Environmental Quality Targets Research Articles

АЛГОРИТМ УСТАНОВЛЕНИЯ ЦЕЛЕВЫХ ПОКАЗАТЕЛЕЙ КАЧЕСТВА ОКРУЖАЮЩЕЙ СРЕДЫ НА ПРИМЕРЕ КОСТАНАЙСКОЙ ОБЛАСТИ

At the beginning of 2021, the new Environmental Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan came into force, aimed at gradually improving the quality of the environment. One of the requirements of the regulatory document is the establishment of environmental quality targets by each region. Kostanay region was one of the first in the republic to establish environmental quality targets under the new Rules that came into force in the middle of 2021. The rules for the quality targets development describe only the requirements for which components of the environment should be established, what should follow after setting environmental quality targets (meaning environmental protection measures), but the algorithm and sources of the information are not indicated in the rules. This work was carried out in Kostanay region in 2023, and this article describes not only the results obtained, but also the stages of the work, sources of information and conclusions obtained in the form of proposed quality indicators. The article describes the algorithm of the work carried out to establish quality targets for the Kostanay region.

The perceived quality of green buildings: from a review of occupant satisfaction towards a conceptual framework

PurposeMost of the emphasis in the green building literature on the green performance of buildings has been on optimizing energy and resource efficiency. Admittedly, from the perspective of the sustainable construction industry, making optimally energy and resource efficiency, often seen as a technical challenge, has a premise role in green building projects. However, green buildings need to optimally meet the health, well-being and comfort requirements of their occupants and their environmental quality targets. In that context, perceived quality is a crucial determinant of occupant satisfaction and can play a critical role in the user-oriented improvement of the green performance of buildings. While previous research has highlighted issues related to occupant satisfaction, none of them examines green buildings from a perceived quality perspective. Therefore, the study attempts to fill this research gap.Design/methodology/approachFirstly, to reveal the positive and negative satisfaction of the building occupants according to the green building features, the review of previous research in the related literature is supplemented by an exploratory study of case studies evaluating occupant satisfaction in green buildings. Then, a conceptual framework is proposed to link perceived quality and green building features towards occupant satisfaction.FindingsA review of the case studies in 49 research articles has shown deficiencies in a comprehensive understanding and approach to the perceived quality of green buildings. In response, the development of a framework for conceptual interrelationships may provide a pathway for more detailed quality assessments for future research. In this study, the proposed conceptual framework has the potential to provide a conceptual basis for future models in determining the relationship between quality expectations and quality experiences in green buildings. It can also serve as a constructive approach for assessing occupant satisfaction in the quality-driven improvements of green buildings and further investigation of the importance of various quality cues, quality attributes and their interactions.Originality/valueThis study aims to incorporate green building features and perceived quality concepts into a framework that can form the basis for assessing occupant satisfaction in green buildings. The ultimate goal of the proposed conceptual framework is to generate an insight that can contribute to rethinking the perceived quality of green buildings and developing more occupant-driven solutions for future green buildings.

Can collective conditionality improve agri-environmental contracts? From lab to field experiments

Individual subsidy payments that are conditional on a collective contribution threshold could provide a viable resolution to the insufficient and dispersed adoption of agri-environmental contracts aiming at attaining environmental quality targets. Indeed, in a decontextualized laboratory experiment based on a threshold public goods game (TPGG), Le Coent et al. (2014) offer promising results regarding a conditional subsidy compared to an unconditional subsidy (i.e., the standard subsidy in existing agri-environmental schemes). In this article, we propose to improve the external validity of these results by transposing this laboratory experiment to a lab-in-the-field setting with farmers. To do so, we carry out a contextualized lab-in-the-field experiment with farmers by explicitly mentioning agri-environmental contracts and water quality. Our results show that farmers cooperate even more successfully than students and sustain more efficient outcomes over time. In a between-subject comparison, our results indicate that average group contributions under the conditional and the unconditional subsidy mechanisms are not significantly different. We find that this is due to two behavioral responses (perceived risks and initial beliefs on others’ contributions) in the conditional subsidy treatment, which show to have opposing effects on contributions that cancel each other out. The conditional incentive mechanism thus shows promising potential as a tool for agri-environmental policy since it avoids the pay-for-nothing trap of the unconditional subsidy mechanism without discouraging contributions.

Analysis and practice of reducing emissions of pollutants from road transport into the atmospheric air of the city of Almaty

The key environmental problem of the city of Almaty is atmospheric air pollution. The objective of the study was to forecast changes in emissions of pollutants in the city of Almaty, taking into account various scenarios for the development of motor transport. Based on research and calculations, environmental quality targets for Almaty for the period up to 2025 on emissions of pollutants from motor vehicles have been compiled and approved. The analysis of quantitative and qualitative indicators of vehicle emissions in the city in 2017 and 2022 is given. Measures have been developed to reduce emissions of pollutants by road into the environment of the city of Almaty.

Land use and environmental quality in Ireland over two decades of contrasting agricultural trends

Global awareness and scrutiny of food production systems, including competition for land between agriculture and nature-based solutions to climate change, has increased immensely recently. In Ireland, around 70% of land area is used for agriculture, mostly pasture-based livestock production. Cattle numbers began to decline in the late 1990s, as milk productivity per cow increased along with the European Union policy of intensification implemented in 1998. Phasing out of the EU milk quota system from 2011 onwards initiated an increase in dairy cow numbers, which rose by 46% by 2020. This development has reversed environmental progress. This study outlines the impact of contrasting policies that have contributed to abatement and intensification of greenhouse gas and ammonia emissions from Ireland’s agriculture, forestry and other land use (AFOLU) sector, along with impacts on water quality effects. Ireland achieved most environmental targets during the 2000s. However, between 2010 and 2019, agricultural greenhouse gas emissions increased by 12% and annual ammonia emission ceilings exceeded the national limit in seven of those years. Around 6% of rivers lost their good or high ecological water quality status. These developments jeopardise compliance with contemporary environmental targets, such as achieving a 25% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture by 2030, and AFOLU climate neutrality by 2050. Achieving environmental quality targets will necessitate far-reaching and immediate development of policy for the land use sector beyond the implementation of currently proposed mitigation measures.

Grassland Reseeding: Impact on Soil Surface Nutrient Accumulation and Using LiDAR-Based Image Differencing to Infer Implications for Water Quality

Long-term phosphorus (P) accumulation in agricultural soils presents a challenge for water quality improvement. P is commonly elevated in soils managed for intensive livestock production due to repeated overapplication of slurry and fertilisers. High legacy nutrient accumulations result in poor water quality via transport pathways such as surface runoff, subsurface drainage, and soil erosion. To achieve environmental water quality targets, improved management strategies are required for targeting and reducing excess agricultural P sources. Reseeding of old swards is known to improve grassland productivity and enhance overall soil health. However, soil disturbance associated with reseeding could have positive and negative impacts on other soil functions that affect the nutrient balance (including improved microbial activity, but also increasing the potential for sediment and nutrient losses). This study investigates the impact of reseeding and inversion tillage in addressing soil surface nutrient surpluses and identifies potential trade-offs between production, environment (through soil erosion and associated sediment and nutrient losses), and soil health. At a study site in the Blackwater catchment in Northern Ireland, we collected high-resolution (35 m) gridded soil samples pre- and post-reseeding for nutrient analyses and combined this with GIS-based interpolation. We found that decreases in sub-field scale surface nutrient content (0–7.5 cm depth) occurred following tillage and reseeding, but that this was spatially variable. In addition, the magnitude of changes in nutrient content was variable between P and other sampled nutrients. LiDAR-based image differencing indicated variability in the magnitude of soil erosion and sediment loss also at sub-field scale. Information on the identified deposition and erosion zones (from LiDAR analysis) was combined with mass wasting data to determine accumulation rates and losses of nutrients in-field and confirmed some of the identified patterns in soil surface nutrient content changes post-reseeding. We conclude that while inversion tillage and reseeding are essential agricultural practices, environmental trade-offs exist through potential nutrient and sediment losses. LiDAR-based image differencing was found to be a useful tool in helping to quantify these risks. Quantifying sediment and nutrient losses as a result of inversion tillage and reseeding induced soil erosion aids in understanding potential trends in water quality statuses.

A systematic study of zooplankton-based indices of marine ecological change and water quality: Application to the European marine strategy framework Directive (MSFD)

• An indicator-metrics-index framework was used to minimize ambiguity. • Additional frameworks were developed to synthesize existing zooplankton indices. • Several biodiversity and pressure indices were identified and critically appraised. • Application of zooplankton indices to the EU-MSFD was elucidated. • Challenges of zooplankton indices development and use were highlighted. Marine zooplankton are central components of holistic ecosystem assessments due to their intermediary role in the food chain, linking the base of the food chain with higher trophic levels. As a result, these organisms incorporate the inherent properties and changes occurring atall levels of the marine ecosystem, temporally integrating signatures of physical and chemical conditions. For this reason, zooplankton-based biometrics are widely accepted as useful tools for assessing and monitoring the ecological health and integrity of aquatic systems. The European Marine Strategy Framework Directive (EU-MSFD) requires the use of different types of bio-monitors, including zooplankton, to monitor progress towards achieving specific environmental and water quality targets in EU. However, there is currently no comprehensive synthesis of zooplankton indices development, use, and associated challenges. We addressed this issue with a two-step approach. First, we formulated the indicator-metrics-indices cycle (IMIC) to redefine the closely related but often ambiguously utilized terms - indicator, metric and index, highlighting the convergence between them and the iterative nature of their interaction. Secondly, we formulated frameworks for synthesizing, presenting and systematically applying zooplankton indices based on the IMIC framework. The main benefits of the IMIC are twofold: 1). to disambiguate the key elements: indicators, metrics, and indices, revealing their links to an operational ecological indicator system, and 2) to serve as an organizing tool for the coherent classification of indices according to the MSFD descriptors. Using the IMIC framework, we identified and described two broad categories of indices namely the core biodiversity indices already in use in the Baltic Sea and North Atlantic regions, including the ‘Zooplankton Mean Size and Total Stock (zooplankton MSTS)’ and 'Plankton Lifeforms index (PLI)', and stressor-response indices retrieved from the existing literature, elucidating their applicability to different MSFD descriptors. Finally, major challenges of developing new indices and applying existing ones in the context of the MSFD were critically addressed and some solutions were proposed.

Does democracy help reduce environmental degradation?

The main purpose of this study is to examine the democracy-environmental degradation nexus in 26 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries from 1990 through 2015 by using panel data estimation methods, performing well under cross-sectional dependence. Empirical results are as follows: (i) Tests show that cross-section dependence exists among panel members, and slope coefficients are heterogeneous, respectively, and (ii) long-term coefficient estimation results with Augmented Mean Group estimator show that democracy, non-renewable energy consumption, and real income per capita have statistically significant negative effects on environmental quality, whereas renewable energy consumption has a positive effect. There is also no statistically significant relationship between urbanization and environmental quality. These findings show the poor functioning of democracy in addressing environmental issues among OECD countries; therefore, raising environmental quality conflicts with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of creating strong institutions and economic growth targets. Moreover, promoting renewable energy consumption may be an effective alternative in reducing environmental degradation; therefore, it can be said that promoting clean energy use and raising the SDG environmental quality targets are in harmony.

Study on the Construction of Assessment Mechanism Based on Eco-Environment Quality Improvement Targets

The environmental protection target responsibility system and the appraisal system is a major measure in our country’s environmental protection system. The existing ecological environmental assessment forms are diverse, various, but lack of overall planning, ecological environment quality guidance is not prominent. There are problems such as immature evaluation mechanism and incomplete design of indicator design system. This research system evaluates the assessment system in the existing environmental protection system, accelerates the overall integration, takes the environmental performance as the basic direction, takes the environmental quality goal improvement as the main line, formulates and implements a set of environmental quality target assessment index system with scientific, incentive, pertinence and maneuverability, conforms to the national conditions of our country, scientifically evaluates the effect of environmental management, and realizes the index management of environmental protection.

The role of renewable energy, immigration and real income in environmental sustainability target. Evidence from Europe largest states

In spite of the continued deployment of technologies, innovations toward addressing the challenges of global warming, forecasting and sustaining quality environment have remained the herculean endeavour of the advanced states. Also, being migrants' destinations, resulting from the availability of economic opportunities, the target of attaining low-carbon, energy efficiency, and the cleaner atmospheric environment by these advanced economies is further bewildered. In that light, we investigate the impact of renewable energy consumption and migration on the carbon dioxide emissions of the panel of European Union's largest economies of France, Germany, and the United Kingdom over the period of 1990–2016. The consistency of the group fully modified least square and dynamic ordinary least square presents elasticity of −0.13 and −0.14 respectively for the nexus of renewables and carbon emissions. Similarly, 0.04 and 0.05 are the respective elasticity of the two models for the nexus of migration and carbon emissions. In support of extant literature, the nexus of carbon emissions with gross domestic product and consumer price index are significant, and respectively positive and negative. In addition, the study reveals evidence of Granger causality with feedback between renewable energy consumption and carbon emissions, and between consumer price index and carbon emissions. On the other hand, a unidirectional Granger causality running from migration to carbon emissions is observed. In practical term, the study presents policy frameworks for the examined countries and other advanced nations. The implementation of the presented policy pathways are potentially geared toward a forecastable, sustainable environmental quality and energy efficiency targets.

Assessment of water treatment residuals as sorbent material in permeable reactive barriers: Application to a copper‐contaminated site

AbstractThe objective of this study is to design a pilot‐scale permeable reactive barrier (PRB) for the removal of copper from groundwater in Keweenaw Peninsula, Michigan. The reactive material selected for the barrier is drinking water treatment residuals (WTR)—the residuals of alum coagulants used in a local drinking water treatment plant. Physical and chemical properties of the WTR were determined. Synthetic precipitation leaching procedure tests indicated the concentrations of hazardous elements leached from the residuals do not exceed U.S. Environmental Protection Agency limits and, hence, can be safely recycled as PRB material. Batch reactor tests showed that equilibrium sorption of copper is high and fits a Langmuir‐type isotherm. Site characterization studies included groundwater flow direction, pore water velocity, and contaminant concentration to determine optimal dimensions and placement of the PRB. Permeameter tests were performed with various mixtures of the WTR and an inert support material (pea gravel) to determine the ideal mix to match the hydraulic conductivity of the field site. Kinetic and column experiments were conducted to understand the significance of chemical and physical mass transfer limitations. Based on the results, dimensions of a PRB to meet the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality target level of 0.031 milligrams per liter (mg/L) total Cu were calculated.

Three-dimensional hydrogeological modeling to assess the elevated-water-table technique for controlling acid generation from an abandoned tailings site in Quebec, Canada

The Manitou Mine sulphidic-tailings storage facility No. 2, near Val D’Or, Canada, was reclaimed in 2009 by elevating the water table and applying a monolayer cover made of tailings from nearby Goldex Mine. Previous studies showed that production of acid mine drainage can be controlled by lowering the oxygen flux through Manitou tailings with a water table maintained at the interface between the cover and reactive tailings. Simulations of different scenarios were performed using numerical hydrogeological modeling to evaluate the capacity of the reclamation works to maintain the phreatic surface at this interface. A large-scale numerical model was constructed and calibrated using 3 years of field measurements. This model reproduced the field measurements, including the existence of a western zone on the site where the phreatic level targeted is not always met during the summer. A sensitivity analysis was performed to assess the response of the model to varying saturated hydraulic conductivities, porosities, and grain-size distributions. Higher variations of the hydraulic heads, with respect to the calibrated scenario results, were observed when simulating a looser or coarser cover material. Long-term responses were simulated using: the normal climatic data, data for a normal climate with a 2-month dry spell, and a simplified climate-change case. Environmental quality targets were reached less frequently during summer for the dry spell simulation as well as for the simplified climate-change scenario. This study illustrates how numerical simulations can be used as a key tool to assess the eventual performance of various mine-site reclamation scenarios.

The Impact of Unilateral Commitment on Transboundary Pollution

To reach a common target of environmental quality, countries can choose to commit to a stream of pollution abatement right from the beginning of the game or decide upon abatement at each moment of time. Though most of the previous literature studies homogeneous strategies where no country or all countries commit to a (same) predefined policy, reality goes along a different way: some countries make more efforts than others to reduce pollutant emission. The main novelty of this paper resides in the introduction of this kind of heterogeneous strategic behavior currently observed among large pollution nations. We find that the pollution level can be lower under heterogeneous than under homogeneous strategies. A stringent environmental quality target will induce the committed player to produce an abatement effort that more than compensates the free-riding attitude of the non-committed player.

Water quality and UK agriculture: challenges and opportunities

There are high aspirations for environmental water quality targets in the UK, but requirements for significant growth in agricultural production to meet both food security objectives and provide viable livelihoods for farmers make these hard to achieve. Significant water quality challenges are related to nutrients, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, pathogens, sediments and habitat alteration. To facilitate the challenges posed, there is a need for predictive, spatially distributed models to be developed that encompass the key aspects of agriculture and water management in order to inform future policy and organizations with an interest in land management. Additionally, there needs to be recognition from policy makers that different solutions are needed in different agri‐water systems and that it often takes many years or decades for policies to have a sustained water quality impact. Long‐term support for research infrastructure and the scientific skills base is required to enable measurement and data analysis necessary to inform decision making. Farmers need clearly articulated information on the issues and potential solutions on which to make informed management decisions regarding water. There are existing solutions to some problems and this knowledge needs to be effectively disseminated with appropriate incentives for implementation to have maximum impact. Greater collaboration between researchers, industry, and policy makers, with the necessary framework to deliver effective joint working, is urgently needed. There is also a need for a wider societal understanding of the land–water system and the various ways in which society pays (and might pay in the future) for the real value of water. WIREs Water 2017, 4:e1201. doi: 10.1002/wat2.1201This article is categorized under: Water and Life > Stresses and Pressures on Ecosystems Science of Water > Water Quality

Concentration and distribution of contaminants in lake trout and walleye from the Laurentian Great Lakes (2008–2012)

Biomonitoring programs for persistent, bioaccumulative, and/or toxic chemicals of concern in fish tissues have been operated by the governments of Canada and the United States in the Great Lakes since the 1970's. The objectives of these programs are to assess concentrations of harmful chemicals in whole body top predator fish as an indicator of ecosystem health and to infer potential harm to fish and fish consuming wildlife in the Great Lakes Basin. Chemicals of interest are selected based upon national and binational commitments, risk assessment, and regulation, and include a wide range of compounds. This review summarizes all available data generated by Environment Canada and the United States Environmental Protection Agency for chemicals measured in whole body homogenates of Lake Trout (Salvelinus namaycush) and Walleye (Sander vitreus) for the time period spanning 2008 to 2012 from each of the five Great Lakes. The summary shows that concentrations of legacy compounds, such as, POPs listed in the Stockholm Convention and mercury continue to dominate the chemical burden of Great Lakes fish. This assessment, and others like it, can guide the creation of environmental quality targets where they are lacking, optimize chemical lists for monitoring, and prioritize chemicals of concern under agreements such as the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement and the Stockholm Convention.

Exploiting Co-Benefits of Increased Rice Production and Reduced Greenhouse Gas Emission through Optimized Crop and Soil Management.

Meeting the future food security challenge without further sacrificing environmental integrity requires transformative changes in managing the key biophysical determinants of increasing agronomic productivity and reducing the environmental footprint. Here, we focus on Chinese rice production and quantitatively address this concern by conducting 403 on-farm trials across diverse rice farming systems. Inherent soil productivity, management practices and rice farming type resulted in confounded and interactive effects on yield, yield gaps and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (N2O, CH4 and CO2-equivalent) with both trade-offs and compensating effects. Advances in nitrogen, water and crop management (Best Management Practices—BMPs) helped closing existing yield gaps and resulted in a substantial reduction in CO2-equivalent emission of rice farming despite a tradeoff of increase N2O emission. However, inherent soil properties limited rice yields to a larger extent than previously known. Cultivating inherently better soil also led to lower GHG intensity (GHG emissions per unit yield). Neither adopting BMPs only nor improving soils with low or moderate productivity alone can adequately address the challenge of substantially increasing rice production while reducing the environmental footprint. A combination of both represents the most efficient strategy to harness the combined-benefits of enhanced production and mitigating climate change. Extrapolating from our farm data, this strategy could increase rice production in China by 18%, which would meet the demand for direct human consumption of rice by 2030. It would also reduce fertilizer nitrogen consumption by 22% and decrease CO2-equivalent emissions during the rice growing period by 7% compared with current farming practice continues. Benefits vary by rice-based cropping systems. Single rice systems have the largest food provision benefits due to its wider yield gap and total cultivated area, whereas double-rice system (especially late rice) contributes primarily to reducing GHG emissions. The study therefore provides farm-based evidence for feasible, practical approaches towards achieving realistic food security and environmental quality targets at a national scale.

Regional restrictions on environmental impact assessment approval in China: the legitimacy of environmental authoritarianism

The poor enforcement and effectiveness of environmental impact assessment (EIA) on construction and investment projects in China has long been blamed for not preventing environmental pollution and degradation. At the same time, freezing EIA approval of all new projects in an administrative region, introduced in 2006 as a punishment for failing to meet regional environmental quality targets, has been regarded as an innovative administrative instrument used by higher level environmental authorities on local governments. But it also raised controversies. Applying an environmental authoritarianism perspective, this study analyzed the legitimacy and environmental effectiveness of freezing EIA approval procedures by reviewing all 25 national cases and 12 provincial cases of so-called EIA Restrictions Targeting Regions between 1 December 2006 and 31 December 2013. The results show that such an environmental authoritarian measure is to some extent environmentally effective but lacks legality and transparency towards and participation of third parties, and hence falls short in legitimacy. Legal foundations and wider third party participation are essential for the long term effectiveness of this policy and its transfer to other countries.

Macro-invertebrate decline in surface water polluted with imidacloprid: a rebuttal and some new analyses.

Imidacloprid, the largest selling insecticide in the world, has received particular attention from scientists, policymakers and industries due to its potential toxicity to bees and aquatic organisms. The decline of aquatic macro-invertebrates due to imidacloprid concentrations in the Dutch surface waters was hypothesised in a recent paper by Van Dijk, Van Staalduinen and Van der Sluijs (PLOS ONE, May 2013). Although we do not disagree with imidacloprid's inherent toxicity to aquatic organisms, we have fundamental concerns regarding the way the data were analysed and interpreted. Here, we demonstrate that the underlying toxicity of imidacloprid in the field situation cannot be understood except in the context of other co-occurring pesticides. Although we agree with Van Dijk and co-workers that effects of imidacloprid can emerge between 13 and 67 ng/L we use a different line of evidence. We present an alternative approach to link imidacloprid concentrations and biological data. We analysed the national set of chemical monitoring data of the year 2009 to estimate the relative contribution of imidacloprid compared to other pesticides in relation to environmental quality target and chronic ecotoxicity threshold exceedances. Moreover, we assessed the relative impact of imidacloprid on the pesticide-induced potential affected fractions of the aquatic communities. We conclude that by choosing to test a starting hypothesis using insufficient data on chemistry and biology that are difficult to link, and by ignoring potential collinear effects of other pesticides present in Dutch surface waters Van Dijk and co-workers do not provide direct evidence that reduced taxon richness and abundance of macroinvertebrates can be attributed to the presence of imidacloprid only. Using a different line of evidence we expect ecological effects of imidacloprid at some of the exposure profiles measured in 2009 in the surface waters of the Netherlands.

Assessment of TBT and organic booster biocide contamination in seawater from coastal areas of South Korea

Seawater samples from major enclosed bays, fishing ports, and harbors of Korea were analyzed to determine levels of tributyltin (TBT) and booster biocides, which are antifouling agents used as alternatives to TBT. TBT levels were in the range of not detected (nd) to 23.9ng Sn/L. Diuron and Irgarol 1051, at concentration ranges of 35–1360ng/L and nd to 14ng/L, respectively, were the most common alternative biocides present in seawater, with the highest concentrations detected in fishing ports. Hot spots were identified where TBT levels exceeded environmental quality targets even 6years after a total ban on its use in Korea. Diuron exceeded the UK environmental quality standard (EQS) value in 73% of the fishing port samples, 64% of the major bays, and 42% of the harbors. Irgarol 1051 levels were marginally below the Dutch and UK EQS values at all sites.

Nouveautés constitutionnelles, juridiques et de politique générale relatives au Droit de l'Environnement et du Développement Durable dans le Royaume du Maroc

While in the past environmental sustainability has been given a lower priority within the overall development policy of the Kingdom of Morocco, the situation has changed significantly in the last decade. Under the reign of King Mohamed VI and already by the end of his father’s regency (King Hassan II) substantial legal, institutional and political developments took place. On the one hand the change is due to drought, the economic crisis, and the recent transitions in the Arab world (“Arab Spring”). On the other hand, international treaties have influenced developments with the effect that laws are being adjusted to a level comparable to those set up by European legislations. This article traces the changes and provides insights into the current situation. With regard to recent constitutional evolutions and their impacts, the rights of citizens to a healthy environment was recognised and institutionalised in an executive authority. Notably, due to a charter environmental matters are now available to a public debate giving public authorities, civil society organisation, the private sector and citizens a right to engage. Currently, the charter awaits its transposition into laws which will be carried out in the coming years. The high significance of international cooperation in environmental – as well as other – matters is acknowledged in the preamble of the Moroccan constitution, with the effect that international treaties, for example the Kyoto Protocol, the Stockholm POP Convention and the Cartagena Protocol, were negotiated and ratified in the national context during recent years. There have also been significant legal developments nationally. While 10 years ago there were hardly any laws addressing the environment in Morocco, today a large number of sectoral regulations acknowledge the value of the different environmental media, defining environmental quality targets as well as addressing authorisation procedures which foresee environmental impact assessment. Further developments involve, for example, the implementation of public participation and access to environmental information, which have already been introduced in some sectoral laws, but will gradually be subject to other sectors, too. These legal developments were followed by institutional changes that generally strengthen the actions of the Moroccan Environmental Department, which itself operates dynamically to fulfil its duties. Nevertheless, the role of local departments needs to be improved since they are still weak in terms of enforcement of the laws. This article concludes with a critical evaluation of the developments by criticising the absence of a strategic evaluation of the environmental situation and the shortcomings in the field of citizens’ rights and enforcement possibilities due to a lack of personnel and financial resources. Moreover, the lack of coordination between the sectors and unintended effects are addressed.