Sustainable Environmental Planning Research Articles

Assessment of soil contamination around an abandoned mine in a semi-arid environment using geochemistry and geostatistics: Pre-work of geochemical process modeling with numerical models

One of the most serious environmental issues related to mining industry in Morocco and elsewhere around the world, is the pollution from abandoned mine sites. Mine wastes cause obvious sources of soil contaminations. Climatic effects such as heavy rainfall engender metal dispersion in semi-arid areas, since soils are typically and scarcely vegetated. In this study, extension and magnitude of soil contaminations with toxic elements from abandoned Kettara mine, in Morocco, are assessed using geochemical analysis and geostatistics for mapping. Soils and mine wastes are sampled and analyzed for 41 chemical elements (Mo, Cu, Pb, Zn, Ag, Ni, Co, Mn, Fe, As, U, Au, Th, Sr, Cd, Sb, Bi, V, Ca, P, La, Cr, Mg, Ba, Ti, Al, Na, K, W, Zr, Ce, Sn, Y, Nb, Ta, Be, Sc, Li, S, Rb and Hf). Based on enrichment factor (EF), only five elements of interest (Cu, Pb, Zn, As, and Fe) were selected in this research. Geochemical background is determined with exploratory data analysis and geochemical maps were elaborated using geostatistics in Geographic Information System (GIS) environment.The obtained results show that Kettara soils are contaminated with metals and metalloid that exceed the established geochemical background values (Cu≈43.8mg/kg, Pb≈21.8mg/kg, Zn≈102.6mg/kg, As≈13.9mg/kg and Fe≈56,978mg/kg). Geochemical maps show that the deposited mine wastes are responsible for soil contaminations with released metals and metalloid that have been dispersed downstream from the mine waste mainly, through water after rainfall. For sustainable development and environmental planning, the current study is expected to serve as a reference for politicians, managers, and decision makers to assess soil contaminations in abandoned mine sites in Morocco.

Knowing the Urban Landscape for a Sustainable Environmental Planning in Pescara City

The new challenges for European cities are competitiveness, social inclusion, sustainability, multilevel governance, smartness. In order to overcome these challenges, the environmental education – which is based on knowledge of past experiences – is an essential tool to present and prevent future environmental problems, outlining strategies to choose among various alternatives for the organization of the city. Significant experiences of Strategic Planning for a middle-long term regeneration of cities have been implemented in some European areas in achieving the EU sustainability goals. In this paper the outcomes of the first studies for a Strategic Plan in Pescara are presented and some questions are taken into consideration. The recent processes of urban regeneration taking place in the city show the importance to examine closely the urban landscape in order to enhance the local natural resources and to implement projects which could affect the overall urban structure, reconnecting parts of the city remained incomplete or disjoined. We also highlight the need for a strengthening of transparency and communication of public choices to the community. In particular we outline the question of the port areas regeneration in Pescara; we formulate a decision making model for the functional re-use of these areas which have a particular environmental value and which are considered as “strategic” for the future redevelopment of the city.

ASSESSING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GAPS BETWEEN THE STATE AND LOCAL JURISDICTIONS

State mandates and guidelines significantly influence local land use planning; however few studies have been conducted to empirically detect the gaps in sustainable environmental planning between the state and local jurisdictions. This paper analyses the California Governor's Environmental Goals and Policy Report (EGPR) and 116 local comprehensive land use plans to develop a set of measurable indicators to detect gaps in local planning efforts to incorporate state goals and policies. Descriptive results indicate that the local jurisdictions reached approximately half of the state's sustainable environmental planning goals. The major gaps existed in some region-wide, global-wide, long-term, cumulative, and strategically critical environmental elements. Regression results further highlight the major factors that significantly influenced local jurisdictions' environmental planning abilities. Six policy recommendations are provided to reduce these gaps.

Understanding urban sprawl in the Federal Capital City, Abuja: Towards sustainable urbanization in Nigeria

In response to the rapid urban sprawling due to the fast rate of urbanization, there is an increasing need for focused research with a view to develop remediation strategies and methodologies for the effective and sustainable environmental planning in Federal Capital City (FCC), Abuja. This paper specifically focuses on an integrated approach of Remote Sensing (RS) data, Geographical Information Systems (GIS) techniques, and ground data collected by the use of Global Positioning Systems (GPS) receiver in facilitating urban planning. Data set from Landsat TM, Landsat ETM and Nigeriasat-1 satellite data for 1987, 2001 and 2006, respectively, revealed that the annual rate of urban sprawl was 10.6 km2over a 19-year period (1987 and 2006). In view of the ecological and environmental challenges that accompany such rapid sprawl development, the study recommends measures that would reduce the otherwise rapid rate of urban sprawl in the FCC and to ensure sustainable urbanization. Key words: Slum settlements, sprawl, ecological and environmental consequences, remote sensing and GIS, sustainability.

Understanding urban sprawl in the Federal Capital City, Abuja: Towards sustainable urbanization in Nigeria

In response to the rapid urban sprawling due to the fast rate of urbanization, there is an increasing need for focused research with a view to develop remediation strategies and methodologies for the effective and sustainable environmental planning in Federal Capital City (FCC), Abuja. This paper specifically focuses on an integrated approach of Remote Sensing (RS) data, Geographical Information Systems (GIS) techniques, and ground data collected by the use of Global Positioning Systems (GPS) receiver in facilitating urban planning. Data set from Landsat TM, Landsat ETM and Nigeriasat-1 satellite data for 1987, 2001 and 2006, respectively, revealed that the annual rate of urban sprawl was 10.6 km2over a 19-year period (1987 and 2006). In view of the ecological and environmental challenges that accompany such rapid sprawl development, the study recommends measures that would reduce the otherwise rapid rate of urban sprawl in the FCC and to ensure sustainable urbanization. Key words: Slum settlements, sprawl, ecological and environmental consequences, remote sensing and GIS, sustainability.

Introspection of sustainable development and environmental planning of National Park management

Because of slender land and high mountain, steep slope, and rapids of natural environment, the whole regional ecosystem has the changeable terrain and landscape with diverse ecology and species. During the past 300 years, the humanity lives and spreads on this splendid domain, accomplished the complex, fragment and sensitive of nature and humanities ecosystem, and its Landscape ecology texture. This paper finds out that, although the National Parks system in China has been in operation for over 30 years and has achieved the objective of species conservation, it is still facing the a conflicting situation and coordinated demand of its conservation and recreation. With the global tendency of “sustainable development” and “ecotourism”, this paper suggests that National Park system should establish a sustainable development mechanism integrating “conservation, recreation, and research.” Therefore, this paper suggests shifting the traditional planning paradigm of resource benefit guidance and resource valuation framework of Ecological Planning to the “Sustainable Planning” theory and technique that are suitable for sustainable development concept in order to meet the demand for a new conservation concept and technique of sustainable development for the human beings dealing with the environment resources. Also, the texture and model of Landscape ecology and the model and method of Geographic Informational System could be considered as the proper tool. This paper points out that the landscape ecology texture and tendency should represent the secret code of sustainable development. Furthermore, the situation of the sustainable development is dynamic, and the GIS model is necessary for corresponding planning. Finally, this paper develops a suitable sustainable development operation definition and planning methodology to represent the interlacing framework of ecology (conservation) and human being (e.g., recreation, research, life, etc.) system of National Park management.

Using remote sensing and GIS to detect and monitor land use and land cover change in Dhaka Metropolitan of Bangladesh during 1960–2005

This paper illustrates the result of land use/cover change in Dhaka Metropolitan of Bangladesh using topographic maps and multi-temporal remotely sensed data from 1960 to 2005. The Maximum likelihood supervised classification technique was used to extract information from satellite data, and post-classification change detection method was employed to detect and monitor land use/cover change. Derived land use/cover maps were further validated by using high resolution images such as SPOT, IRS, IKONOS and field data. The overall accuracy of land cover change maps, generated from Landsat and IRS-1D data, ranged from 85% to 90%. The analysis indicated that the urban expansion of Dhaka Metropolitan resulted in the considerable reduction of wetlands, cultivated land, vegetation and water bodies. The maps showed that between 1960 and 2005 built-up areas increased approximately 15,924 ha, while agricultural land decreased 7,614 ha, vegetation decreased 2,336 ha, wetland/lowland decreased 6,385 ha, and water bodies decreased about 864 ha. The amount of urban land increased from 11% (in 1960) to 344% in 2005. Similarly, the growth of landfill/bare soils category was about 256% in the same period. Much of the city's rapid growth in population has been accommodated in informal settlements with little attempt being made to limit the risk of environmental impairments. The study quantified the patterns of land use/cover change for the last 45 years for Dhaka Metropolitan that forms valuable resources for urban planners and decision makers to devise sustainable land use and environmental planning.

Towards a Sustainable Urban Environmental Management Approach (SUEMA): Incorporating environmental management with Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA)

An Environmental Management System (EMS) has been widely in use by many companies to manage the environmental effects of their operations. The process has recently gained ground in being adopted at city and municipal levels as well as in institutions such as universities. However, an EMS that is conducted at corporate level has some deficiencies when it is applied at city level. These deficiencies are in evaluating environmental goals and policies carried out to mainly ensure that the policies meet ISO 14001 standard and corporate requirements and neglect of public participation. Urban areas differ from companies due to their size, complexity and environmental challenges, high rate of growth and the dynamic nature of urban systems. Therefore, they need an urban environmental management approach that will assess the formulated urban environment policies and goals in a strategic method before implementation, including social dimensions such as public participation. Therefore, this paper proposes a modified approach to incorporate an EMS, called the Sustainable Urban Environmental Management Approach (SUEMA). The approach recognizes the above-mentioned deficiencies and benefits from the advantages of sustainability and Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) in the formulation and evaluation of policies, plans and programs. SUEMA is developed to ensure more sustainable urban environmental planning and development.

A Geography of Place: principles and application for defining ‘eco-civic’ resource governance regions

River catchments have been the dominant form of regionalisation for natural-resource management in many countries since the 1980s. Local governments play a considerable role in planning with ever-increasing responsibilities for sustainable environmental management, planning and development controls. There has also been an increasing emphasis on community participation in resource management, which emphasises the need to re-examine the requirements for spatial definition of resource governance regions. This paper proposes three principles. First, the nature and reach of environmental externalities of resource use should determine the size and nesting of resource management regions. Second, the boundaries of resource governance regions should enclose areas of greatest interest and importance to local residents. Third, the biophysical characteristics of a resource governance region should be as homogenous as possible, which provides resource planning and management efficiencies. The paper describes a range of concepts and empirical techniques used to apply these principles to the derivation of a resource governance regionalisation of the State of New South Wales, Australia.

97/02382 Results of underground mine studies to assess diesel particulate exposures and control technologies

Among the anthropogenic topographic signatures on Earth, open-pit mines are of great importance. Mining is of interest to geomorphologists and environmental researchers because of its implication in geomorphic hazards and processes. In addition, open-pit mines and quarries are considered the most dangerous industrial sector, with injuries and accidents occurring in numerous countries. Their fast, accurate and low-cost investigation, therefore, represents a challenge for the Earth science community. The purpose of this work is to characterise the open-pit mining features using high-resolution topography and a recently published landscape metric, the Slope Local Length of Auto-Correlation (SLLAC) (Sofia et al., 2014). As novel steps, aside from the correlation length, the terrace’s orientation is also calculated, and a simple empirical model to derive the percentage of artificial surfaces is tested. The research focuses on two main case studies of iron mines, both located in the Beijing district (P.R. China). The main topographic information (Digital Surface Models, DSMs) was derived using an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) and the Structure from Motion (SfM) photogrammetric technique. The results underline the effectiveness of the adopted methodologies and survey techniques in the characterisation of the main mine’s geomorphic features. Thanks to the SLLAC, the terraced area given by open-cast/open-pit mining for iron extraction is automatically depicted, thus, allowing researchers to quickly estimate the surface covered by the open-pit. This information could be used as a starting point for future research (i) given the availability of multi-temporal surveys to track the changes in the extent of the mine; (ii) to relate the extent of the mines to the amount of processes in the area (e.g. pollution, erosion, etc.), and to (iii) combine the two points, and analyse the effects of the change related to changes in erosion. The analysis of the correlation length orientation also allows researchers to identify the terrace’s orientation and to understand the shape of the open-pit area. The tectonic environment and history, or inheritance, of a given slope can determine if and how it fails, and the orientation of the topographic surface or excavation face, with respect to geologic features, is of major significance. Therefore, the proposed approach can provide a basis for a large-scale and low-cost topographic survey for sustainable environmental planning and, for example, for the mitigation of environmental anthropogenic impacts due to mining.

An integrative methodological framework for sustainable environmental planning and management

Sustainable environmental planning and management require effective integration of ecological, socioeconomic, and institutional elements. This paper presents an integrative methodological framework for sustainable environmental planning and management. The development of this integrative framework is accomplished by combining two complementary analytical approaches—Hufschmidt's conceptual framework for watershed planning and management and the ABC resource survey method. The combined methodological framework seeks to delineate and synthesize essential ecological information utilizing an integrative resource survey method. This method generates classifications of environmental significance and constraint. Areas of environmental significance and constraint are then linked to appropriate and acceptable resource management actions, implementation tools (e.g., education, technical assistance), and institutional and organizational arrangements. The integrative methodological framework was developed for application in the Rio Fortuna watershed in Costa Rica's Arenal Conservation Area. The watershed is characterized by a variety of land and resource uses, including biologically diverse and ecologically fragile protected areas, small-parcel agriculture, cattle ranching, and tourism.