State Environmental Management Research Articles

Применение метода моделирования матрицы рисков в целях совершенствования категорий риска в государственном экологическом контроле (надзоре) в условиях перехода на риск-ориентированный подход

The article proposes a method for classifying environmental control objects into risk categories using a risk matrix model. This approach takes into account various aspects of risk assessment, such as the likelihood of environmental threats and their potential impact. An algorithm is proposed for evaluating enterprises based on objective criteria, considering their potential for negative environmental impact, likelihood of events, and assessment of harm. A practical example of applying the risk matrix method in state environmental control is shown using objects of categories I-IV. The study demonstrates the applicability of the approach in state environmental management, improving risk categorization in this area.

A novel index reveals disconnects between recreational harmful algal bloom exposure risks and responses among U.S. states

AbstractRecreational and occupational contact with freshwater harmful algal blooms (HABs) pose human health and economic risks worldwide. Individual U.S. states control monitoring, reporting, and mitigation of recreational exposure to HABs. We surveyed states to catalog responses to HAB problems. We used this data to develop a state‐specific HAB response index (HABRI) and compared it to HAB risks derived from empirical nation‐wide data and per capita state environmental management and public health spending. States varied in regulations, reporting, monitoring, communication, and mitigation. The HABRI was not correlated with empirically based risk. Several states had no limits on toxin exposure or limits that were higher than recommended by the USEPA or World Health Organization. Other states did not provide public signage or notification when HABs were occurring and recreation could be hazardous. Increased federal involvement, communication among states, and state and federal legislation could minimize this variation and positively influence responses. We identify best practices for addressing HABs in our study that could provide guidance to authorities in any part of the world while developing new programs or enhancing existing efforts.

Neoliberal State and the Rise of Environmental Institutionality in Chile

Objective: This paper analyzes the emergence of Chilean environmental institutions (1994) within the framework of the neoliberal model established in the civic-military dictatorship (1973-1989). Although said environmental institutionality arises in "democracy", its legal bases must be sustained on a series of legal norms that shaped the neoliberal state founded on dictatorship. Theoretical framework: The Governmentality Approach affirms that there is a complex network of power relations, supported by political economy as primordial knowledge, which allows this power to be exercised to guide the behavior of the population, through different mechanisms and concrete and practical devices. Method: Through a discourse analysis of a legal and political documentary corpus, it is evident that the bases of the neoliberal state operate as a condition of possibility for the establishment of an environmental institutionalism that through its discursive practices operates as an adequate device for the principles of the neoliberal model. Results and conclusions: It is concluded that, in the environmental institutions created in the 1990s, a series of discursive objects, created previously, are reformulated, which encourage the neoliberal treatment of the environmental issue, specifically through new legal tools such as LGBMA. (19,300) and the environmental evaluation regulation (1997). Research implications: Identifies the limitations and contradictions of the State's environmental management; within the framework of a neoliberal political economic model like the Chilean one. Originality/value: Contributes to the use of discursive historical analysis methodologies through specific fields such as the environment, through archival material that allows us to understand the specific practices of the State from the perspective of a history of the present of neoliberal governmentality.

Legal Problems of Environmental Information in the Management of Solid Municipal Waste

The article reveals some problems of legal regulation of the solid municipal waste management system and the elimination of accumulated environmental damage in terms of the elimination of unauthorized locations of solid municipal waste and landfills of solid municipal waste. The importance of the measures and rules adopted by the state to ensure the implementation of environmental protection projects to eliminate accumulated environmental damage, as well as to reduce the negative impact on the environment and human health, the importance of improving legislation in terms of ensuring access to environmental information in the field of education, processing, disposal and disposal of municipal solid waste is noted. Particular attention is paid to the need to establish transparency of the state environmental management aimed at implementing an Environmental Safety Strategy, one of the main issues of which is the creation of an integrated system for the management of solid municipal waste and the elimination of accumulated environmental damage.The direct dependence of ensuring environmental safety and achieving the indicators of the national development goals of the country on the transparency of environmental information generated during the management of solid municipal waste and the elimination of unauthorized landfills of solid municipal waste has been established. The article also touches upon some issues of coordination of the activities of public authorities that ensure the formation of a sustainable system of solid municipal waste management, and the importance of environmental information in the framework of building interdepartmental cooperation in this direction.

«ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY» AND «SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT» IN THE SYSTEM OF PUBLIC GOAL-SETTING: A COMPETITIVE RELATIONSHIP OF CONCEPTS

The article examines the relationship between the concepts of «environmental safety» and «sustainable development» as target criteria for public management of environmental quality. A special place is given to examples of applying the criterion of «sustainable development» as the goal of state environmental management in the legislation of the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States. Possible prospects for replacing the target criterion «environmental safety» in the Russian environmental law with the criterion «sustainable development» in terms of fixing the target priorities of environmental quality management are discussed.

РЕЗУЛЬТАТИВНІСТЬ ВИДАТКІВ ДЕРЖАВНОГО БЮДЖЕТУ НА ОХОРОНУ НАВКОЛИШНЬОГО ПРИРОДНОГО СЕРЕДОВИЩА В УКРАЇНІ

The article focuses on the study of the effectiveness of financing environmental protection measures from the state budget of Ukraine. The main task is to establish a correspondence between the level of financing from the state budget for environmental protection measures and the level of the environmental effect achievement, as well as to assess the effectiveness of financing environmental protection. To this end, the article explores (1) the structural dynamics of state budget expenditures on natural environmental protection, (2) the mechanisms for filling and application the funds of the State Budget Environmental Protection Fund. For this, considering 2011–2020 period, there were fulfilled: (1) an analysis of expenditures from the state budget in the context of budget programs for the environmental direction, as well as (2) an analysis of the structure and dynamics of state budget expenditures for natural environmental protection in terms of the expenditures functional classification. The results of the analysis showed that the funds of the state budget intended for the protection of the natural environment are used to a small extent to solve urgent environmental problems. A negative trend of reducing the expenditures of the state budget of Ukraine on environmental protection measures has been revealed. At the same time, funding for measures that actually consist in ensuring the functioning of budgetary institutions from the sphere of state environmental management bodies is increasing. The level of funds application from the State Budget Fund for Environmental Protection aimed at the implementation of the very environ-mental measures is low. In addition, the shortcomings of the mechanism for the use of funds allocated for financing environ-mental protection measures are revealed, which does not contribute to the implementation of an effective state environmental policy. In order to increase the effectiveness of financing natural environment protection, the article suggests ways to improve the mechanism for using the assets of the Fund for Natural Environmental Protection, as well as planning and monitoring the implementation of budget programs of the environmental direction.

Digitalization of state environmental management: Legal aspects

This article discusses the features of the digital transformation of the following state functions: information support in the field of environmental protection, state accounting in the field of environmental protection, regulation in the field of environmental protection (in terms of the use of the best available technologies), state environmental supervision, and administration of fees for negative environmental impact (NVOS). It is proved that the data of the state register of objects of negative impact, formed as a result of the state accounting of objects that have a negative impact on the environment, the implementation of state environmental supervision, and the administration of fees for NWOS should become the basis for making environmentally significant decisions. To expand the scope of use of this information, it is proposed to ensure the interoperability of the state register data. In addition, the authors come to the conclusion that digitalization of technological rationing based on the best available technologies (hereinafter also BAT) is associated with the use of such technologies as data turnover regulation, experimental legal regimes (regulatory sandboxes) and assessment of the compliance of the applied technology with the best available technology. Moreover, when implementing state environmental supervision, inspections should be planned based on the hazard category of objects of negative impact and when conducting inspections, remote control methods should be used. It is also essential to introduce electronic test sheets for self-checking enterprises. Finally, the digitalization of calculating and collecting fees for NVOS should ensure the smooth functioning of calculating fees by the payer in digital format and control over the correctness of calculation and collection by the supervisory authority.

The North of Western Siberia in the Socioeconomic Space of the USSR: Shifting Models of Nature Use

Abstract The north of Western Siberia is a region that in a historically short time went from a hub of territorial development, where it was only necessary to control the volume of extraction of certain resources, to a zone of extensive industrial development of vast territories with the need for comprehensive environmental protection. The models of embedding the north of Western Siberia into the socioeconomic space of the USSR were simultaneously based on the need to develop the region’s rich natural resources and to rationally use them. At their core was an industrial standard. In the 1930s–1950s, this industrial standard depended on the use of biological resources, where the main producer of material wealth was the Indigenous inhabitants of the north. Yet it failed. A need arose to rely on resources with a more powerfully transformative and modernizing potential. These resources became hydrocarbons. Beginning in the 1960s, the model of natural resource use in the north was reoriented towards the extraction of oil and gas. The favorable market conditions and large export potential of these resources made it possible to solve not only economic but also ideological tasks. The main producer of material goods became the migrant population, which had the necessary professional and social skills to translate the industrial standard into practice. The Indigenous peoples of the north found themselves on the sidelines of socioeconomic development. A stereotype took root in Soviet society and science that the main object of management and transformation should be nature, which can be modified unlimitedly and at any speed. At the same time, it is obvious that technological and socioeconomic mechanisms are more, not less, malleable than natural ones. A person in the “human-nature” system was considered utilitarianly, exclusively from an economic standpoint. All of this speaks to the need to better understand the historical experience of state environmental management in northern Siberia and the role of people in this process.

Applying Social Science to Bring Resident Stakeholders into Pollution Governance: A Rural Environmental Justice Public Health Case Study

The purpose of this engaged public sociology study was to use social science to bring resident stakeholders into the process of governing pollution production in a rural community. The community has cancer clusters. Residents have concerns about direct exposure to pollution production in their neighborhood by a steel recycling plant that has been cited numerous times for environmental violations. The facility has been under voluntary remediation since 2009, but neighborhood residents were marginalized from the governance process. This case study details how social science was used to bring neighborhood residents’ concerns about direct exposure to toxic air pollution into remediation governance. A curricula-as-research model was developed to provide an engagement framework that guided the case study as it progressed through a series of six stages over five years. The principal investigator maintained this collaboration by integrating the project into courses, securing small grants, developing an affordable air pollution monitoring method, and convening multiple community meetings. The air monitoring results are analyzed and discussed. Finally, the impact of the case study on the company, the state environmental management agency, local government, the nonprofit partner, and residents’ sense of human agency is evaluated.

СУЧАСНІ НАПРЯМИ РОЗВИТКУ ДЕРЖАВНОГО ТА РЕГІОНАЛЬНОГО ЕКОЛОГІЧНОГО МЕНЕДЖМЕНТУ В УКРАЇНІ

The main indicators of man-made load on the environment and the cost of environmental measures in Ukraine indicate the deterioration of the environment as a vital environment for human existence and an integral part of national security. In the current conditions of progressive growth of anthropogenic pollution in Ukraine, the problem of forming an effective mechanism of environmental management at all levels of the hierarchy of environmental management - from the enterprise and the region to the national and global economy. The article is devoted to the study of the development and implementation of modern methods and tools of environmental management at the state and regional levels. Issues related to the management of environmental activities and the rational use of natural resources are very urgent and inextricably linked to the national interests of the functioning and development of the economic system and society as a whole. State environmental management is designed to ensure compliance with international and national standards and regulations to limit the harmful effects of pollutants on the environment and human health; to promote the optimization of interaction between the legislative and executive authorities at different levels of environmental management; to promote the introduction of effective economic mechanisms for the promotion of environmental products, stimulating the development of resource-saving "green" technologies; ensure environmental audit and implementation of environmental initiatives, etc. Based on this, the article analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of existing environmental management tools, including administrative and control and market-oriented and financial and credit. The article also analyzes the implementation of capital investments and current expenditures for environmental protection in the Odessa region for the period from 2010 to 2019 and identifies general trends in the financing of environmental measures in the region. On the basis of the conducted analysis the directions of improvement of the mechanism of management of nature protection activity at the state and regional levels which, first of all, are connected with tax-budgetary and credit instruments are offered.

НОВЫЙ ЭТАП РЕАЛИЗАЦИИ НАЦИОНАЛЬНОГО ПРОЕКТА «ЭКОЛОГИЯ» В АРКТИЧЕСКОЙ ЗОНЕ РОССИЙСКОЙ ФЕДЕРАЦИИ

Implementation of the national project “Ecology” in the Russian Arctic zone in connection with the current strategic documents on carrying out the state policy in the Arctic until 2035 is analyzed. A special attention is paid to the state environmental management on the basis of the best available technologies and ensuring the balance of interests of economic entities operating facilities with a significant negative impact on the environment. Methodological and organizational inconsistencies in implementing the project with the conceptual provisions of the theory of transition to the best available technologies are considered. In connection with Russia's national development goals until 2030 in the field of environmental safety, the “Strategy of development of the Russian Arctic zone and ensuring national security for the period up to 2035” and the “National Action Plan, ensuring recovery of employment and population incomes, economic growth and long-term structural changes in the economy” measures and mechanisms to achieve a notable positive result in the implementation of the national project are justified and specified. The feasibility of the financial and organizational restructuring of the federal project “Introduction of the best available technologies” and the possibility of implementing its activities as part of other projects of the national project “Ecology” during the period until 2024 is argued.

Citizen's Response to a State's Environmental Management through Enforcement of Ban

Single use plastic bags have been banned by many countries, states and cities globally in an attempt to curb the massive impact of plastics on the environment. Plastic bag litter can clog drainage systems and result in those systems failing and flooding breaking out, which can result in damage. This litter is also a serious threat to animals and their habitats. Tamil Nadu, on January 1, 2019, became the fourth state in India to implement a ban on single-use plastics. Maharashtra was the first do it on March 23, 2018, Telangana followed the feat in June and Himachal Pradesh in July. This paper tries to bring the opinion of 150 sample respondents from Tirunelveli District on the awareness and response of Plastic usage and avoidance. The researcher used Trend analysis, t test, means, ANOVA, Rotated Factor Analysis, transformation matrix and Confirmatory Factor Analysis after the completion of suitable reliability test. This study brings to light the steps taken by the Government of Tamilnadu to reduce the usage of plastics and the opinion of the sample respondents regarding the ban of plastics. The study reveals that there is considerable improvement in the steps taken in the reduction of plastics in different zones. The opinion of the sample respondents in respect to the ban of plastics is highly significant in different dimensions such as personal, awareness, environmental and the availability of substitutes. The model framed is fit as per confirmatory factor analysis. Hence it is concluded that wider spread of awareness on environmental protection along with the introduction of proper substitutes for the plastics will wipe away the usage of plastics among the public and thereby the environment will be protected for a better tomorrow.

Biodiversity, livelihoods and struggles over sustainability in Nepal

ABSTRACTNepal’s impoverished mountain communities benefited after the 1950s through Swiss-style cheese-making from yak-cow hybrids. This relieved the drop in economic opportunities after Chinese occupation of Tibet. Income-generating transhumant dairy pastoralism subsequently suffered from state environmental management by national parks in the 1970s. This prioritised ‘wild’ landscape in accordance with international trends and tourism values, instead of the biological and cultural diversity of the traditional landscape. The impractical nature–culture binarism of nature protection eventually yielded to less misanthropic policy regimes involving buffer zones in the late 1990s. In the 2010s, climate change agendas have revived the binary protectionist approach, at the expense of local land use practices, due to the perceived need to protect eco-system services of the mountainsides in the era of the Anthropocene. This paper tracks oscillations of national and international policy, and the abilities of indigenous people to participate in transitioning to more sustainable landscapes.

ЕКОЛОГІЧНИЙ МЕНЕДЖМЕНТ ГОТЕЛЬНО-РЕСТОРАННОГО БІЗНЕСУ ТА ТУРИЗМУ В ПЕРІОД УТВЕРДЖЕННЯ БІОЕКОНОМІКИ

The article considers the aspects of environmental management of the tourism, hotel and restaurant industries at the formation of the bioeconomy. Economic and social growth today is possible with the introduction of significant breakthrough innovations at the technological level to support these sectors and improve the mechanisms of the state environmental management system, taking into account the features of eco-oriented management of hospitality industry enterprises. In foreign literature, the concept of “bioeconomics” has been reflected the connection of modern biotechnologies with the economy, and we identify it with the most investment and commercially attractive segment of the global economic space. It has been established that the further development of the tourism, hotel and restaurant industries during the period of establishment of the bioeconomy is enhanced due to constant investments in science and biotechnology; accordingly, innovations are the main creators of competitive services in the hospitality industry. The environmental management of enterprises in the hotel and restaurant industry and the tourism industry is an important element of the national and European environmental management system, which ensures the formation of a favorable economic space based on bioeconomy. The conceptual provisions of the environmental management of enterprises in the tourism, hotel and restaurant industries in accordance with the basic postulates and principles of modern bioeconomics are under consideration, as well as in the process of developing programs for the development of the hospitality industry, taking into account biotechnological innovations and, accordingly, the formation of an investmentfriendly image of the enterprises of the tourism, hotel and restaurant industries.

Behavior ground cover space-time in the of Paraíba state

Studies on the use and land cover are very important and report on changes in the earth's surface, often caused by human action. In this context, this study aimed to characterize the use and land cover in the state of Paraiba. A time series of products (MCD12Q1) the sensor Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) for the period 2003 to 2012. We used the classification of the type 3, which takes into account the leaf area index was used (LAI) and photosynthetically active radiation fraction (fPAR). An adaptation of the product classification was made, which is global, for the types of vegetation in the state of Paraiba. The results show a predominance of Savannah coverage (Caatinga) comprising the mesoregions the Sertão and Borborema. The mesoregions do Agreste and Litoral presented in the first three years of the series, a denser vegetation of broadleaf crops (wet forest), Grasses / cereals (transition vegetation) and shrubs (Caatinga tree). In addition, urban areas increased over the study period. The product used can be useful for monitoring the soil cover of the organs of state environmental management. Keywords: remote sensing, vegetation, climate

Environmental Supervision and the Environmental Legislation Reform

Review. The paper analyzes changes in the legal institute of state environmental supervision introduced since January 1, 2015 Federal Law dated July 21, 2014 № 219-FZ «On amendments to the Federal Law On environmental protection and certain legislative acts of the Russian Federation . Purpose: to assess legislative innovations in terms of their adequacy, effectiveness and coherence. Methods: in the course of the study the following general scientific and specific scientific methods of scientific knowledge were applied: dialectical method, formal logical method, formal legal method, comparative law method, legal drafting method. Results: the author concludes that a law-maker failed to avoid numerous legal gaps and conflicts of law when updating environmental legislation. In particular, peculiarities of organizing and conducting inspections when carrying out State environmental supervision (except for such a category of inspection as land inspection) were not defined. Identifying an adversely affected object as an object of state supervision causes difficulties when separating powers of federal and regional authorities of competent jurisdiction. It is obvious that one business entity can operate several objects that meet different requirements - namely, of federal and regional supervision. Accordingly, new rules will not only result in an increase number of inspections and audits held by authorities of different levels. Uncertainty in the area of separating powers regulatory authorities in practice would cause the next wave of cases with regard to challenging actions and decisions made made as a result of inspections and audits. The author considers that the abolition of rules preventing the duplication of audits was absolutely ungrounded. The introduction of new criteria for differentiation of objects of supervision requires updating of lists of facilities that are subject to federal environmental supervision. Such work has not been carried out by authorized authorities so far raising doubts concerning the legitimacy of inspections and audits carried out since July of the year 2015. Conclusions: identified gaps and conflicts should be eliminated as soon as possible. Otherwise, the reform of the state environmental management will not be put into practice.

Система органів державного управління охороною навколишнього середовища в Україні та можливість її адаптації до європейських вимог

Проаналізовано систему державного управління охороною навколишнього природного середовища в Україні, особлива увага приділена висвітленню завдань Міністерства екології та природних ресурсів України, наведено повноваження інших органів державного управління з регулювання відносин щодо охорони навколишнього середовища. На основі аналізу дається оцінка проведеній в останні роки реформі державного управління в частині оптимізації системи центральних органів виконавчої влади. Висвітлено базові принципи європейської системи екологічного управління, на основі яких проведено порівняння та оцінено можливості приведення національної системи державного управління охороною навколишнього природного середовища до європейських вимог. Виявлено критерії, що стримують процес ідентифікації національної та європейської систем екологічного управління. Значне місце відведено питанню децентралізації влади та передачі повноважень місцевим органам влади.

Planning for Ecosystem Service Markets

Problem: Market mechanisms are emerging as means of offsetting the environmental effects of growth. Unfortunately, formal regulation of ecosystem markets is often separated from broader planning for urban development, resulting in offsets that are unsustainable in the face of future urban growth. Purpose: We aimed to assess how 2008 federal regulations that actively promote aquatic resource markets and encourage watershed planning to restore wetlands and streams damaged during development will affect reputedly efficient existing wetland and stream ecosystem markets in North Carolina. We explore how coordination between regulators and planners can improve long-term viability of market-created resource offsets and improve the ability of markets to respond to rapid urban growth. Methods: We analyzed new state and federal regulations and watershed planning efforts and convened a stakeholder forum including representatives of state and federal agencies, land developers, environmental groups, aquatic restoration companies, and academia. Results and conclusions: Problems with aquatic ecosystem markets in North Carolina stem from poor communication among local and regional planners, federal regulators, and state agencies. Institutional barriers and poor coordination cause federal regulatory decisions made without knowledge of land use plans or urban development patterns, faulty projections of market demand for aquatic offsets, and local land use plans that do not provide long-term protection for the offsets. Although regulators consider current surrounding land uses, they do not consider future land uses. We conclude that local land use projections should be required components of ecosystem restoration site plans and that state environmental management agencies' watershed plans should reflect urban development patterns. Takeaway for practice: Local planners should have input into the design of restoration sites providing environmental offsets as well as into state and regional ecosystem service market implementation plans. Federal, state, regional, and local agencies should facilitate and require information sharing, making planning and regulating ecosystem service markets part of the development process. Research support: This research was supported by the University of North Carolina's Institute for the Environment.

Explaining complexities of environmental management in developing countries: lessons from the Fiji Islands

Development assistance agencies have long urged developing countries to adopt environmental management techniques used in industrialized countries. They have ascribed shortcomings in the way developing states use those techniques to insufficient training, environmental matters being poorly integrated into economic decision making, other institutional weaknesses and lack of capacity. These reductionist explanations ignore the influence that socio‐political and economic factors may have on state environmental management. They afford only a limited understanding of environmental practice in the Fiji Islands, a South Pacific archipelago and republic. The attempts of Fijian chiefly élite to maintain their power base – achieved through political participation in the state and economic development activities as much as through maintaining the communal system – shape the state's environmental management practices. Those practices have far less rational and democratic bases than one would expect either from the underlying logic of the techniques used (such as environmental impact assessment, environmental planning and protected areas), or from the way those techniques are applied in western, industrialized countries.

The South Pacific's environmental policy tensions

Impacts of nuclear weapons testing and concerns about climate change have encouraged Pacific Island countries (PICs) to support international norms of environmental protection and sustainability. This has been facilitated by regional intergovernmental mechanisms assisting modest national diplomatic capabilities. Yet the processes needed to effect national environmental protection strategies remain partial and incomplete. A divergence has developed between the international obligations undertaken and actual national implementation. The article investigates this gap and how it might be rectified. Challenges include better integration of environmental management within economic decision making, and harnessing limited social and organizational capability to achieve goals of environmental sustainability. Although some convergence between domestic practice and international rules and norms of environmental sustainability is evident, PIC administrators face conflicting pressures when attempting to accomplish this task. Convergence is needed for PICs to accumulate standing as sovereign actors seen as discharging the international obligations that they accept. Policy frameworks emerging from international rule formulation offer practical ideas for small island state environmental management. Philosophies of rule prescription and compliance, emerging through embryonic international governance, also offer scope for emulation within PIC domestic settings. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.