Regional Environmental Planning Research Articles

Planning for environmental project implementation and development: as exemplified by the songklha lake basin planning study, Thailand

This paper describes use of the ‘economic-cumenvironmental’ regional development planning process (as differentiated from regional economic planning and regional environmental planning) for its first application in the Asia-Pacific region, for The Songkhla Lake Basin Planning Study, in southern Thailand. The study project was carried out, with Asian Development Bank (ADB) loan financing, as a joint venture of the national economic and national environmental planning agencies. Because of its pioneering nature, in both technical and institutional aspects, numerous lessons were learned from the project. These are described, and yield guidelines valuable for future studies of this type.

地域環境計画の目標と実現 矢作川流域を例として

地域環境計画の目標と実現 矢作川流域を例として

A Regional Environmental Plan for the Willandra Lakes World Heritage Region

The Willandra Lakes region was registered on the UNESCO World Heritage List in October 1981, on the basis of both the cultural heritage value of the archaeological finds there, and the natural heritage value of the environment, specifically the Pleistocene landforms which document climatic and environmental change. As a World Heritage property, the Willandra Lakes Region falls under the provisions of the International Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage 1972 (The World Heritage Convention) which was ratified by Australia in August 1974. It also falls under the provisions of the Federal Government's World Heritage Properties Conservation Act 1983, which was particularly designed to prevent the damming of the Franklin River in western Tasmania.

Earth surface heat balance changes caused by urbanization

The relationships, in regional environmental planning, between land use and earth surface heat balance in urbanized areas have been investigated. In the first part of this study, the calculation procedure and field observations of earth surface heat balance (natural heat) are described. The summer earth surface temperature was observed at Tokyo. Calculated values showed good agreement with observed values, though observed surface temperatures varied widely with differing land use. The results of an Osaka Prefecture (1856 km 2) case study are also presented. The amount of natural heat (the earth surface heat balance) and the artificial heat released are estimated according to land usage. The regional mean earth surface temperature in Osaka City (a developed region) during August is higher by ca. 3 °C than it is in Sennan district (an undeveloped region). The artificial heat released was 174.2 × 10 12 kcal/year in Osaka Prefecture (1970 – 1974). The heat flow at the earth's surface varies remarkably with urban development.

Environmental impact assessment in Australia: The federal experience

Australia and Canada are comparable in many respects, and their responses to environmental stresses arising from the development of resources are instructive. Australia's legislative adoption of environmental impact assessment (EIA) is both recent and incomplete. The more comprehensive Canadian experience with the technique suggests that EIA has many shortcomings as an environmental management tool. Moves to go beyond EIA in Australia, towards integrated, regional environmental planning and management, are compared with similar but more advanced developments in Canada. Canada also has a significantly greater commitment to public participation in environmental decision making than Australia. Public pressures are important determinants of the extent of commitment to environmental protection in the two countries.

Data Base Use for Regional Environmental Planning

Data base management concepts applied in an established multicounty regional planning commission are identified and reviewed. The need for data base management is noted. Data base applications are examined, as used and interralated in described work programs of environmental planning—including air quality, water quality, and floodland management—and of related land use planning. The existing data structure and actual data file content are reviewed. The organizational setting is described, and the evolution of data base design is traced from large-cell data storage, to small-cell data storage, to digitized storage of irregularly shaped cells. Comparisons to state-level data base development for natural resource management are noted. The prognosis for overlay of areal data with line and point data is described, as is the potential use of optical scanning equipment for data entry of mapped information.

A macroeconomic analysis of regional environmental modeling and planning

Alterations in the institutional structure of a region through exogenous investment can be viewed as a tool for regional adjustments in environmental quality. Two models are presented: an expanded Metzler interregional model that incorporates regional disamenities into the multiplier structure and a regional migration model for estimating regional disamenities. The underlying suggestion of the regional environmental trade model is that a concept of aggregate efficiency should be established for the allocation of large exogenous investment expenditures across regions. An example estimation is presented for the Southwest. Revised regional multipliers that include disamenity levels are calculated and the investment decisions with and without disamenity effects are considered. The example estimations suggest that failure to include disamenity corrections in regional multipliers will lead to greater regional inequality in welfare.

Experiments in Regional Environmental Planning

The deterioration of the physical environment in many metropolitan areas is a fact of modern life. In the United States the traditional alignment of power and institutions have proved to be ineffective in coping with environmental problems. Obvious as is this disparity between the nature of regional environmental management problems and the administrative machinery established to remedy it, too little serious effort has been made so far to do better.The six experiments described here represent an effort to expand the environmental data-base, to improve the capacity of elected officials and their civil servants to anticipate better the consequences of a variety of environmental decisions, and to provide the broadest possible range of contributing citizens—so that environmental decision-making can become truly participatory. All of the regions involved have so far enjoyed more success technically than in the matters of transfer of information and improving citizen participation.