Use of Small-area Data to Support a Community Agenda in Boston Chinatown

Boston Chinatown is a community that grapples with a constant pressure from the downtown area to build new and larger buildings. The effort to preserve the residential aspect of Chinatown has used data analysis in recent years by forming partnerships with academics. This has allowed for more sophisticated studies of traffic injuries, scientific surveys of residents about environmental health, the measurement of noise levels and the construction of physical and electronic mapping of data. While not the only factor contributing to the community's efforts to question the role of development, these data have added useful tools that reduce, but do not eliminate, the disparity between what the community brings to discussions about the environmental impact of development and what the developers have at their disposal.     

Community energy plans in Canadian cities: success and barriers in implementation

Climate change and sustainable development concerns have motivated some municipalities in Canada to develop community energy plans, which focus on energy needs at the local level for the development of efficient, economical and environmental energy systems. Five Canadian cities that were early adopters of community energy planning principles were studied to assess whether implementation has occurred and what barriers have been experienced. The cities achieved success in the implementation of energy management in municipal operations despite barriers in jurisdiction, perception of cost, communication and capacity, but energy management in the community had not been fully implemented and long-term changes were not prevalent. While reductions were made in the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions produced by municipal operations, the community's overall GHG emissions were not significantly reduced. Long-term impacts on a city's function and growth will be key if community energy planning is to significantly impact community-wide GHG emissions and energy use.     

Diversity and connections in community gardens: a contribution to local sustainability

Sustainability requires the integration of social, environmental and economic concerns in international, national and local policy-making. One of the most powerful forces for sustainable development in practice was the Earth Summit of 1992, with its Agenda 21 and Local Agenda 21 (LA21). This latter agenda—the set of policies that aims to create the means to facilitate local sustainability—is particularly important for communities. Community development programmes that also include aspects of sustainable development would seem to embody the spirit of LA21. There are many such diverse schemes and what has emerged is a range of local initiatives that demonstrate parts of the sustainability concept but not a clear picture of sustainable development which covers all of its aspects.

In order to examine this proposition further, an analysis of the community garden movement in the UK was carried out. Community gardens are open spaces managed and operated by members of the local community for a variety of purposes. In the UK many of these are to be found in inner city areas such as in Bradford, Leeds, Bristol and Sandwell. Their growth is marked by their own association—the Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens. The gardens have a variety of purposes: in conjunction with vegetation growing (either as landscape or for consumption), some schemes are experimental permaculture plots, others use organic methods and yet others are concerned with health, education and training issues. All appear to be based in a sense of community, with participation and involvement being particularly strong features.

This sense of community participation and empowerment is what links examples of community gardening. The research reported here collates information gathered from the respondents of a questionnaire and from in-depth interviews, and draws out some of the similarities and themes that community gardens exhibit. From the results, it is suggested that the community garden movement could act as a model for the implementation of social, economic and environmental policies at the local level.     

Governing sustainable cities

Boston's Chinatown is an urban community surrounded by businesses, a university, a large medical centre, and an area zoned for “adult entertainment” called the Combat Zone. The overall goal of this exploratory study was to examine the temporal and geographic distribution of street crime in Boston's Chinatown using police crime reports from the years 1988 to 2004. Crime patterns were most notably associated with the presence of the adult entertainment area, known as the Combat Zone. However, despite the decline of adult businesses over the study period, we saw small limited reduction in property and violent crimes, suggesting that the decline of these businesses did not lead to large-scale short-term (<5 years) reductions in crime.     

Realizing an effectiveness revolution in environmental management

The environmental movement of the 20(th) century has evolved into a large, diverse and well-financed global community that is increasingly required to prove its worth. Though the environmental sector collects and uses data to determine the status of ecological and social systems, the effectiveness of the programs and policies it uses to affect this status remains largely untested. As governments and donor institutions insist on greater transparency, accountability and evidence of what works and what does not, much is being learned from other fields (e.g. health services, education, international development) and increasingly sophisticated approaches are emerging to manage effectiveness. For example, program evaluation, adaptive management, and systematic review provide frameworks and methods to collect and use information to measure and improve performance. However, the critical data and collaborations necessary for an effectiveness revolution are marginalized by technical, cultural and political obstacles. Learning from other fields, the environmental sector must exploit key leverage points, such as flows of information and self-organization, to overcome impediments and create incentives to initiate and realize an era of effectiveness in environmental management.     

Faith-based climate action in Christian congregations: mobilisation and spiritual resources

This article seeks to explain how and why church congregations mobilise on environmental issues and what – if anything – is distinctive about that mobilisation. Building on and adapting Resource Mobilisation Theory (RMT), we develop the idea of “spiritual resources” to help explain how a collection of spiritual identities, values, symbols and narratives can facilitate distinctive collective action on environmental issues. Our analysis draws on data derived from an in-depth case study of climate active groups in Scotland. It includes content analysis of websites, news stories as well as ethnographic observation of selected church and secular groups engaged in climate activity. We find church groups do enjoy a distinct set of resources – comprising tradition, rituals and symbols shaped by theology and doctrine – which are not wholly captured by other explanations of climate mobilisation. While these spiritual resources do not directly translate into specific environmental or climate action they can, especially when combined with other resources, lead to environmental activities distinctly motivated, and distinctly practised at the individual and community level.     

Qualifying irrigation system sustainability by means of stakeholder perceptions and concerns: lessons from the Segarra‐Garrigues Canal,Spain

When planning interventions, water and land resource managers increasingly need to take the opinions of stakeholders into account. In the present study, stakeholders’ concerns in a multifunctional water system are assessed, with a focus on the debate about the sustainability of irrigation projects in stressed and competing water contexts. The selected case study pertains to the Segarra‐Garrigues irrigation canal (Spain), the promotion of which has generated social debate and mobilization, as well as pronouncements from European authorities for ensuring its environmental sustainability. Data was collected through semi‐structured interviews and analysed by means of a new codification system for identifying the affinities and conflicts arising from existing water demands. Results show that sustainability concepts are more present in civil society than in public administration and private services or the rural community. However, social sustainability and environmental sustainability are a priority for most stakeholders, while the economic perspective of sustainable development has been conditioned by the first two. These results can be used by relevant authorities as a first step in customizing their interventions, as they provide a clear initial idea of what stakeholder priorities are in the framework of sustainable development.     

Designing effective community relations programs

• Cleanup of a contaminated site is halted as community residents launch a legal challenge against the method that those responsible for the site have selected for remediation.
• Parents and teachers at a public school call for an investigation to determine if substances in the building are making students and staff sick. Midway into the investigation, they also become concerned as to whether the right tests are being performed to detect contamination that may be present, and how they will know what the test results mean.
• Industrial neighbors of a facility oppose its air permit application out of concern for the effects the facility's emissions might have on their own workers.

Virtually no business enterprise or government entity is immune from the potential for public interest in or concern about environmental issues. Within the public arena, environmental issues are rarely viewed only in terms of their scientific, technical, or regulatory merits. Instead, they are invariably intertwined with other issues and perceptions regarding health and safety, property values, social justice, and overall quality of life. As such, environmental issues have the potential to create significant controversy, concern, and opposition among community residents. Fortunately, in many cases, much, if not all, of the anger and fear that community residents feel can be relieved through a substantive dialogue that either corrects misinformation or provides a platform for discussing actions that could, should, or are taking place to remedy a situation. Promoting and sustaining such dialogues is the goal of community relations. This article covers the process of designing and implementing a community relations program plan to address serious or long-term environmental issues surrounding facilities, sites, or projects.     

Environmental Footprint of Foods: The Duty to Inform

In this paper we argue that there is a duty to inform consumers about the environmental impact of foods, and discuss what this duty entails and to whom it falls. We analyze previous proposals that justify ethical traceability with arguments from sustainability and the respect for the autonomy of consumers, showing that they cannot ground a duty to inform. We argue instead that the duty rests on the right of consumers not to be harmed, insofar as consumers have an interest in the morality of their own agency that is frustrated if they are not informed about the environmental impact of the production and transport of what they consume. Our argument detaches the regulation of labeling from substantive theories of environmental ethics or perfectionist conceptions of citizens’ responsibility, thus defending a case for labeling that is compelling also for those who take the role of the state to be limited to the prevention of harm.     

Toward Policies and Decision-Making for Dam Removal

Dam removal has emerged as a critical issue in environmental management. Agencies responsible for dams face a drastic increase in the number of potential dam removals in the near future. Given limited resources, these agencies need to develop ways to decide which dams should be removed and in what order. The underlying science of dam removal is relatively undeveloped and most agencies faced with dam removal lack a coherent purpose for removing dams. These shortcomings can be overcome by the implementation of two policies by agencies faced with dam removal: (1) the development and adoption of a prioritization scheme for what constitutes an important dam removal, and (2) the establishment of minimum levels of analysis prior to decision-making about a dam removal. Federal and state agencies and the scientific community must encourage an initial experimental phase of dam removal during which only a few dams are removed, and these are studied intensively. This will allow for the development of the fundamental scientific understanding needed to support effective decision-making in the future and minimize the risk of disasters arising from poorly thought out dam removal decisions.     

Different Shades of Green: A Case Study of Support for Wind Farms in the Rural Midwest

Benton County, in north-central Indiana, USA has successfully sited more than 500 turbines. To understand Benton County’s acceptance of wind farms, a holistic case study was conducted that included a document review, a survey of local residents and interviews with key stakeholders. Survey questionnaires were sent to 750 residents asking questions about attitudes toward the wind farms, perceived benefits and impacts from the wind farms, environmental attitudes, and demographic information. Key stakeholders were also interviewed for a deeper understanding of the historical timeline and community acceptance of the wind farm development. While there is limited opposition to the turbines, on the whole the community presents a front of acceptance. Financial, rather than environmental, benefits are the main reason for the acceptance. Although significant in other case studies, transparency and participation do not play a large role in Benton County’s acceptance. Most residents are not concerned with either visual impacts or noise from the wind turbines. More concrete benefits to the community, such as reduced energy bills for county residents, could help to extend acceptance even further within the community. Although there are concerns about the acceptance of wind farms and the impacts of those farms on local residents in both peer-reviewed literature and popular media, we found little evidence of those concerns in Benton County. Instead, we found Benton County to be a community largely accepting of wind farms.     

What is in a name? Language,framing and environmental justice activism in California's Central Valley

According to the environmental justice (EJ) literature, one important factor in the movement's success is the development of a frame linking inequality to the disproportionate presence of environmental toxins in low-income communities of colour. This article highlights the resonance of this frame among grassroots activists and professional advocates in California's Central Valley. However, through interviews and focus groups with activists and advocates in six Central Valley communities, we found that only the latter identified their work as EJ. Grassroots activists instead identified their work as about health, community development and environmentalism. Moreover, some were unfamiliar with EJ as a concept while others denied its applicability to their work. Theoretically, our findings suggest that frame resonance needs to be delinked conceptually from movement identification; it is possible for a movement's analysis of social problems and solutions to resonate among those who do not identify with the movement itself. Pragmatically speaking, this can prevent some grassroots activists who are directly affected by environmental racism from accessing the resources and networks that the EJ movement has painstakingly built, and suggests that movement leaders may need to increase their outreach to community groups.     

Communication Strategy of Transboundary Air Pollution Findings in a US–Mexico Border XXI Program Project

From 1996 to 1997, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission (TNRCC) conducted an air quality study known as the Lower Rio Grande Valley Transboundary Air Pollution Project (TAPP). The study was a US–Mexico Border XXI program project and was developed in response to local community requests on a need for more air quality measurements and concerns about the health impact of local air pollutants; this included concerns about emissions from border-dependent industries in Mexico, known as maquiladoras. The TAPP was a follow-up study to environmental monitoring done by EPA in this area in 1993 and incorporated scientific and community participation in development, review of results, and public presentation of findings. In spite of this, critical remarks were leveled by community activists against the study's preliminary “good news” findings regarding local air quality and the influence of transboundary air pollution. To resolve these criticisms and to refine the findings to address these concerns, analyses included comparisons of daily and near real-time measurements to TNRCC effects screening levels and data from other studies along with wind sector analyses. Reassessment of the data suggested that although regional source emissions occurred and outliers of elevated pollutant levels were found, movement of air pollution across the border did not appear to cause noticeable deterioration of air quality. In spite of limitations stated to the community, the TAPP was presented as establishing a benchmark to assess current and future transboundary air quality in the Valley. The study has application in Border XXI Program or other air quality studies where transboundary transport is a concern since it involved interagency coordination, public involvement, and communication of scientifically sound results for local environmental protection efforts.     

Off-grid: community energy and the pursuit of self-sufficiency in British Columbia's remote and First Nations communities

Remote or off-grid communities in Canada primarily rely on diesel generators for the provision of their electricity. Often surrounded by potential renewable resources, they are characterised as the low-hanging fruit of greenhouse gas mitigation strategies. While much is said about the promises of community energy projects, as well as technologies and policy mechanisms for addressing the needs of these communities, little attention has been paid to what communities, themselves, might want for their energy projects and what the implications of those desires might be for both technology development and community energy policies. This paper aims to fill this gap by exploring the on-going energy pursuits of a number of remote First Nations communities in British Columbia. It identifies a desire for community self-sufficiency as a primary motivation for engaging with energy projects on the part of the communities and discusses the various meanings and implications of self-sufficiency in the context of community energy projects. These meanings and implications primarily include the two dimensions of material self-sufficiency and political self-determination, the latter of which suggests a view of community energy projects as processes of decolonisation among First Nation communities in British Columbia. It then suggests that the pursuit of this goal is somewhat incongruent with the approach that government and industry have taken in addressing community energy, especially the way in which remote communities are viewed as the low-hanging fruit of various sustainability projects.     

Environmental audit: III. Improving the management of environmental information for toxic substances

Environmental programs have been commonly driven by a preoccupation with the collection of data in the mistaken belief thatdata is synonymous withinformation. The distinction between data (that is, the quantified and qualitative attributes of a particular environment) and information (specifically, data processed so as to focus upon a particular environmental problem) will become far more important to environmental managers. They will increasingly manage their information through use of what has become known as information resource management (IRM) and the attendant use of critical success factors methodology. Environmental managers will thereby move away from concerns about data and specific EDP hardware and applications toward managing information as a valuable agency resource. In applying IRM, they will find it helpful to include a number of planning elements and to resolve early a number of issues critical to its successful use.     

Perceptions and attitudes towards gas flaring in the Niger Delta,Nigeria

Gas flaring is the burning of crude oil’s associated gas. In Nigeria’s Niger Delta, the flaring process is usually very close to communities and their farmlands and has been implicated in serious environmental degradation of the region. Studies have suggested links between gas flaring and health problems in the communities and others have established relationships between gas flaring and poor agricultural yields. This study explores how the people in the region perceive gas flaring and what their attitudes are toward it. Ubeji town, a community where gas flaring takes place, was selected as a case study. It was found that the residents perceive gas flaring as hazardous to health, environment, and general well-being of the community. Most residents seem to be resigned to the continued presence of gas flaring activities in the community. The study, however, raised several questions on modeling perception and attitudes toward environmental problems in areas where political tension and economic adversity are prevalent.     

全球环境治理的制度困境与行动转向

在环境治理的问题上,20世纪人类社会所表现出来的是一种对契约、技术与制度的崇尚,反映了近代以来社会治理中的价值中立与道德祛魅精神。然而,随着环境危机事件的频发,特别是在环境以及生态问题构成了风险社会的一个重要维度的情况下,依靠契约、制度、技术的环境治理方案陷入低效甚至失灵的境地。人类命运共同体理念的提出,开拓了环境治理的新思路,让我们看到构建人与人、人与自然生命共同体的环境合作治理模式建立的希望。环境合作治理是一种可以将所有力量整合到合作行动体系中的治理模式,能够有效应对日趋恶化的环境问题,并将人类的生存与发展建立在环境友好的基础上。只有当环境治理采用了合作模式,才能在环境的维度上增强人类命运共同体的现实性。     

Comparing EQM practices of small and large companies

There is some concern in the environmental quality management (EQM) community that small and mid-sized companies do not have the technical, economic, and personnel resources or expertise to carry out significant programs of pollution prevention or waste reduction in the way that large corporations do. Thus, a very significant proportion of the economy may not be contributing to or benefiting from EQM approaches. This article begins to clarify what small and mid-sized companies that are committed to EQM can actually do and how this compares with the efforts of larger plants or plants operated as part of large multiplant corporations.     

环境风险规制的经济成本及次生影响——决策中需要重视的向度

环境风险是社会经济发展的副产物,是市场外部性的表现,需要公共部门的参与解决.然而环境风险的应对并非没有代价,这种代价既包括规制的经济成本,也包括其带来的次生影响.我国经济发展到目前的阶段,政府和公众都非常关注环境风险,并出台了大量的规制性政策对其进行治理.如何在实现环境治理目标的同时,合理控制经济成本、尽量减少次生影响是提升环境治理效能的重要命题,本文针对这一问题进行了探讨.主要对规制的经济成本和次生影响等关键概念做了辨析,对规制的经济成本和次生影响在我国被忽略的可能原因进行了分析,对他国应对这一问题所采取的措施开展了讨论.最后提出在我国针对重大环境规制性政策开展规制影响评估的建议.