Environmental Management Process Research Articles

IMPACTOS AMBIENTAIS EM EMPRESA DE MINERAÇÃO DE COBRE

Mining is one of the major sectors of the Brazilian economy, providing essential resources for its development. The obtained copper leaching is responsible for obtaining cathodes with a purity of 99.9% copper, which has a wide range of industrial applications. However, any mining operations cause the rise of diverse environmental impacts. These impacts should be assessed so that there is constant search for actions that promote their mitigation. The environmental impact assessment is a fundamental tool for the development of environmental management process of any enterprise. In this regard the use of interaction networks for environmental impact assessment is a methodology that allows the identification of these impacts in different orders and the interaction between them. The use of this tool in this study allowed the identification of the activities that generate the greatest number of environmental impacts, such as the extraction of malachita. This analysis can be used as a diagnostic tool for the implementation of measures to prevent or correct negative impacts to the environment, promoting the sustainability.

Environmental Management and Monitoring of Mining Operation in Lao PDR

Overall, mining projects make a significant contribution to gross of domestic product (GDP) in Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR). Benefits include increased export revenues, provision of royalty and tax income to the government, technology transfer, worker training and the creation of a skilled workforce. This can also lead to improved social, physical, legal and financial infrastructure due to development around the mining areas such as roads, electricity and water distribution. Managed properly, economic benefits from mining projects can benefit future generations,even after operations have ceased. For Lao PDR, rapid expansion of the mining sector is seen as vital to economic development. In the National Socio-Economic Development Plan, mining was prioritized as a key sector to help Lao PDR achieve its goal to graduate from its status as least developed country by 2020. Government revenues from mining projects are a major contributor to the country’s National Growth and Poverty Eradication Strategy. Environmental management and monitoring of the operations of mining projects are essential in order to identify and mitigate potential negative environmental impacts. Such impacts may be minimized through the use of mining industry best practice as well as compliance with Government of Laos (GoL) and international environmental standards and regulations. The environmental management and monitoring process first identifies and quantifies potential impacts of a mine’s operation on land, water, atmospheric and biological resources, as well as on human settlements. Secondly,measures are proposed to avoid or mitigate identified adverse impacts, including a specific requirement for a mine closure and rehabilitation plan.

INTEGRATING ADAPTIVE LEARNING INTO ADAPTIVE WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT

Adaptive water resources management recognizes the centrality of learning to its effective implementation. However, the literature on learning in Adaptive Management (AM) is disjointed and lacks rigorous treatment. The purpose of this paper is to clarify how learning associated with AM is distinctive and to explain the importance of successfully integrating it into policy design. Because adaptive learning holds a unique position within the adaptive management and assessment process, it should serve as the basis for a systematic redesign of water policy processes. Adaptive environmental assessment and management processes, which highlight the role of adaptive learning, are built upon in this paper. For the purpose of this paper, adaptive learning is defined as an ongoing process of inquiry that incorporates new knowledge with the aim to continually improve management policies . In order for adaptive learning to live with and profit from nature s dynamism, it is argued that it must be problem-centered, decision relevant, reflective, and inherently transformative. When this kind of learning becomes a fully integrated component of AM, water resource institutions have a greater likelihood of maturing into actual learning systems . The specific objectives of this paper are to: 1) redefine what adaptive learning is, 2) explain how this particular type of learning is distinctive and 3) outline the role of adaptive learning in policy formation. Regarding policy design, the paramount issue is determining how to respond to the speed, scale, and complexity of the planetary challenges. This paper draws on a number of related areas of research to present propositions for increasing the adaptive capacity of water organizations. These research topics include: demonstrating how adaptive learning should be integrated into policy design; establishing new standards of practice that are based on adaptive learning rather than achieving optimal end-game solutions; using the breakthrough views in order to transform learning into effective action; framing management problems in non-reductionist ways so that nature may serve as an ally and pilot; using shadow networks to inspire innovation, encourage institutional learning, and improve governance rules; and creating a new social reality that is more future-responsive to problems and more hospitable to new ways of thinking about water management.

The ICZM Balanced Scorecard: A tool for putting integrated coastal zone management into action

Coastal areas are characterised by the choice of performance measures and/or reference points which may be critical in the environmental management process, determining the success of an Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) plan. The tools for the strategic control of ICZM plans are particularly important, although they are still not widely used at the local level. The following paper proposes the use of the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) method of Kaplan and Norton (1992), which is a holistic management performance tool that can be used by managers to put into action their business strategy. In particular the methodology has focused on the use of a BSC process, inspired by the Niven (2003) approach for public bodies. The BSC suggests the creation of a framework for the strategic assessment of plans and projects based on the Protocol on Integrated Coastal Zone Management in the Mediterranean (Protocol). An analysis of the Protocol has been carried out according to the BSC model, and it shows how it can be integrated with assessment and environmental management tools, such as the Driving forces, Pressures, States, Impacts and Responses (DPSIR) framework. The proposed process has suggested a novel framework for analysing the ICZM plans of coastal managers and stakeholders. The analytical framework facilitates the examination of Drivers and causes of the ICZM strategy, the possible impact on society and coastal communities, the most appropriate measures to achieve the objectives and the practicalities of implementing such measures given the institutional context of where these are developed.

Indigenous Studies Speaks to Environmental Management

This article describes the increasing connections between the fields of Indigenous studies and environmental management and examines some of the ways that an Indigenous studies perspective can guide thinking about environmental management. Indigenous groups have been involved in the management of environmental and natural resources on their lands since time immemorial. Indigenous groups have also become increasingly involved in Western practices of environmental management with the advent of co-management institutions, subsistence boards, traditional ecological knowledge forums, and environmental issues affecting Indigenous resources. Thus, it is an important time for scholarship that explores how Indigenous groups are both shaping and being affected by processes of environmental management. This article summarizes key findings and themes from eight papers situated at the intersection of these two fields of study and identify means by which environmental managers can better accommodate Indigenous rights and perspectives. It is the authors' hope that increased dialog between Indigenous studies and environmental management can contribute to the building of sustainable and socially just environmental management practices.

Landscape ideology in the Greater Golden Horseshoe Greenbelt Plan: Negotiating material landscapes and abstract ideals in the city's countryside

We analyze the role of landscape ideology in the recent Ontario Greater Golden Horseshoe (GGH) Greenbelt Plan. Focusing on the “Protected Countryside,” the major land-use designation in the Plan that structures the Greenbelt framework, we explore tensions between abstract ideals of countryside used by policy makers to elicit support for the Plan and people's lived experience of material landscapes of the peri-urban fringe. Approaching “countryside” from the combined perspectives of landscape studies and political ecology, we show how the abstract ideals used to build support for the protection of countryside in the high-level political arena are in tension with existing material landscapes as people experience them. When implementing the Greenbelt Plan, the abstract ideals have to be applied at the landscape level through negotiation with municipalities, property owners, and other interests. In addition to drawing upon more conventionally legitimate explanations for landscape protection based on environmental science and land-use planning principles, the designation of Protected Countryside and the strategies used to implement the Protected Countryside designation at the local level suggest a tentative commitment to recognizing landscape values and collaborative environmental management processes in policy-making. As with any such normative land-use plan, the success of the Greenbelt Plan hinges on the long-term agreement between planning agencies and diverse publics. We demonstrate the usefulness of approaching environmental management challenges at the urban–rural interface by bringing the perspectives of landscape studies and political ecology into implementation processes for land-use management strategies like the Greenbelt. We argue that public participants deserve legitimate collaborative roles in negotiating just and desirable land uses based on their experiences, and provide observations on ways to bring contested goals and tools for achieving them into reflexive negotiations about how landscapes are and should be produced.

Book Reviews

Book Reviews

Marco institucional para la gestión ambiental en el Perú

El presente artículo desarrolla el proceso de inclusión de la gestión ambiental como una obligación del Estado, presentando el contexto en el quese da esa inclusión, su evolución en América Latina y el Caribe. Para culminar se discute lo ocurrido en el caso peruano y se plantea algunas propuestasque desde la consideración del autor podrían mejorar la institucionalidad ambiental en el Perú.

Deliberating Intergenerational Environmental Equity: A Pragmatic, Future Studies Approach

Across the applied ethics literatures are a growing number of ethical tools: decision-support methodologies that encourage multi-stakeholder deliberative engagement with the social and moral issues arising from technology assessment and environmental management processes. This article presents a novel ethical tool for deliberation on the issue of environmental justice between current and future generations over long time frames. This ethical tool combines two approaches, linking John Dewey's concept of dramatic rehearsal – an em-pathetic and imaginative ethical deliberation process; with the methodologies of backcasting – a type of scenario planning technique drawn from the future studies literature. The proposed hybrid ‘Deweyan Backcasting’ approach combines a creative process of devising multi-stakeholder visions of potentially desirable futures, with practical evaluation of the technical, social and political networks necessary to make such futures happen. It is suggested that such a model can provide a fruitful means for evaluating intergenerational environmental equity issues in long-range policy and planning.

A Dimensão da Qualidade dos Recursos Hídricos na Construção do Barômetro da Sustentabilidade

Os Indicadores de Sustentabilidade são parâmetros que caracterizam acontecimentos passados, evidenciam retratos situacionais do presente e auxiliam na projeção de cenários futuros em relação à sustentabilidade. Esses instrumentos permitem verificações periódicas do processo de desenvolvimento sustentável em diversas escalas. O Barômetro da Sustentabilidade se encaixa nessa proposta, pois avalia, a partir do tratamento igualitário entre homem e natureza, o grau de sustentabilidade e vem sendo utilizado do âmbito local ao nacional. Dentro dessa perspectiva, o objetivo básico da presente pesquisa foi analisar a dimensão da qualidade dos recursos hídricos na elaboração desse instrumento, tendo como exemplo o município de Ribeirão Preto. A metodologia adotada teve como principal fundamento o Ciclo de Sete Estágios para aplicação do Barômetro da Sustentabilidade. O Barômetro da Sustentabilidade, como ferramenta de avaliação, se revelou útil na contribuição para o entendimento de fenômenos naturais, sendo relevante para a análise dos recursos hídricos em escala local. Esse instrumento é parte componente de um processo de gestão ambiental, não podendo ser considerado de forma isolada. O Barômetro da Sustentabilidade mostrou que Ribeirão Preto está em um nível razoável em relação aos recursos hídricos analisados e considerados na pesquisa. O índice do tema Água, originado pela ferramenta de avaliação, apresentou o maior valor dentre os outros temas analisados no Subsistema Ecológico para o município, estando em conformidade ambiental e sanitária.

Indigenous Self-Governance and the Deployment of Knowledge in Collaborative Environmental Management in Canada

This essay examines the rebuilding and revitalizing of self-governance capacities in Indigenous communities, and how this is impacting their efficacy in resource management. The origins and experiences in Canada of integrating Indigenous peoples and knowledge into institutionalized resource management are discussed, and the essay posits necessary conditions for full and effective participation in environmental management, arguing that effective self-governance is vital to moving forward on these conditions. Two collaborative processes led by Indigenous peoples will be highlighted as they demonstrate the importance of self-governance initiatives for participation in environmental management processes: the Whitefeather Forest Initiative led by Pikangikum First Nation in Northern Ontario; and the Turning Point Initiative led by the Haida in British Columbia.

“Just Another Hoop to Jump Through?” Using Environmental Laws and Processes to Protect Indigenous Rights

Protection of culturally important indigenous landscapes has become an increasingly important component of environmental management processes, for both companies and individuals striving to comply with environmental regulations, and for indigenous groups seeking stronger laws to support site protection and cultural/human rights. Given that indigenous stewardship of culturally important sites, species, and practices continues to be threatened or prohibited on lands out of indigenous ownership, this paper examines whether or not indigenous people can meaningfully apply mainstream environmental management laws and processes to achieve protection of traditional sites and associated stewardship activities. While environmental laws can provide a "back door" to protect traditional sites and practices, they are not made for this purpose, and, as such, require specific amendments to become more useful for indigenous practitioners. Acknowledging thoughtful critiques of the cultural incommensurability of environmental law with indigenous environmental stewardship of sacred sites, I interrogate the ability of four specific environmental laws and processes-the Uniform Conservation Easement Act; the National Environmental Policy Act and the California Environmental Quality Act; the Pacific Stewardship Council land divestiture process; and Senate Bill 18 (CA-2004)-to protect culturally important landscapes and practices. I offer suggestions for improving these laws and processes to make them more applicable to indigenous stewardship of traditional landscapes.

Metal and physico-chemical variations at a hydroelectric reservoir analyzed by Multivariate Analyses and Artificial Neural Networks: Environmental management and policy/decision-making tools

This paper compared and evaluated seasonal variations in physico-chemical parameters and metals at a hydroelectric power station reservoir by applying Multivariate Analyses and Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) statistical techniques. A Factor Analysis was used to reduce the number of variables: the first factor was composed of elements Ca, K, Mg and Na, and the second by Chemical Oxygen Demand. The ANN showed 100% correct classifications in training and validation samples. Physico-chemical analyses showed that water pH values were not statistically different between the dry and rainy seasons, while temperature, conductivity, alkalinity, ammonia and DO were higher in the dry period. TSS, hardness and COD, on the other hand, were higher during the rainy season. The statistical analyses showed that Ca, K, Mg and Na are directly connected to the Chemical Oxygen Demand, which indicates a possibility of their input into the reservoir system by domestic sewage and agricultural run-offs. These statistical applications, thus, are also relevant in cases of environmental management and policy decision-making processes, to identify which factors should be further studied and/or modified to recover degraded or contaminated water bodies.

Environmental Management Mechanisms in U.S. and Japanese Manufacturing Firms

This article analyzes the practices of environmental management and the relationship among environmental behavior, external factor, and performance in the United States and Japan. The objective of this paper is to analyze the mechanisms of environmental management of manufacturing firms in two countries. The causality framework used in this research has revealed the contrasting relationship among environmental behavior, external factor, and environmental and economic performance. The results demonstrated different causal processes in environmental management to reach a simultaneous/balanced environment and economy. These results can provide useful information to promote a firm’s environmental behavior for sustainability.

Automated urban land-use classification with remote sensing

Urban land-use information plays a key role in a wide variety of planning and environmental management processes. The purpose of this study was to develop an automatic method for classifying detailed urban land-use classes with remote-sensing data. Seven land-use parcel attributes, derived from relevant remote-sensing data, were incorporated for classifying four land-use classes, namely office, industrial, civic, and transportation, which were reported as the most difficult ones to classify from previous studies. An experiment was carried out in a study site in Austin, Texas. An overall accuracy of 61.68% and a kappa coefficient of 0.54 were achieved with a decision tree method. Building area and building height turned out to be the most influential factors among all the adopted variables. In addition, the variable of floor area ratio played the second dominant role among the seven variables, demonstrating that synthesized horizontal and vertical properties of buildings and their relevant spatial characteristics are important in differentiating the four classes.

AN OVERVIEW OF HYDROPHOBIC CATALYST OVER STYRENE-DIVINYLBENZENE COPOLYMER

Recently developed catalytic processes with hydrophobic catalysts supported over styrene-divinylbenzene copolymer (SDB) were reviewed. Applications of such catalytic processes in commercial chemicals production and environmental management were examined in great detail. Based on this research work, the feasibility of hydrophobic catalysts over SDB utilized in the synthesis of methyl methacrylate (MMA) from methacrolein (MAL) in molecular O2 was evaluated.

Environmental disclosure management: a constructivist case

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to present a framework to create a better understanding of the context and to aid the environmental disclosure management process. The paper seeks to present a case study illustrating the proposed methodology for assessing environmental disclosure management.Design/methodology/approachThe ProKnow‐C process is used to identify the opportunities in the literature and the MCDA‐C methodology is used in order to build up the environmental disclosure management (MED) model.FindingsFirst the ProKnow‐C process was used to identify opportunities in the literature about environmental disclosure and later the MCDA‐C methodology was used to discover the opportunities and to show a process for generating actions to promote improvement in environmental disclosure.Practical implicationsThe case study allowed the manager to develop an understanding of environmental disclosure, showing that organizational performance is the key factor according to managers' perception. This knowledge allowed the manager to identify what the company needs to improve in its environmental disclosure regarding the following aspects: targets for using water, energy program, management of effluent and waste, biodiversity, adaptation to emergency plans, training and environmental awareness, expanding the coverage of the certification process and increasing operational performance in specific indicators relating to the electricity sector (pruning control, fire and oil spill).Originality/valueThe structured process of the MCDA‐C methodology enabled a model to be built that showed graphically and numerically the systemic diagnosis of environment disclosure, allowing the manager to know the consequences of a decision a priori and to suggest a set of improvement actions.

Reconstructing the good farmer identity: shifts in farmer identities and farm management practices to improve water quality

All farmers have their own version of what it means to be a good farmer. For many US farmers a large portion of their identity is defined by the high input, high output production systems they manage to produce food, fiber or fuel. However, the unintended consequences of highly productivist systems are often increased soil erosion and the pollution of ground and surface water. A large number of farmers have conservationist identities within their good farmer identity, however their conservation goals often need to be activated to rebalance the production-conservation meanings they give to their roles in society. In this paper we analyze US Cornbelt farmer interviews and surveys to trace how the performance-based environmental management process can be used to influence the farmer social identity and shift the overall good farmer identity towards a stronger conservationist standard. We find the continuous feedback loop in performance-based environmental management mimics the hierarchically organized feedback control processes of identity verification and can be used to help farmers activate their conservationist farmer identities at the person, role, and social levels to establish new norms for the practice of more sustainable agriculture.

CAN PLANNERS TAKE THE LEADERSHIP IN LOCAL ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT?

There is an increasing demand for environmental leadership in the planning process. In collaborative planning models, planners have a distinct role as a bridge between citizens, politicians, and scientists. However, there is limited research evaluating the leadership role of planners in the process of creating high quality environmental plans for local jurisdictions. This study proposes and tests a conceptual model with measurable indicators of planners' use of leadership to facilitate the creation of plans that can benefit the environment. This paper examined two distinct roles for planners: as an information source and as a facilitator. The descriptive results suggest that planners are exercising limited environmental leadership in local land use planning. The explanatory results highlight that the key to improve planners' leadership abilities lies with increasing planning capacity. Several policy recommendations are provided to improve planner's use of leadership processes in environmental planning and management.

Deliberative Disjunction: Expert and Public Understanding of Outcome Uncertainty

Many environmental and risk management decisions are made jointly by technical experts and members of the public. Frequently, their task is to select from among management alternatives whose outcomes are subject to varying degrees of uncertainty. Although it is recognized that how this uncertainty is interpreted can significantly affect decision-making processes and choices, little research has examined similarities and differences between expert and public understandings of uncertainty. We present results from a web-based survey that directly compares expert and lay interpretations and understandings of different expressions of uncertainty in the context of evaluating the consequences of proposed environmental management actions. Participants responded to two hypothetical but realistic scenarios involving trade-offs between environmental and other objectives and were asked a series of questions about their comprehension of the uncertainty information, their preferred choice among the alternatives, and the associated difficulty and amount of effort. Results demonstrate that experts and laypersons tend to use presentations of numerical ranges and evaluative labels differently; interestingly, the observed differences between the two groups were not explained by differences in numeracy or concerns for the predicted environmental losses. These findings question many of the usual presumptions about how uncertainty should be presented as part of deliberative risk- and environmental-management processes.