Social Capital in an Outdoor Recreation Context

This study examined social capital development in three all-terrain vehicles (ATV) clubs in Maine using an adapted version of Lin’s (2001) social capital theory model. The structural components of social capital identified included collective assets and individual assets in the form of normative behavior and trust relationships. Also identified were counter-norms for individual ATV riders identified as having divergent norms from club members. The second component of social capital is access to and mobilization of network contacts and resources. Access networks in the context of the ATV clubs studied were identified as community and landowner relations while mobilization of resources was existent in club membership attempts toward self-governance and efforts of the statewide “umbrella” organization. Instrumental outcomes benefit society and expressive outcomes benefit the individual. Both types of returns are present in the data suggesting that ATV clubs are creating social capital. This is important information to clubs who desire to market themselves, improve their reputations, and enhance their volunteer association. It is of further interest to state governments who fund clubs through trail grants as proof that a return on investment is being realized. Theoretical and applied implications for these and other types of recreation-based volunteer associations (e.g., clubs, friends groups, advocacy groups) are presented.     

Conflict and Coalitions: An Examination of Outdoor Recreation Magazines

We examined whether value differences between various recreation interest/activity groups are created and sustained by the textual information presented to their readers in magazines. Using a two-stage qualitative approach, our research sought to explore the exact nature of the dialogue in the magazines. We sought detailed, intimate information on a selected number of magazines to assess how the popular press socially constructs knowledge about recreation groups, and we sought to better understand how various recreation group members assign meaning to their activities and interpret the interests of other groups. Findings revealed limited negativity of activity users towards one another; most of the conflict found in the text of the articles in recreational magazines was characterized as macrodispositional. Accordingly, in the articles most of the antipathy was directed towards government because of stricter regulation of activity or towards commercial consumers whose exploitation of resources is perceived to threaten groups' activities. Moreover, such conflict crosscuts various groups whose issues and concerns are often similar. Since environmental battles are no longer any one group's issue, many have coalesced and engaged in conflict with lawmakers and commercial consumers. It is clear that the recreational magazines do play a role in shaping readers' attitudes.     

Ecological Settings and State Economies as Factor Inputs in the Provision of Outdoor Recreation

State parks play a substantial role in the provision of outdoor recreation opportunities within the United States. Park operators must make crucial decisions in how they allocate capital expenditures, labor, and parkland to maintain recreation opportunities. Their decisions are influenced, in part, by the ecological characteristics of their state’s park system as well as the vitality of their state’s economy. In this research, we incorporate the characteristics of states’ ecosystems and their local economies into a formal production analysis of the states’ park systems from the years 1986 to 2011. Our analysis revealed all three factors of production were positive and inelastic. Expenditures on labor had the largest effect on both park utilization and operational expenditures. Our analysis also found a large degree of variability in the effects of ecological characteristics on both utilization and operating expenditures. Parkland utilization and operational expenditures were more elastic in areas such as Oceania and Mediterranean California relative to other ecological regions. These findings lead us to conclude that state park operators will experience variable levels of difficulty in both accommodating increasing demands for recreation from state parks and maintaining the existing quality of outdoor recreation provided within their system.     

Environmental Performance Evaluation in the Water Industry of England and Wales

The appropriate means of benchmarking environmental performance within and between companies is a matter of considerable debate and raises issues such as what information to compare and the reliability and consistency of data. Comparing environmental performance through company environment reports is an approach which has been widely used but, as this paper shows, is difficult and has severe limitations. This paper presents a unique analysis, based on the UK water industry, which compares data reported in company environmental reports and data on the same companies reported through the industry regulators. In turn, this is compared with the environmental performance indicators proposed by two other systems, one advanced by the UK water industry itself. The results demonstrate the difficulty of specifying environmental indicators that enable meaningful comparison. The difficulty of comparing environmental performance in a sector with a comprehensive approach to, and long history of, environmental performance reporting presents some hard lessons for other sectors.     

Remediation of contaminated land and groundwater: experience in England and Wales

Remediation of contaminated land and groundwater is of common international concern. The context and approach taken to the problem are, however, country-specific. A survey of remedial activity occurring within England and Wales over the period 1996-1999 was commissioned by the Environment Agency (for England and Wales) to establish a baseline against which future trends in remedial activity could be judged. This paper: explains the context of contaminated land and groundwater remediation in England and Wales (Britain); provides an overview of the 1996-1999 survey of remedial activity, discussing its findings within its legislative and institutional context; and, discusses the survey results of significance to the management of contaminated land and groundwater internationally. The survey obtained specific data from 367 remediated sites supplemented by general data from a further 1189 contaminated (not necessarily remediated) sites. The survey aimed to be, and was indicative of remediation practice, and did not seek to identify every remediation scheme operating. Previous anecdotal evidences were generally confirmed. Civil engineering-based techniques dominated and were used at 94% of sites with in situ techniques (predominantly vapour extraction-based) on 16% and ex situ on just 5%. Although disposal to landfill was dominant and occurred at over 80% of sites, integrated use of multiple techniques was common. Remediation was predominantly of soil (rather than water), development-based, designed to protect human health and reflected national development-led and 'suitable for use' policies. Lessons of international relevance from the survey and general British experience are drawn concerning remediation technique selection, regulatory and financial support of innovative remediation techniques and demonstration sites, competent use of risk-based approaches to allow pragmatic remediation and effective use of quality guidelines, need for effective guidance to highlight water quality issues, the necessity of post remediation monitoring to prove remediation effectiveness and the keeping of remediation databases.     

Agricultural Land Use Change in England and Wales, 1892-1992

The paper presents a method for transforming Agricultural Census data on land use from arbitrary administrative reporting units to a set of more environmentally meaningful land classes. The procedure is used to analyse historical patterns of land use in England and Wales. The results demonstrate that cropping patterns are related systematically to land capability and reveal the complex adjustments in the spatial distribution of land uses that have underlain changes in the overall cropping mix over the past century.     

The Environmental Appraisal of National Park Management Plans in England and Wales

The Countryside Agency has recommended that national park authorities (NPAs) undertake an environmental appraisal of their national park management plans. A study of the appraisal practices of the NPAs of England and Wales has shown that, despite this guidance, the practice of environmental appraisal is uncommon but that a culture of applying sustainability appraisal is evolving. It is argued that the most likely explanation for this situation is the increasing influence of the concept of sustainable development on the workings of the national park management system. This broad policy development has manifested itself in a variety of ways, including the production of government guidance relating to sustainability appraisal and changes in best practice, each of which have influenced appraisal procedures in national parks. The wider implications of, and drivers behind, the evolution of appraisal procedure towards sustainability appraisal are thus identified and then discussed.     

Incorporating Climate Change Into Water Resources Planning in England and Wales1

Arnell, Nigel W., 2011. Incorporating Climate Change Into Water Resources Planning in England and Wales. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 47(3):541‐549. DOI: 10.1111/j.1752‐1688.2011.00548.x Abstract: Public water supplies in England and Wales are provided by around 25 private‐sector companies, regulated by an economic regulator (Ofwat) and environmental regulator (Environment Agency). As part of the regulatory process, companies are required periodically to review their investment needs to maintain safe and secure supplies, and this involves an assessment of the future balance between water supply and demand. The water industry and regulators have developed an agreed set of procedures for this assessment. Climate change has been incorporated into these procedures since the late 1990s, although has been included increasingly seriously over time and it has been an effective legal requirement to consider climate change since the 2003 Water Act. In the most recent assessment in 2009, companies were required explicitly to plan for a defined amount of climate change, taking into account climate change uncertainty. A “medium” climate change scenario was defined, together with “wet” and “dry” extremes, based on scenarios developed from a number of climate models. The water industry and its regulators are now gearing up to exploit the new UKCP09 probabilistic climate change projections – but these pose significant practical and conceptual challenges. This paper outlines how the procedures for incorporating climate change information into water resources planning have evolved, and explores the issues currently facing the industry in adapting to climate change.     

The national GIS demonstrator of common lands for England and Wales

This paper describes the construction of a Geographical Information System (GIS) for common land tracts in England and Wales. In particular we highlight the problems inherent in combining data sets which have not been designed with GIS approaches in mind. The paper documents, through this case study, a number of key principles for researchers faced with developing databases of this nature and the limitations of the resulting database in the light of such concerns. In doing so, we draw attention to the types of techniques that can be developed to ensure users do not use the data in unwarranted situations and so guard against potential misuse. Such statements, it is concluded, are essential components in studies where data from several different sources are combined in a GIS environment to address rural planning issues.     

Flooding and the Role of Planning in England and Wales: A Critical Review

In this paper the authors raise some important questions about the extent to which planning is fostering an environment susceptible to flooding. They argue that severe UK flooding incidents in recent years should result in the government re-examining the planning system to ensure relevancy and effectiveness in dealing with such problems in the future. They identify where the current policy and practice weaknesses lie in planning to limit both flood source and flood impact areas and suggest ways in which the government and the profession could take remedial steps to increase local and regional sustainability.     

Sustainable Development and Structure Plans in England and Wales: Operationalizing the Themes and Principles

This paper explores attempts to operationalize some themes and principles of sustainable developmentin five UK structure plans which performed best in an overview of current practice (Counsell, 1998). Following a summary of literature, the approaches to sustainable development in the five plans-Avon, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Oxfordshire, and West Sussex-are described. The plans are then used to explore the operationalization of a range of resource protection (environmental capacity, environmental capital and the precautionary principle) and socio-economic (social equity, policy integration and participation) themes. It is concluded that the planning system probably provides greater scope for accommodating the resource protection than the socio-economic themes, which are likely to present a considerable challenge in making sustainable development operational in planning.     

Regional reports or structure plans? Opportunities for strategic planning in England and Wales

The British Government is proposing a new system of single‐tier development plans for England and Wales, with clear implications for the strategic level of planning. This paper considers a proposal by the Committee of Inquiry into Town and Country Planning set up by the Nuffield Foundation, for a revised strategic planning network which includes a ‘local strategy’. The paper considers the lessons to be drawn from the use of regional reports in Scotland since the early 1970s and concludes on a note of caution for the Government's proposals.     

Assessing options for the development of surface water flood warning in England and Wales

This paper explores the technical options for warning of surface water flooding in England and Wales and presents the results of an Environment Agency funded project. Following the extensive surface water flooding experienced in summer 2007 a rainfall threshold-based Extreme Rainfall Alert (ERA) was piloted by the Met Office and Environment Agency providing initial steps towards the establishment of a warning for some types of surface water flooding. The findings of this paper are based primarily on feedback on technical options from a range of professionals involved in flood forecasting and warning and flood risk management, about the current alerts and about the potential options for developing a more targeted surface water flood warning service. Providing surface water flooding warnings presents a set of technical, forecasting and warning challenges related to the rapid onset of flooding, the localised nature of the flooding, and the linking of rainfall and flood forecasts to flood likelihood and impact on the ground. Some examples of rainfall alerting and surface water flood warning services from other countries are evaluated, as well as a small number of recently implemented local services in England and Wales. Various potential options for implementation of a service are then explored and assessed. The paper concludes that development of a surface water flood warning service for England and Wales is feasible and is likely to be useful to emergency responders and operational agencies, although developing such a service for the pluvial components of this type of flooding is likely to be feasible sooner than for other components of surface water flooding such as that caused by sewers. A targeted surface water flood warning service could be developed for professional emergency responders in the first instance rather than for the public for whom such a service without further operational testing and piloting would be premature.     

Sustainable Development and Structure Plans in England and Wales: A Review of Current Practice

In response to a lack of evaluative research into the application of the concept of sustainable development to development plans in England and Wales, an investigation is undertaken using the media of county council structure plans. A framework is devised for measuring the performance of structure plans against key themes and principles of sustainable development,relevant policy areas and procedures. The extent to which structure plans manage to make the concept operational is shown to be variable, with better performing plans illustrating a geographical and temporal bias. It is concluded that, whilst there is an awareness about sustainable development amongst county councils, the translation of this awareness into practice is, in many cases, proving difficult.     

Policy And Practice Environmental Assessmentand Planning: A Chronology of Development in England and Wales

The development of regulations to implement Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) in England and Wales occurred initially as a response to European Community Directive obligations. Since then, a proliferation of regulations has resulted from the need to meet those obligations which were not covered successfully by the first tranche of legislation; the desire to extend the range of project types requiring EIA beyond those specified in the Directive; and the need to respond to changes brought about by privatization.As a result, current regulations relating to EIA are extremely complex and are in a constant state of flux. This inevitably causes problems for those responsible for their implementation. Ten years after the 1985 Environmental Impact Assessment Directive was notified to the Member States, it has undergone a review and the European Commissionhas reached a common position on the proposedamendments.The implementation date for Member States to meet the requirements of the amended Directive is 31 December 1997 (ENDS, 1996). However, the 1985 Directive has yet to be fully implemented in the UK.     

Cultural Influence on Crowding Norms in Outdoor Recreation: A Comparative Analysis of Visitors to National Parks in Turkey and the United States

Formulation of standards of quality in parks and outdoor recreation can be guided by normative theory and related empirical methods. We apply this approach to measure the acceptability of a range of use levels in national parks in Turkey and the United States. Using statistical methods for comparing norm curves across contexts, we find significant differences among Americans, British, and Turkish respondents. In particular, American and British respondents were substantially less tolerant of seeing other visitors and demonstrated higher norm intensity than Turkish respondents. We discuss the role of culture in explaining these findings, paying particular attention to Turkey as a traditional “contact culture” and the conventional emphasis on solitude and escape in American environmental history and policy. We conclude with a number of recommendations to stimulate more research on the relationship between culture and outdoor recreation.     

An Experiment in Participative Environmental Decision Making

Summary The paper presents a method of participatory decision-making involving the authorities at local level, experts and the public. It studies how to solve the problems caused by the heterogeneity of the parties taking part in the decision-making process. The method builds on mutual learning and consideration among the participants following a systematic approach led by a moderator. The method was tested at a workshop simulating a real-life situation. The test case studied at the workshop was the problem of identifying the best site for a low and intermediate level radioactive waste repository among three alternatives. The learning phase was the Krško Nuclear Power Plant cooling problem. The results show that the participants were able to reach agreement on the prioritisation of the alternatives and to end up with suprisingly complex and fully reasonable decision models. We believe that this was achieved particularly due to the well defined procedure that guided the decision-making process, and the ability of all participants to see the influence of their views on the decision model.     

Access rights for outdoor recreation in New Zealand: some lessons for open country in England and Wales

Access opportunities for outdoor recreation in New Zealand and England and Wales are classified according to their conformity with collective, citizenship or exclusion rights and their degrees of permanence. Alternative criteria for the apportionment of access rights are considered in the context of this classification. Different criteria for rights apportionment are found to be appropriate according to different circumstances in the context of pluralist provision. Policy developments in New Zealand are compared with those in England. After 150 years of a dominance of collective rights in New Zealand current policy is shifting provision towards exclusionary rights. In England, there is a policy shift in the other direction, towards collective rights. Lessons for the development of collective rights in England are drawn from the New Zealand experience in relation to styles of governance, public preferences, public cost, insurance liability and the potential of markets.