Integrated Resource Management: Moving from Rhetoric to Practice in Australian Agriculture

/ Implementing the concept of sustainability through integrated approaches to natural resource management poses enormous challenges for both the rural communities and government agencies concerned. This paper reviews the underlying rhetoric of sustainable agricultural systems and the integrated resource management paradigm and identifies some of the challenges being experienced in translating this rhetoric into practice. A relatively recently implemented community-based integrated catchment management (ICM) process in a rural community in northeast Australia is examined in terms of some of the lessons learned that may be relevant to other similar integrated resource management (IRM) processes. It reveals a pragmatic, opportunistic, and evolving implementation process based on adaptive learning rather than a more traditional "rational" planning approach. Some essential characteristics of a community-based IRM process are identified, including fostering communication; providing a structure that fosters cooperation and facilities coordination among community, industry, and government agencies; the integration of IRM principles into local government planning schemes; and an emergent strategic approach to IRM program implementation. We conclude by identifying some essential characteristics of an IRM process that can assist a community to adapt to, and manage change for, sustainable resource use.     

Applying Integrated Resource and Environmental Management to Transmission Right-of-way Maintenance

The concept of a substantive integrator is introduced as a method for integrated resource and environmental management as a means to assimilate different resource values at the operational or field level. A substantive integrator is a strategic management tool for integrating multiple uses into corporate management regimes that traditionally manage for single values. Wildlife habitat management is presented as a substantive integrator for managing vegetation on electric utility power line corridors. A case study from northern British Columbia provides an example of wildlife habitat management as a means to integrate other resource values such as aesthetics, access and subsistence along British Columbia Hydro and Power Authority's transmission rights-of-way.     

Improving Voluntary Environmental Management Programs: Facilitating Learning and Adaptation

Environmental planners and managers face unique challenges understanding and documenting the effectiveness of programs that rely on voluntary actions by private landowners. Programs, such as those aimed at reducing nonpoint source pollution or improving habitat, intend to reach those goals by persuading landowners to adopt behaviors and management practices consistent with environmental restoration and protection. Our purpose with this paper is to identify barriers for improving voluntary environmental management programs and ways to overcome them. We first draw upon insights regarding data, learning, and adaptation from the adaptive management and performance management literatures, describing three key issues: overcoming information constraints, structural limitations, and organizational culture. Although these lessons are applicable to a variety of voluntary environmental management programs, we then present the issues in the context of on-going research for nonpoint source water quality pollution. We end the discussion by highlighting important elements for advancing voluntary program efforts.     

Uneven Environmental Management: A Canadian Perspective

Advocates of community-based approaches to environmental management argue that by respecting local circumstances, skills, and concerns we may improve the prospects of achieving environmental sustainability; yet, within nation states such as Canada, environmental conditions, management and enforcement costs and capabilities, and power differentials within and among civic and public sectors may result in a highly differentiated capacity for environmental management across different localities and regions. This article draws on insights of political ecology to 1) create a conceptual framework that identifies key elements shaping regional environmental management regimes and to 2) undertake a comparative analysis to assess how elements interact to generate uneven management outcomes. I compare experiences of two Canadian biosphere reserves designated in 2000: Clayoquot Sound, BC; and Redberry Lake, SK. Analysis reveals that differences in governance and institutional capacities in the biosphere reserves are key to explaining uneven local outcomes. Where the public and civic sectors are strong, a robust and publicly vetted form of management will emerge. Where these sectors are weak and land is held as private property, environmental nongovernmental organizations can set the type and level of management, to the exclusion of effective civic and state involvement. This result may improve environmental sustainability but hinder social sustainability of a management regime and raises questions about the efficacy of community-based management.     

Integrated Environmental Management: Moving from Theory to Practice

Integrated environmental management (IEM) and related concepts promoting holistic approaches to environmental management have been evolving rapidly over the past few decades. Although considerable research has examined the substantive dimensions of these concepts, practitioners have forged ahead applying IEM without a clear operational model. The authors link elements of ecosystem management and related fields with interaction to offer a new operational definition and practice paradigm. Interaction among stakeholders and with the public generally is the key operational component for IEM. Focusing on stakeholder interactions, the authors analyse the principle communication and conflict resolution tools employed in integrated approaches. Two illustrative cases from the state of Wisconsin demonstrate the application of interaction techniques and tools in pursuing integrated environmental management.     

Regional Perspectives on Resource Policy: Implementing Sustainable Management in New Zealand

In 1991, New Zealand implemented new legislation to govern the management of natural resources and the environment. The Resource Management Act establishes sustainable management as the guiding principle for decisions in respect of the allocation and use of natural resources. The reform has also brought about the devolution of decision-making authority from central government to the local level. Underlying this shift to a 'bottom up' decision-making framework is the belief that it is communities of interest that should have the most direct voice in the allocation and use of natural resources. Regional policy statements will be amongst the most important mechanisms through which the principle of sustainable management will be implemented at the local scale. A sample of these policy documents is reviewed, with the aim to identify what specific regional interpretations are given to the principle of sustainable management, what particular resource management issues are considered to underpin the achievement of the principle and to identify what visions have been crafted for the future. An underlying objective was to identify whether characteristics of locality have influenced the interpretations of sustainable management.     

Integrated Resource Management: Institutional Arrangements Regarding Nitrate Pollution in England

The emergence of problems such as nitrate pollution has drawn attention to the need for integrated management of land and water resources. Integrated management approaches require appropriate institutional arrangements. Unfortunately, in many countries, land and water resources are managed on a sectoral basis and institutions were not designed to deal with complex environmental problems. Institutional arrangements for management of nitrate pollution are evaluated on the basis of seven criteria. Results indicate that some progress was made after 1985 regarding inter-agency co-ordination, public participation, the mix of strategies and adaptive capacity. Nevertheless, key substantive issues involving equity, efficiency and effectiveness were not adequately resolved. Policy referral, catchment management planning, bargaining and negotiation are recommended as key processes and mechanisms for improved management of the nitrate problem.     

Applying Integrated Urban Water Management Concepts: A Review of Australian Experience

This article explores recent Australian experiences in the application of the concept of integrated urban water management (IUWM) to land development sites through the review of 15 case studies. It discusses lUWM’s emergence and comments on the success or otherwise of Australian experience in its application. The understanding of IUWM is maturing within the Australian water industry, an occurrence that has been facilitated by demonstration sites such as those reviewed. Successes include the translation of IUWM concepts into well-functioning operational urban developments, significant reductions in the impact of the urban developments on the total water cycle, and the increasing acceptance of the concept within the water and land development industries. However, there is still room for greater integration of the water supply, stormwater, and wastewater components of the urban water cycle, improved dissemination of knowledge, enhancement of skills in both public and private organisations, and monitoring the performance of systems and technologies.     

数字化环境综合管理信息平台建设

在现有的分散、缺乏有效整合的环保业务系统不能很好地服务于环境综合管理需要的形势下,建设以环境监测数据的快速响应、业务数据的统一协调、信息资源充分共享、高效的分析处理为首要目标的数字化环境综合管理信息平台,旨在推动环保工作信息化、现代化的进程,提高对污染源的环境监管水平和办事效率,以更好地服务于环境管理和政府综合决策,为全面实现环境管理业务的信息化和自动化奠定坚实的基础。     

From Environmental Auditing to Integrated Environmental Management: Local Government Experience in the United Kingdom and Japan

Local authority experien ce with state of the environment reporting in the UK is discussed and com pared with the Japanese approach to integrated environmental management. Two case studies are presented, Lancashire County Council and Osaka Prefectural Government, and the progress made by each authority is examined. The paper argues that two very different approaches to local environm ental m anagement have evolved in the UK and Japan. The Japanese approach is essentially technocratic and pre-occupied with pollution control issues. In contrast, the UK approach has evolved out of the town planning tradition with its emphasis on conservation and am enity issues. Local authorities in Japan have greater jurisdictional powers, financial and technical resources to devote to environmental management. This allows them more direct control over the policy-making process. Constraints on local authority financial resources in the UK, and fragmentation of environmental responsibilities between various organizations, have resulted in a form of environm ental management which is based on interorganizational co-operation.     

Toward Environmental Management Systems in Australian Agriculture to Achieve Better Environmental Outcomes at the Catchment Scale

Environmental Management Systems (EMS) are being trialed for Australian agricultural industries as society becomes more concerned about agricultures environmental performance. EMS is a structured approach used by farm businesses to assess, monitor, and improve environmental performance. Use of EMS in conjunction with other policy tools (such as financial incentives and regulation) in agriculture could enhance management of both on-farm and off-farm environmental issues. Based on the international standard ISO14001, EMS was designed to be applied at the individual business level. However, governments in Australia are exploring its potential to be applied at a catchment scale, among other things, for the purpose of linking farm-level actions to catchment targets. In Australia, governments and catchment management bodies are using Integrated Catchment Management (ICM) as the framework to try to achieve environmental targets set out in catchment plans. In this article, we compare aspects of the EMS and ICM frameworks and comment on the potential of using EMS to achieve catchment-scale environmental outcomes. We conclude that EMS could be a useful policy tool to improve farm management and to contribute, in part, to better off-site outcomes at the catchment/landscape scale. Recommendations on the use of EMS at the catchment scale are discussed. These include using an educational approach for EMS delivery, linking the EMS process to catchment targets, and ensuring catchment targets are realistic and achievable.     

Benefit‐Cost Analysis of Integrated Water Resource Management: Accounting for Interdependence in the Yakima Basin Integrated Plan

Integrated water resource management (IWRM) requires accounting for many interrelated facets of water systems, water uses and stakeholders, and water management activities. The consequence is that project analysis must account for the nonseparability among the component parts of IWRM plans. This article presents a benefit‐cost (B‐C) analysis of a set of projects included in the Yakima Basin Integrated Plan proposed for the Yakima Basin in south‐central Washington State. The analysis accounts for interdependence among proposed water storage projects and between water storage and water market development in the context of historical and more adverse projected future climate scenarios. Focusing on irrigation benefits from storage, we show that the value of a given proposed storage project is lower when other proposed storage projects in the basin are implemented, and when water markets are functioning effectively. We find that none of the water storage projects satisfy a B‐C criterion, and that assuring proposed instream flow augmentation is less expensive by purchasing senior diversion rights than relying on new storage to provide it.     

Environmental education for engineers: An Australian viewpoint

Summary Australian engineering undergraduate courses of 1987 are described as being devoid of any real environmental content. It is suggested that this is an important omission, for engineers should have a duty to consider the environmental impact of their works. Possible ways in which an environmental component could be added to existing engineering courses are outlined.Prepared by the Environmental Education Subcommittee of the Environmental Engineering Panel of the Sydney Division of the Institution of Engineers, AustraliaHans Bandler is a member of the Environmental Engineering Panel of the Sydney Division of the Institution of Engineers, Australia and its Environmental Education Subcommittee. This paper was prepared and distributed as a Discussion Paper on Environmental Education for Engineering Undergraduates in April, 1987. Preparation of the paper was assisted by a draft document from the Institution of Engineers, Australia's National Committee on Environmental Engineering.     

An Integrated Framework for Public Sector Environmental Management in Developing Countries

/ Achieving successful and well-integrated environmental management depends on principled and orderly assignment of responsibilities within and between public sector organizations. Guidelines for making these assignments can be found by considering different modes of public response in light of a framework based on some distinguishable patterns in the complexity they exhibit. The basic dimensions of environmental problems can be used to identify these patterns. Two examples from current environmental problems in Taiwan are given, illustrating how this framework can be put to use.     

Toward Integrated Environmental Management for Challenges in Water Environmental Protection of Lake Taihu Basin in China

Lake Taihu is the third largest freshwater lake in China. It serves many social, economic, and ecological purposes in the drainage basin. Unfortunately, the water has been heavily polluted due to rapid industrialization and urbanization during the last two decades. Notwithstanding great efforts made so far to improve the water quality, the environmental situation is still far from being optimistic. The basin and the lake are facing a range of severe environmental challenges: rapid socio-economic development continues to place great pressures on the environment, current pollution control projects have many problems from the viewpoint of effectiveness and efficiency of their implementations, and the non-point sources of pollution such as agricultural fields, for which control is more difficult than for industrial point sources, have become the main contributors to serious eutrophication of the lake. Considering the characteristics of the environmental challenges and problems confronting the basin and the lake, we focus on integrated environmental management (IEM) as a promising and effective approach to overcome these predicaments. Current practices and problems of environmental management in the basin are examined, and potential future developments are discussed. Three aspects of the IEM are emphasized: institutional cooperation, public participation, and internalization of environmental externalities. We think these are the most critical for not only the basin but also for the whole of China to achieve a sustainable society.