Putting Precaution to Debate – about the Precautionary Principle and Participatory Technology Assessment

Technology assessment (TA) as aninstitution was introduced nearly thirty yearsago as an instrument to render possible themaking of responsible decisions concerning newtechnological options. Another recentdevelopment however has been the introductionof participatory technology assessment (pTA),mainly connected to the growing insight thatthe evaluation of technological options withrespect to their risks and benefits, is not –only – a scientific question. This paper willfocus on the questions, to what degree theideas of technology assessment and thePrecautionary Principle are connected and how.Without naming it explicitly, the PrecautionaryPrinciple is put to debate in the``TA-arrangement on the cultivation oftransgenic herbicide resistant crops,'organized by the Science Centre, Berlin. Fromthe perspective of ethical clarification, someunique features concerning theconceptualization of the discoursive procedureand reconstruction of the argumentation processin order to come to results have to beanalyzed. Finally the performance and resultsof the pTA-arrangement are reflected in thelight of the Precautionary Principle andconclusions are drawn.     

Geoscientific maps as an aid to land use and regional planning

Successful regional and land use planning today requires an optimal use of available natural resources. Geoscientific maps of the natural environment's potential satisfy the geoscientific part of this requirement. These maps are presented for politicians, laymen and planners in easily understood form as simple thematic maps (for soil, groundwater, mineral deposits, geological engineering, proposals for priority utilization from the geoscientific point of view and other geological facts important to society). In this way optimal use of the geogenic potential at specific places is made possible.     

A hierarchical approach to fisheries planning and modeling in the Columbia River Basin

The Columbia River Basin is the scene of a massive effort to restore populations of Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) and steelhead (O. mykiss). Efficient restoration is confounded by a high level of complexity, competing sociopolitical goals and values, and uncertainty about key system properties. Simulation models and other tools of systems analysis are important to development of a comprehensive, regionally acceptable strategy. Hierarchy theory provides a useful paradigm for organized complexity within the Columbia Basin and the basis for a trilevel hierarchical structure for organizing and integrating models. Life-stage models compose the most basic simulation units at the lowest level in the proposed hierarchical modeling structure. Each life-stage model simulates a distinct period in the life cycle of anadromous salmonids. Population models at the intermediate level simulate the complete life cycles of salmon and steelhead populations. At the highest level in the hierarchy, interpopulation models simulate extensive, long-term processes that affect multiple species and stocks. A hierarchical system of models is preferable to a single model or to a group of models lacking formal structure. A principal advantage is that models have the correct spatial and temporal resolution for analyzing questions at different scales. A hierarchical structure also facilitates the flow of information among models, and aids in understanding the impacts of uncertainty. Constructing a hierarchy of models should involve both bottom-up and top-down perspectives that maintain logical consistency among models, while allowing unique model structures appropriate for each level in the hierarchy.     

清洁生产方案实施状况分析

清洁生产审核的目的是找出企业不符合清洁生产之处,进而提出方案并解决问题。目前在石油行业清洁生产方案难以实施的原因是:对其认识不足,组织管理和实施政策不到位,审核人员业务素质不高。解决该问题的措施是:加强培训,提高审核人员素质,调整并制定有关政策。我国必须加大力度开展清洁生产审核,以推动企业的清洁生产工作。     

Climate Change Adaptation: Putting Principles into Practice

Carrying out wildlife conservation in a changing climate requires planning on long timescales at both a site and network level, while also having the flexibility to adapt actions at sites over short timescales in response to changing conditions and new information. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), a land-owning wildlife conservation charity in the UK, achieves this on its nature reserves through its system of management planning. This involves setting network-wide objectives which inform the 25-year vision and 5-year conservation objectives for each site. Progress toward achieving each site’s conservation objectives is reviewed annually, to identify any adjustments which might be needed to the site’s management. The conservation objectives and 25-year vision of each site are reviewed every 5 years. Significant long-term impacts of climate change most frequently identified at RSPB reserves are: loss of intertidal habitat through coastal squeeze, loss of low-lying islands due to higher sea levels and coastal erosion, loss of coastal freshwater and brackish wetlands due to increased coastal flooding, and changes in the hydrology of wetlands. The main types of adaptation measures in place on RSPB reserves to address climate change-related impacts are: re-creation of intertidal habitat, re-creation and restoration of freshwater wetlands away from vulnerable coastal areas, blocking artificial drainage on peatlands, and addressing pressures on freshwater supply for lowland wet grasslands in eastern and southeastern England. Developing partnerships between organizations has been crucial in delivering large-scale adaptation projects.     

Research prioritization using hypothesis maps

This work presents a method to aid in the prioritization of research within a scientific domain. The domain is encoded into a directed network in which nodes represent factors in the domain, and directed links between nodes represent known or hypothesized causal relationships between the factors. Each link is associated with a numeric weight that indicates the degree of understanding of that hypothesis. Increased understanding of hypotheses is represented by higher weights on links in the network. Research is prioritized by calculating optimal allocations of limited research resources across all links in the network that maximize the degree of overall knowledge of the research domain. We quantify the level of knowledge of individual nodes (factors) in the map by a network centrality measure that reflects in dependencies between knowledge level of nodes and the knowledge level of their parent nodes in the map. We analyzed a funded research proposal concerning the fate and transport of nanomaterials in the environment to illustrate the method.     

Structure of urban cognitive maps

It has traditionally been accepted that people structure their cognitive map of the city through the five Lynch categories: path, edge, district, node and landmark. This study confirms empirically the existence of these categories in two different experiments applying two forms of multivariate analysis: hierarchical cluster analysis and correspondence analysis based on Euclidean and χ² distances, respectively. The problematic edge category is also discussed, as well as the influence of centre-periphery dimensions on these categories.     

EPA develops process to destroy Kepone

Environmental Management -     

A mathematical structure for analyzing maps

The growing use of computers in environmental management is profoundly changing data collection procedures, analytic processes, and even the decision-making environment itself. The emerging technology of geographic information systems (GIS) is expanding this revolution to integrate spatial information fully into research, planning, and management of land. In one sense, this technology is similar to conventional map processing involving traditional maps and drafting aids, such as pens, rub-on shading, rulers, planimeters, dot grids, and acetate sheets for light-table overlays. In another sense, these systems provide advanced analytic capabilities, enabling managers to address complex issues in entirely new ways. This report discusses a fundamental approach to computer-assisted map analysis that treats entire maps as variables. The set of analytic procedures for processing mapped data forms a mathematical structure analogous to traditional statistics and algebra. All of the procedures discussed are available for personal computer environments.     

Putting Young Old Ideas into Action: The relevance of Growing Up in Cities to Local Agenda 21

Agenda 21, the Habitat Agenda and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child have brought new relevance to Growing Up in Cities, a project of participatory action-research for urban children and youth. The origins of the project in the 1970s under the leadership of the urban planner Kevin Lynch are described, along with a brief history of the project's revival. The results of the project's recent implementation in eight countries are summarised with an emphasis on children's perspectives on environmental quality, as well as lessons learned regarding how children can be most effectively integrated into LA21 processes.     

Putting action into biodiversity planning: assessing preferences towards funding

Water companies in England and Wales are responsible for the management of large areas of land. This land is under little pressure for development and is often free from the pollutants associated with conventional agriculture and is therefore a potentially valuable resource for biodiversity conservation. The value of this resource will only be realized if sufficient investment is made in the management of the habitats associated with these sites. This paper reports an exploratory case study based on customers of Southern Water which uses a mixture of questionnaire surveys and focus groups to investigate whether or not consumers are willing to pay higher utility bills to fund such management. In particular, it explores the public's willingness to forgo potential bill reductions in order to fund biodiversity conservation and examines how payment instruments could be designed to maximize and maintain the agreement from consumers. Results suggest that customers are willing to forgo a proportion of a potential bill reduction to pay for biodiversity schemes but are not necessarily willing to face a bill increase for the same public good benefits. Participants in the focus groups suggested that schemes could be made more acceptable to customers by ensuring that the outcomes were both visible and local and that their achievements were well publicized. Similarly, administration of the scheme through a trust fund alleviates some of the concerns of consumers while raising several new ones.     

P2: Putting environmental issues in a new light

Pollution prevention can help you see environmental problems for what they really are: waste and inefficiency. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Putting Young Old Ideas into Action: the relevance of Growing Up in Cities to Local Agenda 21

Agenda 21, the Habitat Agenda and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child have brought new relevance to Growing Up in Cities, a project of participatory action-research for urban children and youth. The origins of the project in the 1970s under the leadership of the urban planner Kevin Lynch are described, along with a brief history of the project's revival. The results of the project's recent implementation in eight countries are summarised with an emphasis on children's perspectives on environmental quality, as well as lessons learned regarding how children can be most effectively integrated into LA21 processes.     

Is elevation encoded in cognitive maps?

Two experiments examined whether differences in elevation of the terrain are encoded in cognitive maps of outdoor environments. In Experiment 1, two groups of subjects who had travelled a varying number of times between a set of locations made direct estimates in metres of the differences in elevation between the locations. The results showed that subjects in both groups had knowledge of elevation but those for whom the terrain was less familiar tended to exaggerate the differences. In Experiment 2, decision times were measured of responses to the question whether one location is below or above another one. Neither for subjects who were more, nor for subjects who were less familiar with the terrain, did the decision times vary with the distances between the locations, thus failing to support the hypothesis that differences in elevation are retrieved by a process of ‘mental travel’.     

Barriers and enablers to climate change adaptation in hierarchical governance systems: the case of Vietnam

Governments fulfil important roles in increasing the adaptive capacity of local communities to respond to climate change impacts, particularly in developing countries. Existing studies on how governments enable and constrain the ways in which local level communities learn and build their adaptive capacity, however, generally adopt network or market-oriented types of governance. However, the most vulnerable regions to climate change impact in the world are generally governed through hierarchical policy systems. This research aims to understand how the hierarchical policy system in Vietnam creates enables and/or constrains the policy capacity of policy actors to contribute to effective climate change adaptation. We conducted interviews (n?=?26) with key actors at multiple levels of government. Our findings show the importance of clear legal institutions, available financing for implementing policies, and the training of governmental staff, particularly at district and commune levels where the policy capacities are generally too low to deal with climate change impacts. We conclude that any efforts to support local actors (i.e. smallholder farmers) should include investments in policy capacity to ensure uptake and upscaling of adaptation actions more broadly.