The role of collaboration in environmental management: an evaluation of land and resource planning in British Columbia

Recent literature on land-use planning proposes the use of innovative collaborative planning (CP) models to resolve planning disputes. This paper uses a participant survey based on 25 evaluative criteria to evaluate an application of CP to land-use planning in British Columbia, Canada. The results show that CP is an effective means of resolving environmental conflict and produces significant additional benefits such as improved stakeholder relations, skills, and knowledge. The case study evaluation also identifies the keys to successful CP management including factors related to process design and external circumstances.     

Multiple-resource modeling as a tool for conservation: Its applicability in Mexico

The current Mexican environmental law provides the legal basis for comprehensive land-use planning. Under the law, development of natural ecosystems must combine goals, policies, and practices towards the sustainable use of natural resources and the protection of biological diversity. Thus, ecosystem manipulation must be able to counter fragmentation of natural ecosystems and isolation of natural reserves, while providing for human needs. Assessment of the potential of natural ecosystems and management impacts are required. Multiple-resource simulation is an assessment and land-use planning tool that permits managers and decision makers to comply with the law, providing a flexible, user-oriented system that can meet the needs of managers, conservationists, and researchers. A multiple-resource model and an example of how it can be applied to meet planning needs is presented for discussion.     

Assessing Land-Use Impacts on Natural Resources

/ Much information is available on changes that occur in natural resources from both spatially-explicit data on environmental conditions and models of the interactions of these conditions and resources with human activities. The strategy for assessing land-use impacts on natural resources developed in this paper provides a framework for using relevant data and models to address questions of how management practices can promote both use and protection of resources. This assessment strategy integrates spatially explicit environmental data using geographic information systems (GIS) with computer models that simulate changes in land cover in response to land-use impacts. The computer models also simulate susceptibility of species to changes in habitat suitability and landscape patterns. The approach is applied to management of limestone barrens on the Oak Ridge Reservation in East Tennessee. Potential limestone barrens habitats are identified by overlaying appropriate soils, geology, slope, and land-use/land-cover conditions. Their validity is tested against known sites containing rare species that occur in these habitats. The location of habitats at risk in the aftermath of human activities is determined by using an available area model that identifies the size and proximity of sites that particular types of species can no longer use as habitat. The resulting risk map can be used in land management planning. The approach uses readily available in situ and remotely sensed data and is applicable to a wide range of locations and land-use scenarios. This approach can be refined based on needs identified by land managers and on the sensitivity of the results to the resolution of available resource information.KEY WORDS: Land management; Assessment; Habitat characterization; Limestone barrens; Ecological modeling; Geographic information systems     

山西省朔州市耕地与基本农田优化布局研究

耕地和基本农田保护对矿业城市来说具有特殊的意义.以典型矿业城市——山西省朔州市为例,结合当地第三轮土地利用总体规划修编(2006-2020年),以当地2005年(规划基期年)耕地和基本农田的数量、质量为基础,分析其动态流向特征,最后根据自然气候、社会经济条件与耕地质量的一致性,将规划期内(至2020年)朔州市耕地划分为3个区域,分别探讨了各区域耕地利用、土壤改良和生态环境保护方向.     

Corporate strategy and viable future land use: planning for closure from the outset of mining

This paper provides an overview of the environmental impact of mining on viable future land use and underlines the imperative of improved environmental management and closure planning. It argues that pollution prevention, through planning for closure, can lead to cost-effective strategies for sustainable minerals development and viable future land use. This seems to be most true for greenfield sites since, generally, the earlier closure planning and pollution prevention is built into a project, the more cost-effective and environmentally benign closure will be. Further, for greenfield sites, pollution prevention techniques can be employed from the outset, at the stages of exploration and mine development, and then monitored and improved through the operation stage to closure, and can be kept in place to manage future land use.
The paper discusses how global changes in the industry, following the liberalisation of investment regimes, and mergers and strategic alliances between key firms, has, by virtue of the diffusion of new technology, led to further opportunities to prevent pollution and optimise future land use through planning for closure from the outset. The objectives and components of closure plans are also reviewed as the paper draws on case studies to highlight some of the possible constraints and challenges to pollution prevention that may be faced at the level of both public policy and corporate strategy. The article concludes by suggesting a forward-looking approach to integrated environmental management and viable future land-use planning based on a dynamic model for environmental management.     

Environmental values,conflicts and issues in evaluation

Summary The existence of conflicts over the use of resources and with respect to the environment is widely acknowledged. The fields of resource management and environmental planning are, in fact, largely dedicated to identifying and resolving such conflicts. In this paper it is proposed that the sources of conflict can be seen in terms of the different values held by groups and individuals in relation to the environment and resource use. The discussion is also concerned with identifying more specifically the nature of conflicts that arise in relation to particular resource-use issues. A further important proposition developed is that in order to promote effective planning, rigorous and systematic methods of analysis are often required. Those best suited to evaluation in environmental and resources planning are capable of incorporating multiple metrics.Dr Chris Cocklin is Lecturer in Geography and an Associate of Environmental Science at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. His research interests are in resources and environmental management, energy studies and rural land-use analysis and planning. The main focus of his work to date has been on the development and application of appropriate methods of analysis to assist in the formulation of suitable management strategies.This paper is based on a presentation made to the New Zealand Geographical Society (Auckland Branch) Annual Lecture Series, 12th August 1987.     

Guatemala strives for environmental and economic sustainability in the Rio Dulce region

Conditions in Guatemala's Rio Dulce National Park (RDNP) present an immediate decision-making challenge concerning the reversal of current destructive environmental trends, and in establishing policies for restoration, protection, and sustainable use. This article summarises results of environmental assessment activities undertaken at three levels: an environmental impact assessment (EIA) of a proposed industrial forestry activity, an environmental assessment of management options for the Rio Dulce National Park, and water management planning for the Rio Dulce/Lago Izabal watershed. A key result of the EIA was to prohibit construction of a barge terminal within the boundaries of the park because it could set a precedent for future development. Management options for the park focused on establishing land-use controls, dealing with river transport more effectively, and identifying funding mechanisms to implement solutions. At the watershed scale, a strategic approach was recommended to identify priority issues for initiating change toward sustainability in the region.     

A dynamic model for intertemporal allocation of old-growth forests in the Pacific Northwest

Across the globe, continued policy debates regarding the management of old-growth forests center around the difficult task of balancing economic and ecological considerations. Though the forests of the Pacific Northwest United States are among the most studied old-growth ecosystems, ecological and economic analyses have yielded public land management directives that remain controversial. Specifically, the recently adopted Northwest Forest Plan lacks explicit goals for maintaining intergenerational equity for the use of forest resources and the diversity of old-growth ecosystems. Unlike previous studies which rely on monetary quantification of costs and benefits, this study develops and applies a conceptual framework for evaluating socially optimal Pacific Northwest old-growth forest utilization strategies. Conditions for the optimal management of old-growth forests are derived using dynamic programming. The objective function synthesizes relevant biological and economic attributes of the old-growth allocation problem. Results in the form of extraction paths are compared given social pressure for consumptive and non-consumptive benefits, as well as different planning horizons, rates of social time preference, and environmental variance. Lengthening the planning horizon results in a vast divergence of optimal policies in the absence of discounting. Extraction rates appear to approach zero as the planning horizon approaches infinity. While higher rates of social time preference increase the rate of extraction, forest stocks remaining at the terminal time period equal levels remaining with a lower discount rate. Increasing environmental variance results in a higher level of stock remaining at the terminal time period. This analysis, while specific to the old-growth controversy of the Pacific Northwest, does provide general guidelines for addressing similar problems of multiple uses of natural areas, particularly where such uses are mutually incompatible, or where one use may be irreversibly destructive to another.     

Pimp Your Landscape: A Tool for Qualitative Evaluation of the Effects of Regional Planning Measures on Ecosystem Services

The article presents the platform “Pimp your landscape” (PYL), which aims firstly at the support of planners by simulating alternative land-use scenarios and by an evaluation of benefits or risks for regionally important ecosystem services. Second, PYL supports an integration of information on environmental and landscape conditions into impact assessment. Third, PYL supports the integration of impacts of planning measures on ecosystem services. PYL is a modified 2-D cellular automaton with GIS features. The cells have the major attribute “land-use type” and can be supplemented with additional information, such as specifics regarding geology, topography and climate. The GIS features support the delineation of non-cellular infrastructural elements, such as roads or water bodies. An evaluation matrix represents the core element of the system. In this matrix, values in a relative scale from 0 (lowest value) to 100 (highest value) are assigned to the land-use types and infrastructural elements depending on their effect on ecosystem services. The option to configure rules for describing the impact of environmental attributes and proximity effects on cell values and land-use transition probabilities is of particular importance. User interface and usage of the platform are demonstrated by an application case. Constraints and limits of the recent version are discussed, including the need to consider in the evaluation, landscape-structure aspects such as patch size, fragmentation and spatial connectivity. Regarding the further development, it is planned to include the impact of land management practices to support climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies in regional planning.     

Identifying Determinants of Nations' Wetland Management Programs Using Structural Equation Modeling: An Exploratory Analysis

Integrated management and policy models suggest that solutions to environmental issues may be linked to the socioeconomic and political characteristics of a nation. In this study, we empirically explore these suggestions by applying them to the wetland management activities of nations. Structural equation modeling was used to evaluate a model of national wetland management effort and one of national wetland protection. Using five predictor variables of social capital, economic capital, environmental and political characteristics, and land-use pressure, the multivariate models were able to explain 60% of the variation in nations' wetland protection efforts based on data from 90 nations, as defined by level of participation in the international wetland convention. Social capital had the largest direct effect on wetland protection efforts, suggesting that increased social development may eventually lead to better wetland protection. In contrast, increasing economic development had a negative linear relationship with wetland protection efforts, suggesting the need for explicit wetland protection programs as nations continue to focus on economic development. Government, environmental characteristics, and land-use pressure also had a positive direct effect on wetland protection, and mediated the effect of social capital on wetland protection. Explicit wetland protection policies, combined with a focus on social development, would lead to better wetland protection at the national level.     

TIM: Assessing the sustainability of agricultural land management

TIM (Threat Identification Model) is a framework for the ex ante assessment of agricultural land management sustainability at the land unit scale that identifies sources of unsustainability within agricultural land management systems. The model explicitly links defined hazards to land productivity and environmental integrity, land resource data and information, and land management practice options using expert and local knowledge on land management and its potential effects. The model was tested in the Crystal Creek Subcatchment, a narrow coastal strip of land situated in north Queensland, Australia. This area was chosen due to the expansion of the sugar industry onto increasingly marginal land in the area, which represents a threat to sustainable land use and a requirement for careful land-use planning and land management.TIM may be used in a relational database as a stand alone decision support system for land-management planning. Its usefulness in land-use planning is greatest when it is linked to a Geographic Information System (GIS) as shown in this paper. GIS allows TIM outputs, such as constraints to agriculture and site-specific best-management practices, to be identified in a spatially explicit manner.The main advantages of TIM are that it can be done ex ante, it removes the need to define sustainability assessment criteria and indicators, it utilises current understanding of the causes and effects of land degradation and how different land-management practices influence these, and links this knowledge to definite land-management options.     

Benefits and challenges of using an Assessment of Ecosystem Services approach in land-use planning

This research investigates the use of an Assessment of Ecosystem Services (AES) approach as a planning tool in Florida through the use of an online survey. Target respondents were professionals who had been involved in AES projects. The majority of the respondents perceive an AES approach as a comprehensive and holistic approach that results in better land-use planning decisions. However, AES does not appear to be widely used to guide planning decisions. Despite some challenges, respondents across multiple agencies and institutions in Florida are supportive of using AES in combination with traditional land-use planning tools. More rigorous testing and validation and clarification of guidelines for best practice could improve political and economic support and thereby facilitate the use of AES to guide land-use planning efforts.     

Modeling the spatial dynamics of regional land use: the CLUE-S model

Land-use change models are important tools for integrated environmental management. Through scenario analysis they can help to identify near-future critical locations in the face of environmental change. A dynamic, spatially explicit, land-use change model is presented for the regional scale: CLUE-S. The model is specifically developed for the analysis of land use in small regions (e.g., a watershed or province) at a fine spatial resolution. The model structure is based on systems theory to allow the integrated analysis of land-use change in relation to socio-economic and biophysical driving factors. The model explicitly addresses the hierarchical organization of land use systems, spatial connectivity between locations and stability. Stability is incorporated by a set of variables that define the relative elasticity of the actual land-use type to conversion. The user can specify these settings based on expert knowledge or survey data. Two applications of the model in the Philippines and Malaysia are used to illustrate the functioning of the model and its validation.     

Exploring changes in Ecuadorian land use for food production and their effects on natural resources

A model is used for the dynamic and spatially explicit exploration of near future agricultural land-use changes. In a case study for Ecuador, different plausible scenarios are formulated, taking into account possible developments in national food demand until the year 2010. The protection of nature parks and restrictions due to land degradation are evaluated with respect to their possible spatial impacts on the land-use change dynamics within the country. Under the assumptions of the demand scenarios, agricultural land-use expands significantly, resulting in more use of land in existing agricultural areas and frontier-type expansion into relatively undisturbed natural areas. The patterns of change depend on the increase in demand, competition between land-use types, changes in driving factors of land use, and the area and characteristics of land that is excluded from agricultural use. The modelled land-use dynamics are related to their possible impacts on the natural resource base, specifically soil fertility. The results indicate potential negative effects of land-use changes on the soil nutrient balance and biodiversity. It is argued that spatial and temporal quantification of land-use dynamics at the landscape level can support research and policies aimed at understanding the driving factors of land-use change and the behaviour of complex agro-ecosystems under changing conditions at different scales. In this way, issues dealing with sustainable food production and the management of the natural resource base can be addressed in a more integrated and quantitative manner.     

The emergence of local planning authority policy on high-voltage electricity issues

The high-voltage distribution and transmission of electricity are associated with a range of environmental effects that are increasingly contentious and are leading to difficult land-use planning issues. In the UK, local planning authorities have been taking an anticipatory approach to such efforts by the formation of policy in statutory land-use plans; this seeks to set constraints on the location and form of high-voltage installations and nearby development. This emerging body of policy reveals a number of consistently occurring themes that focus explicitly on the protection of local environmental conditions. This is indicative of broader trends apparent throughout plan-making in the last decade, in which environmental emphases have become more central, but the policy area also indicates that local authorities are responding to structural changes in the electricity industry and to changing patterns of energy generation. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Facilitating Sediment Budget Construction for Land Management Applications

Sediment budgets describe the production, transport, deposition and export of sediment in a catchment, and thus provide information useful for planning soil conservation, restoration and monitoring programmes and for evaluating existing and future environmental impacts. Five examples from New Zealand illustrate a variety of sediment budgeting approaches and their use in achieving goals relevant to land-use planning and management. Appropriate sediment budgeting strategies can be selected for a particular application only through careful consideration of the kinds of decisions that will follow from budgeting results. Sediment budget projects can be designed to incorporate the close co-operation between technical experts and clients that results in the most useful sediment budgets.     

Application of a Three-Dimensional Water Quality Model as a Decision Support Tool for the Management of Land-Use Changes in the Catchment of an Oligotrophic Lake

While expansion of agricultural land area and intensification of agricultural practices through irrigation and fertilizer use can bring many benefits to communities, intensifying land use also causes more contaminants, such as nutrients and pesticides, to enter rivers, lakes, and groundwater. For lakes such as Benmore in the Waitaki catchment, South Island, New Zealand, an area which is currently undergoing agricultural intensification, this could potentially lead to marked degradation of water clarity as well as effects on ecological, recreational, commercial, and tourism values. We undertook a modeling study to demonstrate science-based options for consideration of agricultural intensification in the catchment of Lake Benmore. Based on model simulations of a range of potential future nutrient loadings, it is clear that different areas within Lake Benmore may respond differently to increased nutrient loadings. A western arm (Ahuriri) could be most severely affected by land-use changes and associated increases in nutrient loadings. Lake-wide annual averages of an eutrophication indicator, the trophic level index (TLI) were derived from simulated chlorophyll a, total nitrogen, and total phosphorus concentrations. Results suggest that the lake will shift from oligotrophic (TLI = 2–3) to eutrophic (TLI = 4–5) as external loadings are increased eightfold over current baseline loads, corresponding to the potential land-use intensification in the catchment. This study provides a basis for use of model results in a decision-making process by outlining the environmental consequences of a series of land-use management options, and quantifying nutrient load limits needed to achieve defined trophic state objectives.     

Multi-criteria risk management with the use of <Emphasis Type="Italic">DecernsMCDA</Emphasis>: methods and case studies

Emerging challenges of risk management, environmental protection, and land-use planning requires integration of stakeholder values and expert judgment. The process of decision making in situation of high uncertainty can be assisted through the use of decision support systems (DSSs). Such DSSs are often based on tools for spatial data representation (GIS) and environmental models that are integrated using multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA). This paper presents DecernsMCDA implementing all major types of multi-criteria methods and tools (AHP, MAUT, Outranking) under the same user interface. In addition to providing ability for testing model uncertainty associated with selection of specific MCDA algorithms, DecernsMCDA implements new algorithms for parameter uncertainty analysis based on probabilistic approaches and fuzzy sets. The paper illustrates application of DecernsMCDA for selecting remedial alternative at radiologically contaminated sites.     

Integrated resource assessment and sustainable land use

Decision makers and planners in resource sectors recognize, at least in theory, the multiple uses of land, reflecting possible choices and options for society, and the need to evaluate the economic, social, and environmental implications of these choices. As such, the need for integrated resource management is now widely accepted in resource planning. This article contributes to the understanding of sustainable resource development through a specific case study. An integrated analytical system is developed and applied to the Peace River Region, British Columbia, Canada, to examine the impacts of a wide range of land-use options and policies upon the achievement of multiple resource use goals. The results indicate that an integrated approach in land resource analysis is not only possible but a necessary step in the move to develop procedures for assisting public decision makers in integrating the diverse functions of the land resource base and to revise demands or develop alternative strategies in order to move society closer to sustainable outcomes.     

The Area Production Model: a tool and concept for sustainable land-use and forest-resource management

In developing countries, planning in the forestry sector has been seen as an appropriate instrument to prepare and implement government policies and programs. Despite its potential and recent advancements in, for example, remote sensing and infrastructure, tropical forest land-use planning is often formal and non-integrated with agriculture. It rarely involves all legitimate stakeholders and neglects taking into account actual land-use. The socio-economic and environmental consequences of these shortcomings emphasise the need for alternative ways of approaching planning. This article summarises the idea, structure and current status of the Area Production Model (APM), originally developed in the 1980s, which is now gaining interest as a land-use planning tool in Africa and Asia. It describes the development over time of production and consumption in agriculture and forestry within a defined geographical area operating under different assumptions on management, land use and socio-economic and macro-economic changes. From a narrow perspective, the APM is a fairly simple computerised tool for generating scenarios. In a broad sense, it is a concept comprising the whole planning process including organisation, inventory, data analysis, consensus building and strategy. A case-study in Laos, based on verified data for a historical period of 45 years, and a review of different APM applications in the world over the last 15 years are presented as a base for conclusions about its potential and shortcomings. In some cases where the APM concept was used in training courses and planning exercises involving stakeholders, it generated a strong interest in collecting and analysing relevant information. It provides the means of addressing a number of shortcomings in current planning.