Environmental Management Policies Research Articles

Social Responsibility And Health Of The Environment Perceived By Users Of A Certain District Municipality

Social responsibility and health of the environment is part of the management policies of governments around the world. The constant degradation of biodiversity increasingly aggravates the health of the population. Under this vision, the objective of the article was to determine the relationship between social responsibility and environmental health perceived by users of a certain District Municipality, as well as the dimensions of quality of life, commitment to the community, waste collection and waste use. It is applied research, with a correlational and transactional design. The study sample was 80 users from the Chilca District Municipality, selected with a non-probabilistic technique, the instrument used was the survey. The results were validated through the Kendall tau b correlation coefficient of τ = 0.657 and a 99% confidence level, and the hypothesis was demonstrated by Z ≥ 2.58 with a bilateral significance of p < 0.01. It is concluded that the relationship between the two variables is moderate; however, adequate strategies must be promoted in the population to achieve awareness and commitment of municipal authorities, so that they comply with environmental health management policies.

Kebijakan Pengelolaan Lingkungan Di Kabupaten Tulungagung dan Peranan Masyarakat Dalam Melestarikan Lingkungan

The aims of this research are 1. to find out environmental management policies in Indonesia in general; 2. know the environmental management policies in Tulungagung Regency; 3. knowing environmental problems in Tulungagung Regency; and 4. knowing the role of the community in maintaining, protecting, and preserving the environment. This study uses a qualitative approach to content analysis, using the literature study method. Sources of data used, namely articles, journals, research reports, and other sources that have a good reputation. The results of this study indicate that environmental problems in Tulungagung Regency are increasing pollution and increasing the volume of waste. Apart from referring to Law Number 32 of 2009, the local government also has a regional regulation, namely the Tulungagung Regency Regional Regulation Number 14 of 2018 concerning Environmental Protection and Management. The Tulungagung Regency environmental management strategy focuses on environmental functions, especially controlling environmental impacts by preventing, restoring environmental damage and pollution in the framework of achieving environmental goals of sustainable and environmentally sound regional development.

Urban sprawl at the expense of cultivated land: decadal land use and land cover changes and future projections in the upper Awash basin of central Ethiopia

IntroductionUrban sprawl in developing countries affects future sustainability concerns related to environment, ecology and cropland losses. This study aimed at identifying, classifying and quantifying the changes in land-use and land-cover (LULC) during the last two decades (2000–2020) and predict the decadal pattern for the next three decades (2030–2050), with particular emphasis on urban sprawl at the expense of cultivated land in the upper Awash basin of central Ethiopia.MethodsLandsat images were used to analyze the LULC change dynamics using hybrid image classification and maximum likelihood classifier techniques. The Cellular Automata-Markov Chain (CAMC) Model was used to predict its future LULC change dynamics. A detailed analysis of the urban sprawl in the cities of Addis Ababa, Adama, and Mojo was also conducted.ResultsIt was observed that during the last two decades, settlements, particularly urban sprawls, substantially expanded at the expense of cultivated land, whereas the latter modestly expanded at the expense of forestland, bare land, and shrubland. From its size in 2000, the urban sprawl of Addis Ababa has grown in all directions towards cultivated land by more than six times in 2020 and is expected to become double of that by 2050 in the urban and peri-urban areas of the basin. Adama city has expanded by the same rate of 9.7% in the past two decades, while Mojo town has sprawled 9 folds between 2010 and 2020. The predicted percentage change in settlement for Addis Ababa and its neighboring districts within 22 km radius from the centroid shows a 40% expansion in 2030, 77% in 2040, and 87% in 2050 compared with the reference year 2020. Similarly, the Mojo town will expand significantly in 2030 (54%), 2040 (119%), and 2050 (by a staggering magnitude of 244%), while Adama will expand within the 12 km radius by 18%, 42%, and 117% in the next three respective decades.DiscussionThe rapid cultivated land conversions in the basin may contribute to major shifts in urban and peri-urban ecological environments. Our predictive LULC change maps and urban sprawling could be useful for developing effective and sustainable land-use policies for environmental and ecological management in the upper Awash basin.

How to enhance the effects of the green supply chain management strategy in the organization: A diffusion process perspective

Although green supply chain management strategy (GSCMS) plays an important role in the development of firms, there is still uncertaintyabout how to achieve a win–win between environmental and financial performance during the GSCMS diffusion process (e.g., the preparation stage and development stage). Thus, this study firstly examines whether the effects of the GSCMS on firm profits in different diffusion stages vary. Then, we test the moderating effect of the green initiatives (i.e., internal green certification, green cooperation improvement with the suppliers, green recovery with governments and green improvement with customers), operational process and business strategy on the effectiveness of GSCMS during the diffusion process. Based on 140 event samples over a time span of 19 years (i.e., 2001–2018), this study finds that the firms’ financial benefits decreased in GSCMS preparation stage and then increased in the development stage. Two green initiatives (i.e., green recovery with governments and green cooperation with suppliers), the differentiation strategy and process standardization, have positive influence on GSCMS diffusing in preparation stage. So, wisely using appropriate green initiatives, operational process and business strategy can mitigate the dark side of GSCMS in short-term and achieve a win–win between environmental and financial performance in the long term. These findings enrich the green supply chain literature and diffusion theory, and provide practical implications for firms to adopt environmental management strategies and offer some guidelines for governments to formulate environment management policies.

“Dedicated to Serving the Tourist”: Environmental Management, Economic Crisis, and the Pressures of Adriatic Mass Tourism in Socialist Yugoslavia, 1980–1991

AbstractThis article examines how and why mass tourism on the Adriatic coast in the 1980s became such a dominating factor in local societies and environments. As economic crises led to decreased living standards, local municipalities became more dependent on foreign tourism. Also, previous environmental management policies ensured that tourism became entangled with the Adriatic environment, which was heavily transformed by the rapid expansion of tourism.

How does the environmental impact assessment (EIA) process affect environmental performance? Unveiling EIA effectiveness in China: A practical application within the thermal power industry

Environmental impact assessments (EIAs) are widely accepted by organizations worldwide, despite differences in cultural backgrounds and political and environmental management systems. In recent years, the EIA process in China has been increasingly customized to national political intent and the legislative framework. Meanwhile, the substantive effectiveness of EIAs has become a widespread concern, indicating that the effectiveness of EIAs is gauged by their capacity to reduce the negative impacts of plans, projects, and programs (PPPs). In this study, using policy analysis, we identified how EIAs influenced the effectiveness and compatibility of other environmental regulations, as well as the interrelationships between them. This study examined coordinated efforts in the national thermal power industry to reduce pollutant emissions within the constraints of EIA approval. The results revealed that the EIA process could assist in reducing pollutant emissions without impeding economic development in China, with the unique characteristics of the Chinese EIA system playing a significant role. As a mandatory policy in China, EIAs helped curb the cumulative regional pollution caused by rapid industrialization, thereby preventing the occurrence of serious environmental issues. It should be noted that EIAs not only provided a structured approach to consultations and operational experiences to resolve environmental problems, but also for a wide range application path for other environmental management policies.

Research on the influencing factors and multi-scale regulatory pathway of ecosystem health: A case study in the Middle Reaches of the Yellow River, China

It has become a hot issue in realizing regional sustainable development to discuss the influencing factors and regulatory pathway of ecosystem health. However, the lack of driving mechanisms and regulatory pathways for ecosystem health limit the development of effective environmental management policies and urban planning. In this study, taking the Middle Reaches of the Yellow River (MRYR) of China as the study area, we introduced spatial weight coefficient and modified coefficient of spatial proximity effect to improve the “Vigor–Organization-Resilience-Ecosystem services” (VORS) model, and adopted the improved VORS model to dynamically assess the ecosystem health level. Then, we provide an in-depth analysis of the mechanisms of climate and human activities affecting ecosystem health. Finally, the multi-scale regulation of ecosystem health was implemented. The results showed that topography, climate, population urbanization, economic urbanization, land urbanization, agricultural activities, environmental pollution, regional policies and other factors all have a significant impact on the ecosystem health, but the direction and extent of impact had obvious spatial heterogeneity. The negative impact of potential evapotranspiration on ecosystem health is significantly higher in urban agglomerations than in other regions. Regular and compact urban forms are conducive to the health of urban ecosystems, and appropriate urban size and strict urban development boundaries are conducive to maintaining high level of ecosystem health in riverine cities. The evolution of the spatial relationship between environmental pollution and ecosystem health in the MRYR (ecologically vulnerable areas in the western region and urban agglomerations in mid-east region) verifies the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC). The study area was divided into three eco-management zones at regional scale and ten eco-management zones at county scale by using the spatial superposition analysis method. Based on this, the multi-scale regulation strategies of ecosystem health was proposed. This study improved the assessment model of ecosystem health, expanded the theoretical research on driving mechanism and multi-scale regulation pathways of ecosystem health. The research results can provide scientific basis for environmental management and urban planning in ecologically fragile areas.

Evaluating the effectiveness of coastal environmental management policies in China: The case of Bohai Sea

With marine pollution issues becoming serious and widespread, a series of coastal environmental managemental policies are being carried out worldwide, the effectiveness of which requires comprehensive evaluation. Taking the Bohai Sea (BS) of China as an example, which has been plagued by serious ecological and environmental issues for decades due to terrestrial pollution discharge, this study explored and quantified, for the first time to our best knowledge, the variability of water quality after initiating a dedicated 3-year pollution control action (Uphill Battle for Integrated Bohai Sea Management, UBIBM, 2018–2020) implemented by China's central government, with two water quality indexes of water color (Forel-Ule index, FUI) and transparency (Secchi disk depth, ZSD, m) from satellite observations. During the UBIBM, a significant improvement in water quality was detected, characterized by a clearer and bluer BS, with ZSD and FUI improved by 14.1% and 3.2%, respectively, compared with the baseline period (2011–2017). In addition, an abrupt drop in the long-term record (2011–2022) of the coverage area of highly turbid waters (ZSD≤2 m or FUI≥8) was found in 2018, which coincided with the start of the UBIBM, indicating that the water quality improvement may be attributed to the pollution alleviation of the UBIBM. Independent data of land-based pollution statistics also supported this deduction. (3) Compared with the previous two pollution control actions in the first decade of 21st century, UBIBM was proved to be the most successful one in terms of the achieved highest transparency and lowest FUI during the past two decades. Reasons for the achievement and implications to future pollution control are discussed for a more sustainable and balanced improvement in the coastal environment. This research provides a valuable example that satellite remote sensing can play a vital role in the management of coastal ecosystems by providing effective evaluation of pollution control actions.

Green Credit Policy Affecting the Green Growth: A Case Study in Vietnam

The trend of green credit was viral and vigorously applied at banks and credit institutions. It helped to increase capital flow, a rich source of investment capital for many areas of social life. Based on a survey data set of 600 credit managers of commercial banks in Vietnam, the present study used structural equation modelling (SEM) and SPSS 20.0, Amos software. The results identified five factors affecting green growth: green credit policy, green financial system, environmental risk management, legal framework, and environmental policy was significant statistically. The article's findings were to determine green credit policy factors that had the most substantial and statistically significant impact on green growth. Therefore, this result was a scientific basis for proposing practical recommendations to improve green growth in Vietnam.

DOES CARBON EMISSION, ENERGY CONSUMPTION AND INCOME MATTER? INVESTIGATING FACTORS AFFECTING HEALTHCARE EXPENDITURE AMONG 61 NATIONS

Empirical studies on the effects of carbon emissions on population health are still in their infancy and its true implications have not yet been fully understood. The purpose of this study is to conduct a comparative analysis on the relationship between carbon emissions, energy consumption, income and public healthcare expenditure in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and non-OECD countries. The empirical research employs the dynamic common correlated effects of mean group (DCCEMG) and two-stage least square estimators. The findings indicate that carbon emissions increase healthcare spending only in non-OECD countries. The relationship between energy consumption and health expenditure varies significantly between OECD and non-OECD countries. Income increases health expenditure; however, the correlation is more robust in the OECD than in non-OECD countries. As a result, the findings recommend that non-OECD governments implement strategic environmental management policies that prioritize clean and healthy air to reduce healthcare costs.

A Study on the Projection of Drinking Water 2023-2033 in Dki Jakarta Indonesia

Purpose: The purpose of this research is to analyze the drinking water needs and raw water availability of DKI Jakarta Province. Theoretical framework: The theoretical basis for the population projections uses mathematical modeling (arithmetic, logarithmic, exponential, and geometric) for the next 10 years. Drinking water demand projections are obtained by calculating the demand for drinking water and the results of the population projections. Then compared to raw water availability. Potable water demands are calculated based on design criteria Method/design/approach: The method used is research and development by projecting the population of the last 10 years to predict the population of the next 10 years. The total projected drinking water needs obtained were compared with the availability of raw water. Results and conclusion: The results show that the demand for drinking water in DKI Jakarta in 2023 will be 30,892 liters/second, while the raw water capacity will only be 16,850. This shows that the level of drinking water service in DKI Jakarta is only 54.54%. When compared to 2015, DKI Jakarta's drinking water access service decreased from 65.13% in 2015 to 54.54% in 2023. Research implications: If DKI Jakarta does not succeed in finding raw water sources, it is estimated that drinking water services will drop dramatically to 35.68% in 2033. Originality/value: Studies on the projection of drinking water in DKI Jakarta, Indonesia for the next 10 years have not been conducted. So this study has good originality and becomes a study with high novelty. This study can also be utilized by DKI Jakarta government authorities in formulating environmental and health management policies.

Current Status and Issues of Water Environment Management Policy

Current Status and Issues of Water Environment Management Policy

Examining the Nonlinear and Synergistic Effects of Multidimensional Elements on Commuting Carbon Emissions: A Case Study in Wuhan, China

Understanding the specific effects of multidimensional elements of a built environment, transportation management policies, and the socio-demographics of travelers associated with commuting carbon emissions is significant for planners in promoting low-carbon and healthy urban development through transportation and land use and urban management policies. Most of the existing studies focus on the complex mechanisms affecting commuting behavior, but the relevant elements and specific mechanisms affecting commuting carbon emissions have not received sufficient attention. This study uses a random forest approach to analyze residential travel data from Wuhan, China. The results show that built environment and transportation demand management policies are critical to commuting carbon emissions, and that there is a non-linear association between multidimensional factors and commuting carbon emissions in Chinese cities. In addition, the study examines the synergistic effects of built environment and transportation management policies on commuting carbon emissions among different built environment elements. The results of the study provide valuable insights for planners in formulating low-carbon city and transportation development policies.

Library books as environmental management capacity building opportunities exclude most South African languages

Social inclusion in South Africa’s environmental management remains a concern regardless of equality being enshrined in the country’s environmental management policy. This policy makes provisions for citizens to be afforded equal opportunities to learn about the environment and develop capacity to participate in environmental management. As South Africa is a multilingual country where most of the population does not use English as their primary language, environmental capacity development opportunities should ideally be linguistically accessible to all citizens to avoid perpetuating the pre-democratic exclusion of the languages spoken by most of the population of African descent. Given that public libraries play a role in promoting democracy, the books they catalogue are assumed to provide environmental management capacity development opportunities. Here we use the language of publication of public library books as an indicator for assessing the role of native South African languages in promoting environmental management opportunities. The books from South African public libraries considered in this study’s sample were found to provide environmental management capacity development opportunities in mostly English. Dominance of English in these capacity development opportunities excludes many citizens as most South Africans do not use English as their primary language. This study argues that such exclusion is at odds with South Africa’s inclusive environmental management policy and decreasing exclusion will require actions that support policy by encouraging publishing in Indigenous languages and elevating the status of marginalised languages.

Assessing enablers of green entrepreneurship in circular economy: An integrated approach

In recent years, researchers have considered green entrepreneurship critical for creating new business opportunities in circular economy for sustainable development. Though many studies have been carried out in this domain recently, there are dearth of studies on how enablers of green entrepreneurship help businesses and progress toward achieving a circular economy. To fill this research gap, this study aims to identify the enablers of green entrepreneurship in the circular economy in micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) of the manufacturing sector. The aim also includes prioritizing and developing a contextual and hierarchical relationship between the identified enablers. Enablers are identified via a comprehensive literature review under the purview of management theories (namely “Dynamic Capability Theory,” “Critical Success Factor Theory,” and “Stakeholder Theory”) and are validated by expert opinions. The “Best Worst Method” (BWM) and the “Interpretive Structural Modelling” (ISM) have been used to prioritize and develop a hierarchical contextual relationship among the identified enablers respectively. Moreover, “fuzzy Matrice d'impacts croisés multiplication appliquée á un classment” (MICMAC) analysis is employed, to compute the driving and dependence power of the enablers. The obtained result revealed that “technology-based enablers” and “effective technological infrastructure facilities” are the key enablers of green entrepreneurship under main and sub-category enablers. The findings highlight the strength of the relationship among the enablers of green entrepreneurship based on the corresponding “driving” and “dependence” power. The result also suggests that ‘social norm and culture’, ‘an attitude towards acceptance of new technology,’ ‘R&D innovation capability,’ and ‘environmental regulation and waste management policies are critical in influencing the driving green entrepreneurship enablers of the circular economy. The study contributes to the decision-making process of government, policymakers, and all other stakeholders and also acts as a point of reference for entrepreneurs to run green-driven business practices and create sustainability-driven goods to offset the socio-economic and environmental challenges that mankind faces.

Factors Affecting the Sustainable Development of Commercial Banks in Vietnam

This study aimed to investigate key factors influencing the long-term development of commercial banks using a survey of 450 bank managers and structural equation modelling (SEM). The results revealed five aspects influencing sustainable development: Economic, social, environmental, sustainable goods, and digital banking. Based on the research findings, the author advocated for a national environmental and social policy framework that required corporate organizations to establish environmental and social risk management policies based on a national policy framework for sustainability. Risk management strategies and methods should be implemented in internal operations and risk management in lending to consumers and business partners. Finally, boosting economic soundness, efficiency, and sustainability through growing own capital capacity, asset quality, effective management, and non-credit income. Keywords: Bank, commercial, development, policy, sustainable JEL Codes: A13, P34, Q01.

Tracking spatio-temporal dynamics of harmful algal blooms using long-term MODIS observations of Chaohu Lake in China from 2000 to 2021

Harmful algal blooms (HABs) have long been a critical threat to environmental safety and health, especially in inland lakes with rapidly growing socioeconomic development. Although satellite remote sensing provides an efficient manner to observe floating algae blooms, tracing and capturing the distribution of HABs in water bodies remains challenging for their high dynamics in both spatial and temporal dimensions. This study analyzed the spatio-temporal dynamics of HABs in Chaohu Lake, China, from 2000 to 2021. Daily MODIS remote sensing observations, including 7926 images, were utilized. The Floating Algae Index (FAI) was applied to each image to detect the area and severity of HABs. Results show that the HABs in Chaohu Lake have generally been increasing in the past two decades, with two intermittent decreases in 2016–2017 and 2020–2021, and the duration of HABs tended to be longer over the years. HABs were most severe and frequent in the lake's northwestern area. Temperature and precipitation are two main meteorological factors positively correlated with HABs. The fast-growing socio-economy reflected by population and GDP increase lake eutrophication and HABs. However, environment management policies since 2020 have had a significant and rapid influence in decreasing the lake’s nutrients, which greatly reduced HABs severity in 2020 and 2021. This study's results further indicate that high-frequency remote sensing observations, although with occasional data missing due to cloud cover, can still perform well in describing HABs, as long as the analysis method is appropriately adopted. This finding provides potential significance for utilizing remote sensing products, especially for highly dynamic object observation where high-quality images are lacking.

Spatiotemporal Changes and Driving Factors of Ecosystem Health in the Qinling-Daba Mountains

Rapid industrialization and urbanization have accelerated land-use changes in mountainous areas, with dramatic impacts on ecosystem health. In particular, the Qinling-Daba Mountains, as China’s central water tower, ecological green lung, and biological gene bank, have rich resource endowments and extremely high ecological value and are an important protective wall to China’s ecological security. Therefore, understanding the level of ecosystem health and its drivers in the research area contributes to the conservation and restoration of the mountain ecosystem. Based on remote sensing image data and land-use data from 2000 to 2020, we explored the spatial characteristics of ecosystem health, and supplemented with socio-economic data to explore its driving factors. The results show that (1) the ecosystem health in the study area has been continuously improved during the study period, and the regional differences in ecological organization are the most prominent; (2) the level of ecosystem health in the Qinling-Daba Mountains has been spatially improved from the peripheral areas to the central area, showing significant spatial autocorrelation and local spatial aggregation; (3) the ecosystem health is influenced by a combination of natural and anthropogenic factors, among which the negative effect of GRDP is mainly concentrated in the eastern region, the negative effect of the proportion of built-up land gradually spreads to the western region, and the positive effect of the proportion of forest land has a large scale. This study contributes to a better understanding of ecosystem health in mountainous counties in China and provides useful information for policymakers to formulate ecological and environmental management policies.

An assessment of the Ecological Conservation Redline: unlocking priority areas for conservation

Protected areas (PAs) are established to conserve wildlife habitats and biodiversity. To this end, the Chinese central government has initiated a pioneering environmental planning and management policy known as the Ecological Conservation Redline (ECR). While the ecological benefits of ECR policy have been extensively evaluated, spatially explicit assessment of the ECR remains understudied. Here, we propose an element-function-structure framework for assessing the concurrence of ECR areas and ecological conservation hotspots to further outline priority areas for conservation. Results show that 67% of existing PAs are protected by ECR areas, while that of ecological corridors is only 11%. Regional variation in the ECR representativeness can be leveraged by deliberately protecting tailored ecological conservation hotspots in specific locations and stepping stones in ecological corridors. This study highlights the substantial space for ecological management to achieve the goals of ECR policy, and discourses on the co-production of knowledge from researchers and policy makers.

Environmental decentralization, environmental regulation, and green technology innovation: evidence based on China.

The reform of the environmental management system and policy optimization is key to promoting green technology innovation. However, empirical studies on environmental monitoring decentralization are limited. As a result, this paper analyzes the impacts of environmental decentralization and environmental regulation on green technology innovation using China's 30 provincial administrative panel data ranging from 2008 to 2017. The study outcome denotes that environmental decentralization is not conducive to green technology innovation. Similar effects are also found for environmental administration decentralization, environmental supervision decentralization, and environmental monitoring decentralization. Secondly, there is a U-shaped relationship between environmental regulation and green technology innovation. With the strengthening of environmental administrative decentralization and environmental supervision decentralization, environmental regulation has a significant positive role in promoting green technology innovation. Furthermore, environmental decentralization reduces the inhibitory effect of environmental regulation on green technology innovation in the eastern and central regions. Environmental decentralization does not play a regulatory role in the impact of environmental regulation on green technology innovation in economically developed areas. Lastly, the impact of environmental regulation on green technology innovation shows significant threshold characteristics with the change in environmental decentralization, in which there is an optimal threshold interval for environmental decentralization. The study concluded with an important reference value for determining reasonable levels of environmental decentralization among different regions and improving relevant environmental regulation strategies.