Local Environmental Planning Research Articles

Factors Affecting the Willingness to Pay for Environmental Improvements during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Taean-gun, Chungcheongnam-do

Background and objective: This study aimed to assess satisfaction with environmental factors during the COVID-19 pandemic and key factors affecting the willingness to pay (WTP) for environmental improvements using logistic regression analysis.Methods: Cross-sectional survey data of 504 residents of Taean-gun in Chungcheongnam-do (South Chungcheong Province), taken from July to August 2020, were used.Results: The assessment of their satisfaction with five environmental factors found that their satisfaction with the natural ecology had the highest score, while their satisfaction with the waste factor had the lowest score. With respect to overall environmental satisfaction, it was found that regardless of gender, age, and income, most residents were highly satisfied with the overall environment of Taean-gun (Taean County). In addition, the WTP for environmental improvements was slightly higher among males than among females. Residents in their 60s or older and with a monthly income of 4 - 4.99 million won were most likely to express WTP for environmental improvements. A binominal logit analysis found that increased environmental concerns (EC), satisfaction with environmental health (EHS) and income were crucial factors in determining the WTP for environmental health. The variables of increased EC and income, have a positive (+) relationship with WTP, while the variable of EHS has a significantly a negative (-) relationship with WTP.Conclusion: In other words, the higher the EC, the lower the EHS, and the higher the income, the more likely residents were to express WTP for environmental improvements. This study has significance in that it can provide primary data for sustainable local environmental plans to improve public environmental awareness for sustainability, and environmental strategies to prepare for post-pandemic life.

Life cycle assessment as a prospective tool for sustainable agriculture and food planning at a local level

Owing to the far-reaching environmental consequences of agriculture and food systems, such as their contribution to climate change, there is an urgent need to reduce their impact. International and national governments set sustainability targets and implement corresponding measures. Nevertheless, critics of the globalized system claim that a territorial administrative scale is better suited to address sustainability issues. Yet, at the sub-national level, local authorities rarely apply a systemic environmental assessment to enhance their action plans. This paper employs a territorial life cycle assessment methodology to improve local environmental agri-food planning. The objective is to identify significant direct and indirect environmental hotspots, their origins, and formulate effective mitigation strategies. The methodology is applied to the administrative department of Finistere, a strategic agricultural region in North-Western France. Multiple environmental criteria including climate change, fossil resource scarcity, toxicity, and land use are modeled. The findings reveal that the primary environmental hotspots of the studied local food system arise from indirect sources, such as livestock feed or diesel consumption. Livestock reduction and organic farming conversion emerge as the most environmentally efficient strategies, resulting in a 25% decrease in the climate change indicator. However, the overall modeled impact reduction is insufficient following national objectives and remains limited for the land use indicator. These results highlight the innovative application of life cycle assessment led at a local level, offering insights for the further advancement of systematic and prospective local agri-food assessment. Additionally, they provide guidance for local authorities to enhance the sustainability of planning strategies.

An energy community as a platform for local sector coupling: From complex modelling to simulation and implementation

This paper presents the reference architecture of a model for sustainable local planning and sector coupling based on an energy-community framework. The proposed approach includes four building blocks: (1) the data-acquisition building block - local energy consumption, (2) the building block for modelling and calculations - local energy conversions, (3) the building block for connecting the infrastructure status and needs with development plans of the energy-network operators and aggregators, and (4) the decision-support building block for local environmental, spatial and energy planning. The proposed approach was tested in a real industrial environment and a local community. Initial simulation results confirmed that excess heat from the energy-intensive company has the potential to replace the natural gas that is currently used for the production of heat in a local district-heating system. The natural gas savings in the district-heating system would be 3,299,676 Nm3, as the excess heat could cover as much as 68.4 % of the required heat for the local community. It has also been proven that complex modelling and simulation of a future sustainable solution can contribute to its optimization, understanding, and acceptance by all stakeholders and thereby increase the potential of the project's implementation.

The Assessment of the Spatiotemporal Characteristics of the Eco-Environmental Quality in the Chishui River Basin from 2000 to 2020

The Chishui River Basin is located in the bordering area of Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan provinces, which serves as an important ecological barrier in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, and plays a leading role in preserving natural environments, protecting water resources, and maintaining soil functions. However, the eco-environmental quality in the basin has encountered serious challenges in recent years, and the conflict between eco-environmental protection and economic development becomes increasingly prominent. Therefore, it is particularly important to quantitatively assess the extent of the eco-environmental changes in this basin. The present study acquired Landsat series remote sensing images based on the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform, constructed a remote sensing ecological index (RSEI) as the assessment index that reflects the eco-environmental quality using principal component analysis, studied the changing trend in the eco-environmental quality using the Sen–Mann–Kendall trend test, analyzed the spatial clustering distribution patterns of the eco-environmental quality, based on spatial autocorrelation analysis, and applied the geographical detector model to determine the impacts of natural and anthropogenic factors on the eco-environmental quality. We further applied the CA–Markov model to simulate and predict the eco-environmental quality of the basin in 2025. The results showed the following: (1) between 2000 and 2020, the eco-environmental quality of the Chishui River Basin had been greatly improved. The average RSEI value increased from 0.526 in 2000 to 0.668 in 2020, and the percentage of areas belonging to the good or excellent quality category increased from 42.65% to 68.48%. (2) The main drivers of the eco-environmental quality included population density, mean annual temperature, land use type and elevation. The interactive effect between these drivers was significantly higher than that of individual drivers, and thus possessed stronger explanatory power for quality differences. (3) It is predicted that in 2025, the eco-environmental quality of the basin will continue to improve, and the proportion of land areas with good or excellent quality will continuously increase. The present study can provide reference value for local environmental protection and regional planning.

Stakeholders’ involvement in the planning of nature-based solutions: A network analysis approach

Environmental planning is considered an important process to positively encourage the inclusion of nature-based solutions (NbS) in urban areas. The success of their implementation relies on the collaboration between the involved stakeholders in the environmental planning process. The aim of this study is to identify the key stakeholders within the environmental planning processes that could be considered in NbS promotion, as well as to understand their actual position in a conceptual collaboration network. Therefore, a sample of seven Local Environmental Action Plans (LEAPs) from Romania was selected to identify the relevant stakeholders for addressing environmental challenges through the promotion of NbS. We use social network analysis (SNA) to understand the barriers and opportunities of the collaborative planning process by identifying (i) 42 distinct stakeholders classified, based on the diffusion of innovation theory, according to their interests and reasons in promoting or hindering an innovation, and (ii) 12 categories of environmental challenges. Our findings illustrate a relatively low centrality and influence of stakeholders as innovators, change agents, and transformers. Furthermore, those who have greater influence in the collaboration network and therefore those who could emphasize the use of NbS into environmental planning based on the actions from LEAPs come from the following categories of stakeholders: controllers, mainstreamers, and laggards. The environmental challenges are addressed mainly by institutional stakeholders, to the detriment of community ones. Our study highlights the necessity for collaboration to support efficient NbS integration into environmental planning processes.

Complex, practical or inflexible? Unravelling the background and consequences of the NSW standard instrument local environmental plan

ABSTRACT The 2006 NSW Standard Instrument Local Environmental Plan (SI LEP) aimed to simplify and bring consistency to local planning and land use regulation. Consistent definitions and standard land use zones were features of the changes to local plan requirements. The background to, and unfortunate consequences of, the SI LEP are critically explored. This highlights the tension between conformity, innovation, local autonomy and place-based approaches. A survey of professional practitioners suggests that the hoped-for benefits have not been realised in practice. Key findings are that the SI LEP: (1) has added complexity and length to regulatory plans, (2) increased state government power with no demonstrated land use benefit, (3) is not necessary for consistent state planning and policy implementation, and (4) stifles local creativity, flexibility and place-based land use outcomes especially in non-metropolitan areas. Significant limitations of the SI LEP and its implementation warrant a rethink of statutory land use controls in NSW, including land zoning and plan objectives, land use definitions, and opportunities to support local innovation.

Dynamic Monitoring of Environmental Quality in the Loess Plateau from 2000 to 2020 Using the Google Earth Engine Platform and the Remote Sensing Ecological Index

The Loess Plateau is a typical ecologically sensitive area that can easily be perturbed by the effects of human activities and global climate change. Therefore, it is necessary to develop tools to monitor the environmental quality in the LP quickly and accurately. To reveal the spatio-temporal changes in environmental quality in the LP from 2000 to 2020, we used the Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) products on the Google Earth Engine platform and constructed the remote sensing ecological index (RSEI) through principal component analysis (PCA). Then, Sen–Mann–Kendall methods were applied to determine the changing trend of the environmental quality of the LP. Finally, natural and anthropogenic factors affecting the environmental quality were probed using a geographical detector model. The results showed that: (1) the average RSEI values in 2000, 2010 and 2020 were 0.396, 0.468 and 0.511, respectively, displaying an upward trend from 2000 to 2020, with a growth rate of 0.005 year−1. The overall environment quality was moderate (0.4–0.6). (2) In terms of spatial distribution, the environmental quality was excellent in the southeast and poor in the northwest of the LP. The areas with improved environmental quality (84.51%) were located in all the counties, whereas the areas with degraded environmental quality (8.11%) occurred in the north and southeast of the study area. (3) Greenness, heat, wetness, dryness and land use types were prominent factors affecting RSEI throughout the study period; additionally, the total industrial gross domestic product showed a growing influence. The contribution of multi-factor interaction was stronger than that of single factors. The results will provide a reference and a new research perspective for local environmental protection and regional planning.

The experience of the municipalities of Minas Gerais State (Brazil) that implemented local environmental licensing

The objective of this study was to explore the experience of the municipalities of the state of Minas Gerais that implemented local environmental licensing. For this purpose, representatives of the state administration were interviewed, and an electronic questionnaire was sent to analysts of 121 municipalities that took up environmental licensing, from which 39 responses were obtained. The key drivers of local environmental licensing were concerns over licensing procedural delays by the state government and the need for administrative efficiency. Knowledge of local conditions and the proximity between the local government, communities and developers were identified as facilitators of licensing. Shortage of staff, precarious hiring processes, and lack of infrastructure were identified as the main barriers to local environmental licensing. The municipalities that have implemented local environmental licensing perceive planning, administrative capacity, competent technical and legal teams, and capacity-building as essential elements of an effective local environmental licensing system. The study concludes with suggestions of future research avenues.

Mapping the functional connectivity of ecosystem services supply across a regional landscape.

Sustainably managing multifunctional landscapes for production of multiple ecosystem services (ES) requires thorough understanding of the interactions between ES and the ecological processes that drive them. We build upon landscape connectivity theory to present a spatial approach for assessing functional connections between multiple ES at the landscape scale, and take a closer look at the concept of ES interactions by explicitly representing the mechanisms behind the relationships between ES. We demonstrate application of the approach using existing ES supply mapping data for plant agriculture, waterflow regulation, and landscape aesthetics and map the functional connectivity between them. We find that, when weights of all linkages were amalgamated, areas of high-value connectivity are revealed that are not present on any individual ES supply area or pairwise link maps, which suggests that the spatial focus of planning for optimal service provisioning may shift when functional relationships between several ES are considered. From water flow supply areas, our modeling maps several functional connections that operate over both short and long distances, which highlights the importance of managing ES flows both locally and across jurisdictions. We also found that different land use and land cover types than those associated with ES supply areas may be serving as critical corridors connecting interdependent ES. By providing spatial information on ES connectivity, our approach enables local and regional environmental planning and management to take full consideration of the complex, multi-scale interactions between ecological processes, land use and land cover, and ecosystem service supply on a landscape.

Assessing planning implementation using the conformance and performance approach: The case of Romania's local environmental action plans

Many of the outcomes of environmental plans are difficult to measure. Therefore, little is known as to whether such plans achieve their goals, whether outcomes are reached and lessons learned to influence future plans. Our study aims to address this gap by systematically evaluating the implementation of Local Environmental Action Plans (LEAPs) of 29 counties in Romania and the factors affecting it. We draw on both quantitative (official statistical data) and qualitative (planners’ assessments) evaluation methods and two conceptions of plan implementation success (conformance and performance based) to assess LEAP implementation. Our findings indicate mixed levels of conformance and performance. While the implementation of LEAPs conforms with the plans from the perspective of progress of overall policy implementation, this does not conform with the plans in terms of positive changes on the ground. LEAPs perform well in mitigating local environmental problems and coordinating with other planning initiatives but badly in terms of their usefulness in the decision-making process, having little influence on lower-level plans. Furthermore, the quality of LEAPs may not be important in relation to their implementation, while investments in the capacity of planning agencies, as well as local political support and participatory approaches, may improve the implementation of LEAPs in the future. The results of our study may assist the devising bodies in enhancing the implementation of future versions of LEAPs by revealing the main opportunities and constraints influencing implementation.

Houston, We Have a Gentrification Problem

Local environmental improvement plans are increasingly popular among urban planners. As climate change and environmental justice concerns increase, many communities demand a change in local land use policies that put these concerns at the forefront. One such community is the city of Houston, Texas, which issued several environmental improvement plans in recent years after the devastation of Hurricane Harvey. As used in this Comment, an environmental improvement plan is a local government planning initiative that aims to implement positive environmental change in urban areas historically burdened by environmental hazards. Such neighborhoods are often undeveloped, low-socioeconomic communities blighted by an accumulation of hazardous pollutants. These communities lack open, green space, clean and affordable natural resources, and resiliency against natural disasters. However, when cities successfully implement environmental improvement plans, targeted neighborhoods often undergo gentrification, thereby displacing the poorer community members into another area blighted by the same environmental hazards the plan was intended to protect them from. This Comment seeks to explore the intended benefits of Houston’s various environmental improvement initiatives, to evaluate the current gentrification trends in Houston neighborhoods targeted for improvement, and to highlight the potential future concerns for vulnerable Houston neighborhoods as these new land-use policies go into effect. Environmental improvement plans are an important and necessary aspect of responsible and sustainable development, but, if implemented without regard to possible gentrification effects, they can have negative, unintended consequences on a city’s diversity and economic health. Fortunately, there are ways that city planners and community members can mitigate these negative effects and ensure positive change and inclusive growth.

An alternative broad vegetation hierarchy for eastern New South Wales, with application for environmental planning and management

Many previous vegetation description and mapping programs have highlighted the need for a hierarchical classification that easily translates from regional through to international scales. Often programs have not selected appropriate levels of vegetation classification and mapping for management purposes. Here, we provide an alternative broad vegetation classification at the macrogroup level in the international vegetation classification for eastern New South Wales (NSW) that could be applied in regional and local environmental planning and management. Existing aerial photographic interpretation (API) floristic and canopy maps available for eastern NSW were collated and reclassified and incorporated into a unifying dataset of macrogroups, which also included types dominated by exotic vegetation such as exotic plantations. There we identified, in total, 71 macrogroups across eastern New South Wales (NSW) of a total of 85 identified for NSW mapped at 1:25 000 scale, or finer, in the following three sections: north-east, Sydney basin and central west, and southern coast and Snowy Mountains. These were then amalgamated into a single remnant vegetation map covering 23 525 280 ha. This alternative broad vegetation hierarchy provides a reliable and overt vegetation classification and mapping dataset that can easily incorporate future revisions as new mapping data become available.

ФУНКЦІОНАЛЬНЕ ЗОНУВАННЯ ТЕРИТОРІЙ НАЦІОНАЛЬНИХ ПАРКІВ – ОСНОВА ЇХНЬОЇ ПЛАНУВАЛЬНОЇ ОРГАНІЗАЦІЇ

The issues of functional zoning of the territories of national natural parks of Ukraine and national parks of the world as the key problem of their territorial organization or planning are considered. In a comparative analysis, both positive phenomena and shortcomings of local and world environmental planning, primarily in recreational areas, are shown. The issue of recreational pressure within local and foreign national (natural) parks and their standards is also raised. It should be noted that the literature does not yet contain sufficiently scientifically substantiated methodological recommendations for the allocation of functional zones, their optimal areas, configurations, permissible anthropogenic (recreational) loads on parts of nature protected areas and sites. The practical experience of the creation and functioning of the Ukrainian NPP assures that the problem of planning their territory is of fundamental importance. Its practical solution is a basic prerequisite for ensuring the balanced and conflict-free functioning of these multifunctional nature protected areas. Functional zoning of the NPP territory can also be considered as a target spatial-functional model of the protected area. Accordingly, the practical activities for its protection are territorially differentiated by the allocated functional zones. It is the way to implement this model. The planning organization is based on the features of the functional zoning of national parks, as well as on the basis of the territorial configuration of the landscape sites (forest areas, systems of lakes, groups of islands, river deltas, and banks of large reservoirs). The planning organization of national parks is the functional zoning of their territory, which is conditioned by natural factors, on the basis of which different types of spatial planning structures are formed, a kind of “frames” along with the directions of natural axes taking into account the existing systems of settlement, production, transport, and engineering structures.

Defining a social-ecological performance to prioritize compensatory actions for environmental regeneration. The experimentation of the environmental compensation plan

Performance-based planning (PBP) is an approach to define a flexible, strategic and site-based scenario for the improvement of the social-ecological quality of the territory. The paper provides an experimentation of environmental compensation within the Italian context that can be traced back to the performance-based planning approach. The experimentation proposed is the Environmental Compensation Plan (ECP) of the Stura di Lanzo River, where the involvement of local stakeholders, environmental evaluation, environmental planning and design have been linked together for the definition of specific renaturalisation and environmental regeneration actions within the context of the River Agreement (RA). The ECP and relative methodological framework are then proposed to select and design priority actions of environmental compensation in different territorial contexts. Finally, some indications to further enhancing ECP effectiveness following PBP approach have been reported.

Through Internet and Friends: Translation of Air Pollution Research in Malmö Municipality, Sweden.

Air pollution is estimated to cause more than 7000 deaths annually in Sweden alone. To reduce the impact of air pollution and to plan and build sustainable cities, it is vital that research is translated into efficient decisions and practice. However, how do civil servants in a municipality access research results? How do they normally find relevant information, and what obstacles are there to accessing and applying research results? As part of the collaborative and transdisciplinary research project Air Pollution Research in Local Environmental Planning (ARIEL), these questions were explored through interviews and seminars with civil servants within the Malmö Municipality Environmental Office. We found that the civil servants generally have proficiency in processing research results, but often do not use such results as part of their everyday decision making and practices. Instead, the data and measurements used are mostly produced case-by-case within the municipal sector itself. Information about best practices is also collected via a number of knowledge access practices, involving the Internet or social networks within other municipalities. Lack of time, paywalls, and the insufficient applicability of research hinder the dissemination of up-to-date results. This slows down the process whereby research, funded by tax-money, can be put to best practice in the effort to create healthy and sustainable cities.

Local PM<sub>2.5</sub> and O<sub>3</sub> Ambient Air Quality Targets Setting Study in Lishui, China

2021 will be the first year of China’s 14th Five-year period, and all cities have been working on making new local environmental protection plans. To further improve air quality, reduce smog, and control ozone pollution, many cities intend to set more stringent local air quality targets than the national requirements. However, how to set a reasonable and attainable air quality targets is very important because the targets have impacts not only on the welfare of local residents, but also on the local economy. This work presents a comprehensive approach to set reasonable local air quality targets. This approach has been applied to determine PM2.5 and O3 ambient concentration targets for Lishui city in its 14th Five-year Environmental Protection Plan. In this study, five years monitoring data of PM2.5 and O3 from year 2014 to 2018 in Lishui was collected and analyzed to assess the status quo and trends of its air quality. Then the concentration distribution of PM2.5 and O3 in Lishui surrounding cities and counties in Zhejiang Province were also analyzed and the possible impacts on Lishui city were evaluated. Moreover, PM2.5 and O3 air quality standards in other developed countries were reviewed and compared with Chinese current standards to assist the setting of appropriate ambient air quality targets. Based on the analysis, three-year sliding average concentration of PM2.5 and O3 are included in Lishui’s annual air quality targets for the first time, and different air quality targets are set for both the whole city and each specific area of Lishui city.

An evaluation of environmental plans quality: Addressing the rational and communicative perspectives

Environmental action plans are important instruments intended to provide sustainable solutions for the most pressing environmental issues. As they should be updated regularly, efforts to evaluate their quality are essential for enabling incremental improvements in upcoming versions. The aim of our study was to systematically evaluate the quality of Romania's Local Environmental Action Plans (LEAPs) by following a theoretical framework that includes principles from both rational and communicative approaches to assessing plan quality. We selected 32 LEAPs and applied an evaluation protocol that enabled a comprehensive assessment of the plans. Our results showed an overall moderate quality of the LEAPs. Although most plans identify many environmental problems in need of solutions, in reality additional urgent environmental problems often exist. Furthermore, LEAPs perform only moderately in identifying tools for implementation provisions and ensuring the participation of the public in the planning process, and they are even weaker in establishing goals and achieving coordination across different governmental levels. Overall the assessment reveals that plans are rarely able to craft an appealing policy message. Our findings could be used as guidance for LEAP coordinating agencies to improve the plans in the upcoming updating processes, as they identify plan weaknesses and suggest ways to achieve high quality environmental plans. Furthermore, our novel plan assessment method based on rational comprehensive and communicative approaches to plan quality evaluation can be adapted easily to other studies.

Towards Evaluation of Environmental Spatial Order of Natural Valuable Landscapes in Suburban Areas: Evidence from Poland

The aim of the paper is to develop a method to evaluate and monitor environmental spatial order to delimit problem areas. The method was tested on the carefully chosen suburban areas as natural valuable areas located in suburban and peri-urban areas are particularly prone to intense and chaotic development. The number of methods of spatial order evaluation is scarce. The paper is an attempt to fill this gap. We have used following indicators: afforestation rate, landscape diversity level, density of the total road network, rate of compact development, as well as the building intensity. Indicators used in the method have been chosen based on the literature and modified to adjust it to the available data. Our findings confirm that the method gives reliable results. It can be used to evaluate the efficacy of Local Spatial Development Plans and Environmental Protection Plans. Moreover, we delimited areas in which environmental spatial order could be improved.

Activism by lay and professional planners

Activism was one of the main themes of the AESOP PhD Workshop 2018 in Karlskrona and Tjärö, Sweden. One of my presentations was about the activist roles of planners working for local governments and lay planners affiliated with civil society organizations. I have kept a close eye on the academic literature on activist planning for many years, and am still working in that sub-field of planning theory. My aim is to explore the limits of how professional planners with an activist intent can practice their line of work inside a bureaucracy, and to study how actors from the civil society can use spatial planning and local environmental planning in combination with direct action as a strategy for achieving their goals. To specify the kind of planning I have in mind, I follow Healey (1997:69), stating that: ‘Spatial and environmental planning, understood relationally, becomes a practice of building a relational capacity which can address collective concerns about spatial co-existence, spatial organisation and the qualities of places’. Activist planners can contribute to the processes of such planning and help collect and form the input to spatial and environmental plans.

Enhancing the usability and benefits of open space for older people in regional Australia

ABSTRACTOpen space planning and design can play an important role in ameliorating health and social issues associated with the increasing ageing population in regional Australia. We undertook a case study at Albury, NSW using an online survey, focus groups and park observations to explore the way older people (>65) value and use open spaces. While exhibiting diverse views, older Australians’ voices provided recommendations that can maximise the benefits of open space. Well-designed facilities support walking and other physical activity, social interaction and neighbourliness, and potentially reduce feelings of vulnerability. Issues associated with access are complex and require early and ongoing strategic planning. Ensuring open space is responsive to these needs requires both State and local government development and environmental planning and attention to the design and maintenance of park microfeatures.