными приморскими рекреационными территориями Российской Федерации

К вопросу об управлении природопользованием прибрежными приморскими рекреационными территориями Российской Федерации

Website disclosure of environmental compliance management\u2014the case of European production companies

Companies are expected to comply with environmental laws and regulations. They also face increasing stakeholder interest in information about environmental compliance management efforts. Corporate websites serve today’s enterprises as an important medium for voluntary environmental disclosure. However, relatively little research has addressed the topic of environmental compliance management. This empirical study explores current practices of website disclosure of environmental compliance management. Data were collected through a randomly selected sample of 154 European production companies in two groups of medium-sized and very large companies. Environmental management issues concerning the functionalities and disclosure subjects observed on the company websites were recorded. The analyses revealed that in general, corporate websites contain little information about environmental management and environmental compliance management, and large companies disclose more than small companies. The results also indicate that the disclosure practices of some countries deviate remarkably from those of other countries in the sample.

Factors influencing storm surges in the West Korean Bay of the Yellow Sea: a case study of typhoon Winnie, 1997

Coastal disasters due to storms and related prevention and prediction are key issues in coastal environmental management and planning. In the present study, the coupled storm surge–tide–wave model has been used for studying the effects of several factors on the storm surges in the West Korean Bay during the 1997 Winnie. The results have shown that the coupled model is capable of predicting the total water level under storm events with reasonable accuracy. The results have also shown that the river discharge plays an important role in the storm surge development. The peak surges at stations 1 and 2 located in the river estuaries were 0.2–1.5 m larger than those at the stations 3 and 4. Especially, the peak surge at the station 3 located in the Taedong River estuary was much smaller compared to those at the stations 1 and 2, due to the control of the river discharge by barrages such as the West Sea Barrage. The peak surge at the station 1 located in the Amrok River estuary was 12% larger than that at the station 2 located in the Chongchon River estuary, due to the considerable difference in the river discharges. In summary, our results have shown that integrating the coupled storm surge–tide–wave model technology with the real-time river discharge forecast is feasible for predicting the inundation under both storm surge and riverine floods for the West Korean Bay.

Participatory Analysis of Small-Scale Artisanal Gold Mining in the Santa Rita District, Municipality of Andes, Antioquia, Based on the PAIIO Methodology

Small-scale artisanal mining, MAPE (for its initials in Spanish), presents significant challenges and opportunities that must be analyzed systemically. To carry out the analysis, this paper proposes the PAIIO methodology (Participation, Actors, Impact, Idealized design, Opportunities), based on the Russell Ackoff Interactive Planning methodology. This proposed methodology propounds four steps to address environmental and common property management issues, where local communities must be the key player in decision-making, participating from the design of the solution in its implementation and monitoring. The PAIIO methodology was applied in the MAPE study in the Santa Rita village, Municipality of Andes. As a first step, for the development of the methodology in the case study, key actors in the community were identified, such as “barequeros” (gold miners) and scrap dealers, workers in the pitheads, workers of the “entables” (ranches); from their perceptions, impacts of the MAPE were identified; subsequently, together with them, the idealized design of the situation, the gaps between this design and the real situation were depicted; and finally, proposals and improvement opportunities were described to close the gaps between these scenarios. The community’s proposals go beyond good practices in mining, involving proposals related to their organization and investment in the territory.

Bioindicators and biomonitoring: honeybees and hive products as pollution impact assessment tools for the Mediterranean area

The global range of the environmental quality issues we all face necessitates integrated action from all of the countries that suffer from a particular environmental issue. We must be able to obtain data on the presence of pollutants and their effects on biota from any territory, regardless of its environmental, infrastructural, social, and economic conditions. Biomonitoring utilizes organisms and natural materials to obtain this information. In particular, the honeybee is a ubiquitous, easy-to-breed organism with great mobility. Its body, which is covered with hairs, picks up materials and particulates that it encounters in the environment. Therefore, bees are highly effective accumulators of materials from the soil, vegetation, air, and water. These characteristics mean that the honeybee is both a bioindicator and a passive bioaccumulator organism, making it an ideal agent for easily monitoring vast areas inexpensively, even in regions where infrastructure is scarce. In this short review, we summarize the main targets of the honeybee-based monitoring campaigns that have been carried out to date, highlighting the results obtained in assessments of organic and inorganic pollution performed by coupling more modern technologies with this long-standing practice. It is hoped that this review will make scientists more aware of the incredible potential of these delicate organisms to provide data that could prove useful in the management of environmental issues.

Public Participation and Information Disclosure for Environmental Sustainability of 2022 Winter Olympics

As China prepares to host the 2022 Winter Olympics, the Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee has committed to making public participation a fundamental part of its broader sustainability objectives. Unfortunately, the existing research on information openness and public participation towards Winter Olympic Games is limited in the perspective of host residents. Therefore, this article aims to understand the information disclosure and public participation, as well as the roles information and technologies (ICTs) play in achieving environmental sustainability. With the help of self-administered questionnaires, data were compiled. The survey was conducted in April 2017 with 650 residents in Beijing and Zhangjiakou via face-to-face interviews to obtain a random and statistically representative sample of host residents. Our findings indicated that only few respondents participated in the limited activities of Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics. The respondents’ views on important issues of public participation varied obviously including the participating level, principles, time, ways, mechanism, and influencing factor. The analysis illustrated over 70% of respondents had the positive attitudes towards ICTs roles and functions in Beijing 2022. ICTs have helped the public to obtain information about environmental management and sustainability issues, and to facilitate public awareness and collective action by building new management practices. This study has implications and contributes to the burgeoning literature surrounding the Olympic Games by providing an in-depth analysis of public participation in relation to the theory.

Transdisciplinary research for sustainability: scoping for project potential

AbstractIn response to the interconnected character of societal challenges, there is a growing interest in transdisciplinary sustainability research. However, for transdisciplinary research to be able to support the generation of new knowledge in a participatory and reflexive manner, a number of challenges have been identified in each stage of the transdisciplinary research process. In this paper, we respond specifically to the challenge of initiating transdisciplinary research projects, by proposing a process for performing transdisciplinary project scoping. Our group of early‐career researchers share experiences from scoping for transdisciplinary research potential, bridging local stakeholder needs with researchers’ interests across departments and national contexts. We present our methodological approach,which includes tools for stakeholder identification, systems thinking, and gap‐mapping. The approach was applied in the local context of the Navarino Environmental Observatory, Messinia, Greece. The findings identify regional sustainability concerns related to, for example, tourism, agriculture, and environmental management issues. The gap‐map highlights overlaps (e.g., in terms of existing research on the effects of agriculture on water resources), but also how previous research has been conducted on spatial and temporal scales not directly relevant to local actors. We believe that the approach can be used beyond this case study to identify the potential for problem‐oriented inter‐and transdisciplinary research.

Assessing discourses about controversial environmental management issues on social media: Tweeting about wild horses in a national park

Public participation is critical for planning and management of protected areas. With people increasingly using social media, including Twitter, to obtain news and express opinions, park agencies should recognize the utility of monitoring and engaging with this public discourse. We used a conservation culturomics approach to analyse Tweets during a period of controversy about the management of large mammals (horses) in a park (Kosciuszko National Park in Australia), including examining who talked about what, when and what emotions were expressed. An automated programming interface was used to collect metadata for Tweets about the Park, with keywords coded while sentiments and emotions were analysed using a standard lexicon of terms. The debate over introduced wild/feral horses in the Park dominated the discourse, accounting for 56% of the 2085 Tweets referring by name to the Park over 275 days. Many Tweets referred to horses (44.8%) and/or used the alternative term, brumbies (15%). They were more likely to be Retweets, be sent by Australians, with a potential reach of over 5 million followers. Peaks in Tweets related to specific events in the news, with Tweets sent by journalists and others in a professional capacity or specific organisations engaged in the debate more likely to be retweeted. Despite considerable polarisation in the broader debate, including in the traditional media and on other social media platforms, the discourse on Twitter focused mainly on the environmental impacts of horses, and ways to reduce their numbers, rather than wanting to keep horses in the Park. There are important issues with the use of Twitter data including challenges in identifying relevant Tweets, biases in who Tweets and what is retweeted, limited text in Tweets, and increasing focus of the rights to privacy online. Twitter, however, remains a relatively fast, timely and often free way to listen into public debate with a large potential audience, is simple to analyse and hence provides valuable insights into public reactions to park management decisions complementing other data sources.

The Global Waste Trafficking and Its Correlates

Our understanding of illicit waste trafficking (IWT) is in its embryonic stages; most notably, the transnational nature of this phenomenon has hitherto been neglected in extant empirical research. This study provides the first analysis of the possible coorrelates of transnational IWT at a global level. Through recourse to information extracted from the official Basel Convention National Reports, we constructed a network of the most relevant IWT connections between 148 countries. Next, we quantitatively investigated the role of specific potential factors that influence the structure of this transnational network. Our results indicate that illicit waste is trafficked toward poorer and more insecure countries, primarily via former colonial connections. As such, IWT poses a direct threat to the sustainable development of these countries. Mere adherence to international treaties and promulgation of environmental laws does not in and of themselves explain whether a country is part of the global IWT network, although the establishment of dedicated courts and tribunals does reduce the risk of being a recipient of trafficked waste. Solid anticorruption measures and a strong rule of law increased the likelihood of being a source country in the IWT network, which, in turn, calls for a more global approach to the management of environmental issues.

Environmental Information: Pressures, Types, and Usage

Global warming, manmade pollution, and pressure from various stakeholdersare among the factors that drive business organisations to strike a balance intheir operations by reducing negative impact on the environment and society,while increasing the company’s wealth. In response to these pressures, onecommon method is voluntary disclosure of information on environmental impactthrough publication of corporate social responsibility report. The majority ofstudies on company’s environmental issues primarily look from the externalviewpoint. This paper takes an alternative approach focusing on processes inrelation to the management of environmental issues. Among the areas exploredare pressure factors that lead managers to adopting sustainability management,the types of environmental information being considered, its usage, and theusers. The findings derived from interviews with several key personnel revealedthat a number of external and internal pressures lead to a variety of internalusers from different departments in the organisation.

ТЕОРЕТИЧНІ АСПЕКТИ ФІНАНСОВИХ РЕСУРСІВ ПОЗАБЮДЖЕТНИХ ФОНДІВ

Formulation of the problem. Issues of environmental management, infrastructure of regional and municipal scale, development of trade and services, use of real estate, introduction of special forms of education, culture and health care can be implemented with the help of financial resources of the region. The work is devoted to theoretical aspects of financial resources of state extrabudgetary funds of the Russian Federation. The purpose of the article is to determine the importance and place of state extrabudgetary funds in the financial system, the main directions of optimization of state financial resources, their development in spatial aspect from the point of view of the functioning of territorial budgetary systems and federal extrabudgetary funds in the regions of the country. The object of the study is the financial resources of the state extrabudgetary funds of the Russian Federation. Methods used in the study. The methodological basis of the study is the system of scientific methods used in the complex to achieve the goal and solve the set tasks. The dialectical method had made it possible to justify causal relations in the operation of State budgetary systems. The historical method is applied in the study of historical experience of financing the social sphere. Popular scientific, systemic and logical methods have also been used to obtain research findings. The empirical basis was international conventions, legislative acts of the Russian Federation, reference literature. Statement of the main material. Public finances in the regions should be considered not only with regard to the budgetary sphere, but also the activities of state social extra -budgetary funds, their importance in education and spending of public finances. The functioning of State budgetary funds is based on the rele- vant legal acts of State authorities, where their activities are regulated, sources of education are established and rules for the use of financial resources are drawn up. One of the main priorities of the Government 's activities is the pension, social and medical sectors, which need significant expenditures. The systemic independence of the above-mentioned funds, their removal from the budgetary sphere, will ensure the smooth implementation of these expenditures. Research conclusions. The analysis of theoretical aspects of financial resources makes it possible to conclude that regardless of the interpretation of the concept of "financial system," state extrabudgetary funds are an independent link of the current financial system of Russia. The diversity of forms and sources of financing for social development and social protection programmes has determined the increased responsibility of the State in regulating these processes, the improvement of which should mean the implementation of a set of measures.

Environmental management in automated systems for engineering production

The article describes the issues of environmental management and environmental savings. The goal of environmental management is to conserve and save raw materials, materials, energy resources, and to improve the environmental situation. This article describes the technical aspects of environmental management in mechanical engineering production. Identification of environmental aspects occurs on the basis of the process approach. To manage aspects of environmental management in engineering production an automated program “Coating Mode Solver” has been developed. The program interface is described. Automated program selects the optimal technical modes of the process. Optimal process modes allow managing environmental aspects, reducing resource consumption and having a positive impact on the green economy.

An Environmental Justice Assessment of the Waste Treatment Facilities in Shanghai: Incorporating Counterfactual Decomposition into the Hedonic Price Model

Environmental justice (EJ) has become an increasingly significant issue for environmental management and has thus attracted increasing government and public attention. Although some studies have used techniques of proximity based on geographical information systems to assess EJ, their research is limited to individual or household data. Unlike the conventional hedonic price model (HPM) examining the effects of environmental features on housing rent, this article incorporates counterfactual decomposition into the HPM to estimate the environmental pressure on different groups by comparing the externality effects of municipal solid waste treatment facilities (MSWTFs) on two separate groups of people. To explore whether and, if so, the extent to which, vulnerable groups of people are restricted to disproportionate impacts of hazardous environmental facilities, this research uses Shanghai as the study area to highlight specific locations and exemplify the environmental injustice between the rich and the poor. The results, which represent the relationship between environmental quality and property prices, indicate that environmental quality is a robust predictor of housing rent. Simultaneously, the results suggest that some people conform better to environmental pressure than do others. Thus, the environmental impact of MSWTFs on different populations should be considered, and compensation policies should be implemented for disadvantaged groups.