Using social network analysis to examine planner involvement in environmentally oriented planning processes led by non-planning professions

Broad stakeholder involvement cannot be assumed in all environmental planning and management processes that have critical land use dimensions. This paper illustrates how concepts and techniques from social network analysis (SNA) can be used to examine and better understand the roles of one type of stakeholders, planners, in environmentally oriented planning and management processes led by other professions. Two cases of natural hazard mitigation planning led by emergency managers illustrate the usefulness of three SNA concepts of network structural characteristics in understanding how differences in planner involvement may influence incorporation of land use approaches in local natural hazard mitigation plans aimed at reducing long term risks from natural hazards.     

Evaluating the effects of local floodplain management policies on property owner behavior

Floodplain management programs have been adopted by more than 85% of local governments in the nation with designated flood hazard areas. Yet, there has been little evaluation of the influence of floodplain policies on private sector decisions. This article examines the degree to which riverine floodplain management affects purchase and mitigation decisions made by owners of developed floodplain property in ten selected cities in the United States. We find that the stringency of such policies does not lessen floodplain property buying because of the overriding importance of site amenity factors. Indeed, flood protection measures incorporated into development projects appear to add to the attractiveness of floodplain location by increasing the perceived safety from the hazard. Property owner responses to the flood hazard after occupancy involve political action more often than individual on-site mitigation. Floodplain programs only minimally encourage on-site mitigation by the owner because most owners have not experienced a flood and many are unaware of the flood threat. It is suggested that floodplain programs will be more effective in meeting their objectives if they are directed at intervention points earlier in the land conversion process.     

The development and application of water management sustainability indicators in Brazil and Scotland

This paper reports the formulation and application of a framework of catchment-level water resource management indicators designed to integrate environmental, economic and social aspects of sustainability. The framework of nine indicators was applied to the River Dee and River Sinos catchments in Scotland and Brazil, respectively, following an indicator selection process that involved inputs from water management professionals in both countries, and a pilot exercise in Scotland. The framework was found to capture a number of key sustainability concerns, and was broadly welcomed by water resource managers and experts as a means of better understanding sustainable water resource management. Issues relating to poor water quality and public water supply were particularly prominent in the findings for the Sinos, while findings for the Dee suggested that more attention might be focused on building institutional capacity and public participation in catchment management. The use of some proxy indicators was required in both catchments due to poor data availability, and this problem may hinder the further development of indicator frameworks that attempt to better integrate environmental, economic and social dimensions of sustainability.     

Economic Valuation of the Non-use Attributes of a Wetland: A Case-study for Lake Kerkini

Wetlands are an environmental feature which deliver a variety of market and non-market goods and services. Established environmental economic theory separates the value of these goods and services into direct-use values, indirect-use values and non-use values. Given appreciation of all three, measurements can be derived to demonstrate the amount of public money that it may be feasible to allocate to the sustainable management of wetlands. However, in many cases, non-use values are ignored and the total economic value of wetlands can be severely undervalued. As a result, inadequate resources are fed into their management and environmental degradation occurs due to inappropriate commercial exploitation of the natural resource. Lake Kerkini, in northern Greece, is one such wetland area threatened by undervaluation and overexploitation for commercial purposes, and a resource whose management would benefit from the realization of non-use values. This study therefore uses the contingent valuation method to place a value on the non-use attributes of Lake Kerkini. It also examines the relationship between the revealed non-use values and the distance people live from the lake, highlights the personal characteristics which appear important in determining total willingness to pay and breaks total non-use value down into its component parts to suggest the most important non-use elements. The paper concludes that sustainable management of the lake is justified and provides evidence that substantial public monies are potentially available to protect and enhance the environmental value of the resource.     

STAKEHOLDER INVOLVEMENT AND SOCIAL CAPITAL: KEYS TO WATERSHED MANAGEMENT SUCCESS IN ALABAMA1

ABSTRACT: Forces driving the initiation of watershed management activities in Alabama have ranged from top-down, agency-led initiatives to bottom-up, citizen-led initiatives. A number of watershed projects in Alabama were examined including three NPS projects funded by U.S. EPA grants and a more comprehensive locally-initiated watershed management authority. Watershed projects were categorized into four different models. Factors which produced significant differences in the development and utilization of social capital and local capacities for watershed management were investigated. The success of watershed management initiatives was examined qualitatively and appears to correlate with a number of social factors. These factors include the extent of stakeholder involvement, the availability of social capital in the watershed, and the presence of a real or perceived water resource concern or problem. Both short term project success and the longer term prognosis for continued watershed management activities seems to depend most upon the amount of social capital in the watershed. Two major changes in resource management programs and organizations could lead to increased focus on and support for local watershed management initiatives. These are reorganization of resource management agencies around watershed units, and assignment of at least one staff person in each watershed unit to watershed management.     

Financing Landslide Hazard Mitigation in the United States

Landslides continue to be an expensive problem in the U nited States. This paper explores the difficult problem of how to pay for reducing existing landslide risks. The paper examines a hierarchy of methods to cover repair and long term maintenance of unstable areas: assessment districts; homeowner associations; and insurance. It looks at several examples, and finds that costs in all but the worst cases average about $5000 to $15 000 per property. Landslide insurance is shown to be feasible and could be designed so as to encourage mitigation. The paper concludes that an optimal approach for mitigation and compensation would combine insurance with assessment districts.     

Complex property rights and Coasean bargaining in natural resource management

ABSTRACT

This paper contributes to the debate on whether private or common property rights are better for advancing the sustainable management of natural resources. This contest between public and private ownership is often exaggerated, we claim, because in the real world, complex entitlements with varying degrees of privateness/publicness prevail. Property rights belonging to families, companies, clubs, corporations, and communities are simultaneously common to the members/shareholders and private to the entities. We call these entitlements private-common entitlements. When we acknowledge this complexity, it becomes evident that neither private nor common ownership rights are alone responsible for resource depletion. Instead, depletion is caused by freeriding or evading the payment of the full price of natural resources. This invites Coase’s solution to resource allocation. Therefore, the key problem is whether and how Coasean bargaining is employed to allocate ownership over resources threatened by depletion. We contribute to the debate by showing that Coase’s approach promotes not only economically efficient but also ecologically sustainable resource management. Often, this approach would lead to the establishment of largely private property or control rights by largely collective/public entities. We apply this theoretical framework to the development of a ski resort in Pirin Mountain, Bulgaria.     

Public Participation in Natural Hazard Mitigation Policy Formation: Challenges for Comprehensive Planning

Democratic theory holds that active participation in governmental planning and decision making is critical to furthering the public interest. As a result, public participation in urban planning in the US is arguably the most extensive and intensive in the world. Required by federal, state and local laws, citizen involvement is a staple of local plan making. However, as this paper shows, citizen interest in participating in the formulation of hazard mitigation policies in comprehensive plans is low, despite mounting evidence of perils to life and property from floods, hurricanes and earthquakes. Using evidence from case studies in Florida and Washington, the causes of disinterest are dissected and ways to increase public input to hazard mitigation policies in local comprehensive plans are recommended.     

Closing the Incentive Gap: The Role of Public and Private Actors in Governing Indonesia's Tuna Fisheries

Indonesia is one of the world's largest tuna producing countries, yet regulatory oversight remains weak and management is poor. Incentive-based approaches are a way to improve state-based resource management, but they often require strong government regulation. In this paper, we use principal–agent theory and the notion of the ‘incentive gap’ to explore how incentives could be brought to bear in Indonesia through a combination of private and public actors. With a shared fish stock like tuna, we argue that a double principal–agent problem emerges, where information, asymmetries between various players complicate management. We focus on the problems of adverse selection and moral hazard in three different tuna fisheries in Indonesia to identify the nature of the incentive gap, and comment on the mix of public and private actors currently engaged in tuna fishery governance towards reducing the gap. The double principal–agent problem is a useful yet underutilized framework to understand the dynamics of shared stocks management. In this first application to a developing country fishery, we conclude that information asymmetries cannot be overcome without the involvement of private actors, who are increasingly becoming important in aligning regional and global objectives with those of fishers themselves.     

Developing a GIS based integrated approach to flood management in Trinidad, West Indies

Trinidad and Tobago is plagued with a perennial flooding problem. The higher levels of rainfall in the wet season often lead to extensive flooding in the low-lying areas of the country. This has lead to significant damage to livestock, agricultural produce, homes and businesses particularly in the Caparo River Basin. Clearly, there is a need for developing flood mitigation and management strategies to manage flooding in the areas most affected. This paper utilizes geographic information systems to map the extent of the flooding, estimate soil loss due to erosion and estimate sediment loading in the rivers in the Caparo River Basin. In addition, the project required the development of a watershed management plan and a flood control plan. The results indicate that flooding was caused by several factors including clear cutting of vegetative cover, especially in areas of steep slopes that lead to sediment filled rivers and narrow waterways. Other factors include poor agricultural practices, and uncontrolled development in floodplains. Recommendations to manage floods in the Caparo River Basin have been provided.     

Managing the potential public health risks from bioaerosol liberation at commercial composting sites in the UK: An analysis of the evidence base

The diversion of biodegradable waste from landfill is of key importance in developing a sustainable waste strategy for the next decade and beyond. The proliferation of waste treatment technologies such as Mechanical Biological Treatment, Anaerobic Digestion and Composting will be paramount in achieving this strategic goal. This paper evaluates the scientific information needed to undertake an effective assessment of the potential public health risks from exposure to bioaerosols in the vicinity of commercial composting activities. Knowledge gaps currently exist in the scientific and regulatory community that limit our ability to effectively characterise source-term emissions, develop reliable dose–response data and accurately model the dispersion of bioaerosols. Consequently reliable risk estimates cannot be developed to inform the management of these potential risks. This uncertainty may prove a barrier to progress in achieving waste diversion and composting targets in Wales and the rest of the UK. A robust and extensive evidence base is required to inform the risk assessment process. This paper advocates the need for further, more focussed research into hazard characterisation of viable and non-viable organisms, improved dose–response data, exposure assessment techniques and an evaluation of the existing risk control and mitigation measures currently adopted. It is hoped that his will enable effective, timely and proportional risk management and mitigation measures to be developed that will foster the confidence required in composting technologies to achieve waste diversion targets and develop sustainable waste strategies.     

SOUND POLICY OR SMOKE AND MIRRORS: DOES ECOSYSTEM MANAGEMENT MAKE SENSE?1

ABSTRACT: Protection of ecosystems as entities on the landscape has attracted a wide range of support. Ecosystem-based public policies are claimed to be more effective, efficient, and scientifically sound than other approaches to environmental and natural resource policy. The ecosystem concept was never intended to serve as a public policy guide or to determine landscape units for land management purposes. This paper critically examines the use of the ecosystem concept in public policy and land use management and analyzes the proposed rule to manage the National Forest System according to ecosystem management principles. The concept is found to be unsuitable as a basis for guiding environmental and natural resource public policies in general while the proposed rule to manage the national forests according to ecosystem management principles is shown to be incoherent.     

Developing a collaborative model for environmental planning and management

Methods for involving the public in natural resource management are changing as agencies adjust to an increasingly turbulent social and political environment. There is growing interest among managers and scholars in collaborative approaches to public involvement. Collaboration is conceptually defined and elaborated using examples from the natural resource management field. This paper then examines how collaboration theory from the organizational behavior field can help environmental managers to better understand those factors that facilitate and inhibit collaborative solutions to resource problems. A process-oriented model is presented that proposes that collaboration emerges out of an environmental context and then proceeds sequentially through a problem-setting, direction-setting, and structuring phase. Factors constraining collaboration are also specified, including organizational culture and power differentials. Designs for managing collaboration are identified, which include appreciative planning, joint agreements, dialogues, and negotiated settlements. Environmental managers need new skills to manage collaboration within a dynamic social and political environment. Further research is needed to test the propositions outlined here.     

A critical review of the theory and application of social learning in participatory natural resource management processes

Social learning is increasingly cited as an essential component of sustainable natural resource management and the promotion of desirable behavioural change. This paper attempts to contribute to the current debate about social learning and public participation by reviewing the many perspectives on social learning and associated claims and benefits. Based on this analysis the paper identifies conceptual and practical weaknesses of the concept of social learning and their implications for the design of participatory processes in natural resource management.     

Protecting people and property: the influence of land-use planners on flood hazard mitigation in New Urbanist developments

Research suggests that characteristics of local government land-use planners help determine the priority that local communities place on flood hazard mitigation. However, research has not examined the significance of land-use planners' values and role orientations for flood hazard mitigation. Multiple regression analysis is used to examine the influence that land-use planners' values and role orientations have on flood hazard mitigation in a national sample of New Urbanist development projects. Findings indicate that land-use planners' values and role orientations have significant implications for flood hazard mitigation in these projects. The paper recommends that local governments adopt a land-use planning approach to flood hazard mitigation that relies on land-use planners to help direct development away from hazardous portions of development sites.     

Social Acceptability of Water Resource Management: A Conceptual Approach and Empirical Findings from Portland,Oregon1

Abstract: Surface water resources in urban areas serve multiple functions ranging from recreation to wildlife habitat. As a result, diverse values influence people’s views about resource protection, potentially leading to conflicting interests. In metropolitan Portland, Oregon, natural resource planning has recently focused on habitat restoration as well as stormwater and pollution mitigation, especially through the protection of riparian areas. Due to opposition over proposed regulations in the study region, this research examines public attitudes about an array of resource management efforts. The primary research question is: what is the extent of positive–negative attitudes about water resource protection, and what theoretical dimensions underlie diverse judgments? After empirical survey results are presented, I outline a conceptual approach for future assessments of environmental attitudes while highlighting important value‐based dimensions of judgments. Although flexible, the framework allows broad comparisons to advance knowledge about the social acceptability of varied water resource management approaches across diverse places and contexts.     

Developing alternative land-use scenarios to facilitate natural resource management across jurisdictional boundaries

Scenario planning is an effective approach for examining possible futures by exploring the implications and consequences of different policy responses to landscape stressors. We present here a case study that explores plausible futures of urban growth in Southern Nevada, USA that illustrates how scenario analysis can be used to inform region-wide resource management by spatially modeling drivers of change, resource impacts, and potential policy responses. Using a suite of energy, water and biodiversity impact models, we assess the outcomes of the various futures on priority resources, resulting in a clear basis of comparison between alternative policies and their potential outcomes. This case study demonstrates the utility of scenario modeling for natural resource management by exploring crucial policy decisions that might be made in the near-term that could have lasting and sometimes conflicting influences on regional resources over the long term.     

三江源国家公园自然资源资产管理体制改革实践与经验研究

健全全民所有自然资源资产管理体制,是实现自然资源资产合理使用和有效保护、发挥社会主义公有制优势、推动生态文明建设的重要举措.提炼三江源国家公园在自然资源资产管理体制改革过程中的典型实践,梳理其改革经验与启示,为探索建设以国家公园为代表的自然保护地体系内自然资源资产管理积累"青海经验"、做出"青海贡献".     

Municipal hazard mitigation planning: a comparison of plans in British Columbia and the United States

This paper examines the extent to which 20 municipalities in the Greater Vancouver region of British Columbia have included provisions in their community plans for reducing natural hazard risk and vulnerability. Findings show that the plans are generally lacking in hazard related factual information, goals, and policies, and in mechanisms to promote plan implementation. The plans also do not compare favorably to municipal hazard mitigation plans in the United States. The authors provide recommendations for provincial/state and municipal governments with respect to improving the quality of municipal plans and their capacity to enhance public safety.