基于结构方程模型的环境风险接受度影响因素分析

随着社会经济的发展和城市化进程的推进,我国环境风险事故频发。与此同时,公众对于美好环境的需求日益提升,公众与专家和政府之间的风险判断差异是不同规模的群体性事件发生的主要诱因。为识别公众环境风险接受度的影响因素,本研究基于结构方程模型分析了11种环境风险的客观风险水平和公众感知到的风险影响度、场域了解度、政府信任度、社会经济水平等因素对公众风险接受度的影响。研究结果显示,社会经济水平、风险影响度、场域了解度、政府信任度均直接影响公众的风险接受度;客观风险水平则通过风险影响度的中介作用间接影响风险接受度。因此,为在经济发展过程中降低公众风险感知偏差对生产生活的影响,我国除了通过更严格的风险管控手段降低风险事故发生概率和影响范围外,还需要通过信息公开、公众参与和生态科普等方式增强公众对风险场域的了解度和对政府的信任度以提升风险接受能力。     

Meeting Consumer Concerns for Food Safety in South Korea: The Importance of Food Safety and Ethics in a Globalizing Market

As the issue of food safety became one of the important public agenda, consumer concern for food safety became the general public concern. The Korea U.S. Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA) completion allowing import of U.S. beef to Korea has turned into a massive public uproar and a series of demonstrations, revealing widespread concerns on the part of Korean producers and consumers about government food safety regulations and mishandling of the beef trade requirement. The mishandling of public concerns for BSE on U.S. beef import by the administrators led to a breakdown of the relationship between the public and the government and a loss of consumer confidence in Korea’s food safety system. The KORUS FTA beef crisis raised the issues of government accountability and the importance of understanding moral and ethical aspects of food safety management that pose perceived risk for BSE by the Korean citizen. The aim of this paper is to address the importance of understanding consumer concerns, food ethics and of appropriate risk communication in dealing with politically and publically sensitive food safety issues. This is achieved by assessing the factors that contributed to the conflict between the Korean government and the Korean public over the KORUS FTA beef agreement.     

公众参与环境保护制度属性及制度模块构建

民主政治是公众参与制度的出发点和归宿,通过公众的有效参与,环境执法权得到监督;有序是公众参与制度的自然属性,有序才能使参与变得顺畅;利益均衡是公众参与制度的价值准则,环境矛盾最终体现为环境利益和经济利益之争,解决环境纠纷的最佳手段是寻找利益均衡点;政府居于环境执法的主导地位,同时发挥指导、引导、疏导公众和企业的作用;多重沟通平台是公众参与制度的效率保证,政府、企业、公众在执法前后的多重沟通,才能达到参与的最终目标。与公众参与环境执法制度属性相对应的是制度模块建设,如监督制度、程序制度、纠纷调处制度、润性执法制度以及沟通制度等。这些制度既能准确反映公众参与环境执法制度属性,又能完成制度赋予的使命。     

Farmers’ Perceived Risks of Climate Change and Influencing Factors: A Study in the Mekong Delta,Vietnam

Many countries are confronting climate change that threatens agricultural production and farmers’ lives. Farmers’ perceived risks of climate change and factors influencing those perceived risks are critical to their adaptive behavior and well-planned adaptation strategies. However, there is limited understanding of these issues. In this paper, we attempt to quantitatively measure farmers’ perceived risks of climate change and explore the influences of risk experience, information, belief in climate change, and trust in public adaptation to those perceived risks. Data are from structured interviews with 598 farmers in the Mekong Delta. The study shows that perceived risks to production, physical health, and income dimensions receive greater priority while farmers pay less attention to risks to happiness and social relationships. Experiences of the events that can be attributed to climate change increase farmers’ perceived risks. Information variables can increase or decrease perceived risks, depending on the sources of information. Farmers who believe that climate change is actually happening and influencing their family’s lives, perceive higher risks in most dimensions. Farmers who think that climate change is not their concern but the government’s, perceive lower risks to physical health, finance, and production. As to trust in public adaptation, farmers who believe that public adaptive measures are well co-ordinated, perceive lower risks to production and psychology. Interestingly, those who believe that the disaster warning system is working well, perceive higher risks to finance, production, and social relationships. Further attention is suggested for the quality, timing, and channels of information about climate change and adaptation.     

Public involvement in the EIS process

In the United States public involvement in the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) process is required by Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) Guidelines, Executive mandates, and agency guidelines. Public participation after the initial Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and throughout the preparation of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) is desirable for it permits contributions from:

1. those who are directly affected by a proposed project.
2. individuals with expertise in environmental fields that may be affected by government action.

Early public participation can be useful in identifying environmental problems and potential sources of controversy. A systematic approach should be applied by government agencies to solicit public opinion throughout the preparation of the DEIS. Early, active, and meaningful participation particularly by those government and public segments most affected by the proposed project is a positive step towards effectively using the EIS as a management tool for mitigating impacts to the human environment. Here we discuss the role of public participation in the EIS process and develop an approach for initiating early and expressive public participation.     

Communicating climate science: The role of perceived communicator’s motives

In two experimental studies, we investigated the effects of public perceptions of climate scientists’ communicative motives on trust in scientists and willingness to engage with climate science messages. Study 1 demonstrated that members of the public who were led to believe that scientists aim to inform about the consequences of climate change (rather than to persuade to take a particular course of action) reported higher trust in scientists and stronger willingness to engage in environmental behaviour. Study 2 revealed that this effect was moderated by the style of the scientific message that participants were exposed to. Participants who expected scientists to engage in persuasion were more receptive to persuasive rather than informative messages, while the opposite was true for participants who believed that scientists’ purpose was purely to inform. In both studies the effects of perceived motives on willingness to act in line with the climate change messages were mediated through trust in scientists. The data demonstrate that managing public expectations about the purposes of science communication and delivering messages that are consistent with these expectations are a key to successful communication of climate science.     

Public engagement and climate adaptation: insights from three local governments in Australia

Public participation in decision making is a central component of the planning process; however, implementing effective engagement initiatives to resolve complex planning and policy problems, such as climate change, is challenging for planners. These challenges are particularly acute in coastal communities throughout Australia, where many settlements are at risk of future climate perturbations. Using the International Association for Public Participation framework for public participation, we analyse three local government led public participation initiatives in New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania, Australia. Our analysis suggests there are three critical factors that can influence the level of public participation in the context of climate change adaptation: the technocratic approach to decision making; absent high order government support; and the lack of evaluation mechanisms for public participation.     

Public perception of locally unwanted facilities in Hong Kong: implications for conflict resolution

This paper aims to investigate factors affecting public attitude towards the siting of locally unwanted land uses (LULUs) and to explore the possible strategies to resolve such conflicts. Three questionnaire surveys were undertaken in communities with different siting experiences and socio-economic profiles. Over 750 individuals were successfully interviewed in each study district. The three communities were found to share similar risk beliefs but show variations in the level of awareness of and response to LULUs. In communities with a disproportionate share of LULUs, many residents did not trust the government in handling LULU issues and thought that the siting process was unfair. The results of the binary logistic regression analysis show that people are likely to oppose the siting of a LULU in their community if they have a negative siting experience, do not perceive the need, accord a high risk to the facility and have a low level of trust in government. The resolution strategies preferred by the public are greater public participation and effective mitigation of risks and impacts, rather than provision of compensation and incentives. All these call for policy-makers to be sensitive to local concerns, engage the public in the process, communicate risks effectively and foster trust building.     

Environmental Protection as a US National Government Priority: Analysis of Six Annual Public Opinion Surveys, 1999 – 2004

Public support for environmental protection in the US as a federal government priority has substantially dropped since 2001. Data for the years 1999?–?2004 show that the least support was from non-Hispanic white, middle-class, college educated and suburban residents. Poorer, black, and residents of large cities have become the strongest supporters. In addition, with the important exception of wanting the federal government to focus on job creation, the public is less interested in many other domestic program priorities, including crime prevention and regulating health care management. The results are not an ominous sign that the public has lost interest in environmental planning and management, but are interpreted here as a notice that there must be aggressive efforts to explain to the public, media and elected representatives that efforts are critically important to public health, job creation and economic development.     

Management and valuation of an environmentally sensitive area: Norfolk Broadland,England, case study

Wetlands, like any other environmentally sensitive resource, require very careful evaluation. While it is accepted that all wetlands may be equally valuable in terms of maintaining global life-support systems, individual areas may be ranked according to their uniqueness or the irreplaceability of the resource should the wetland be developed. The various techniques available for evaluating the wetland resource in the development versus conservation conflict situation are critically assessed. Indirect appraisal via the opportunity cost method can generate valuable data which have contributed to the mitigation of such conflict situations.The Broadland, in Norfolk, England, recently designated an environmentally sensitive area (ESA), provides a case study example of wetland management. The search for an acceptable flood alleviation strategy for the ESA is examined in detail. The economic and environmental asset structure of the study area is examined at two levels. A basic screening system is applied to each of the identified flood protection planning units to enable the rank ordering of the units. A more detailed appraisal is then made of the value of selected units so that the cost-effectiveness of any planned expenditure on flood protection works can be assessed. Specific management issues and their likely effect on the environment, in terms of land use for example, are also addressed. The 1986 Agriculture Act marks a potential watershed in British conservation policy. The ESA policy encompasses a dual management strategy that attempts to stimulate compatible agricultural and conservation practices and activities. Other countries that still retain significant unspoiled wetland resources may find that preemptive regulatory government intervention in favor of conservation would help to avoid the worst aspects of the British experience.     

Building Trust in Natural Resource Management Within Local Communities: A Case Study of the Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie

Communities neighboring federally protected natural areas regularly weigh the costs and benefits of the administering agency’s programs and policies. While most agencies integrate public opinion into decision making, efforts to standardize and formalize public involvement have left many local communities feeling marginalized, spurring acrimony and opposition. A significant body of research has examined barriers to effective public participation as well as strategies for relationship building in planning processes; many of which point to trust as a key factor. Trust is especially tenuous in local communities. This paper explores perceptions of trust, expectations for management, as well as constraints to building trust. In-depth interviews were conducted with 21 community members and USDA Forest Service personnel at the Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie in northeastern Illinois. The interviews revealed that trust is perceived as important to effective management. Distinct expectations for management outcomes and processes emerged, including the values, knowledge, and capacity demonstrated in management decisions and actions and opportunities provided for communication, collaboration, and cooperation within the agency-community relationship. The case study identified several constraints to building trust, including competing values, knowledge gaps, limited community engagement, and staff turnover.     

An evaluation of public participation information for land use decisions: public comment,surveys, and participatory mapping

ABSTRACT

Public participation in the form of public meetings and written submissions has been criticised as a democratic ritual that fails to give citizens a real voice in government decisions. Participatory mapping and community surveys are alternative public participation (PP) methods that can augment legally required processes for land use planning. To date, there has been little evaluation research comparing the information content generated by required PP processes and alternative PP sources with respect to local land use decisions. Using multiple development projects from a case study community, we analysed and compared information generated from three different sources of public participation: (1) formal public comment (written submissions), (2) responses to community survey questions, and (3) land use preferences generated from participatory mapping. We found public comment strongly supported development while results from survey questions and participatory mapping methods revealed community ambivalence. The differences in public opinion are attributed to two key factors: the representativeness of participants in the PP process and the specific methods used for measuring public opinion. Community surveys and participatory mapping generated more accurate and representative community information compared to the formal PP process which was characterised by lower participation and vulnerability to special interest manipulation. For local government decision makers, the political risk of broadening PP information appears high relative to the risk of inaccurately assessing public opinion thus limiting adoption of alternative PP methods such as participatory mapping.     

The costs and benefits of reforestation in Liping County, Guizhou Province, China

Reducing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is becoming a pressing issue for the global community. Afforestation and reforestation are promoted worldwide as an effective means of sequestering carbon. For its national interest and global concerns, China has made great efforts to protect its existing forests and develop programs of afforestation and reforestation. Based on two surveys recently conducted in Liping County, Guizhou province, this paper investigates the economic changes associated with the implementation of the "Grain For Green" policy. Based on the analytical framework of benefit cost analysis, this paper concludes that the implementation of the reforestation of sloping agricultural land policy would not be possible if there were no government subsidies for the peasants. The short term economic returns of land and labour from forestation are substantially lower than those generated from grain or cash crop production on the steep slope lands. The government subsidies provide great economic incentives for peasants to take part in the project. The subsidies in fact have elevated peasant income in rural Liping. The estimated potential economic returns of plantations over the long run indicate that the removal of the government financial subsidies would not create an economic crisis for the peasants if the current market conditions continue.     

Sustainability in the USA and New Zealand: explaining and addressing the implementation gap in local government

This paper describes the frustrating reality of sustainability implementation in the USA and New Zealand (NZ), an early adopter of sustainability mandates. Local government has a key role in implementation, but has been slow to uptake sustainable practices. We surveyed senior planners in small to medium-sized local government agencies in both countries to identify which features of local government support (or hinder) sustainability in practice.

Environmentally sustainable practices are not well entrenched in either country. In the USA, the framing of sustainability and public support are significant predictors of implementation. However, sustainability is rarely a priority. In NZ, local government capacity is the main driver of implementation. We recommend that planners promote sustainability values, reconcile economic development goals with sustainability (e.g., green economy model), and translate public support for sustainability into institutional priorities. NZ localities also need increased capacity and US localities need continued Federal and State support.     

Earthquake Planning for Government Continuity

/ The problem of assuring government operational continuity following earthquakes has been given little research attention. Recent earthquake experience has documented that government organizations without a public safety mission do incur damaged facilities and routinely see increases in public demands following an earthquake. Impediments to service delivery associated with such dam-ages can be minimized if agencies address earthquake plan elements likely to enhance postimpact functioning, including: the potential to relocate operations, protection for the workplace, possession of an organizational inventory, emergency instructions for employees, the ability to use volunteers, and communication capacity. Factors associated with the adoption of these plan elements were studied in one county government and its municipal county seat in the southwestern United States. A census of departments within these jurisdictions was asked to complete a questionnaire reporting the level of planning activity relative to each of these plan elements. It was found that the overall level of preparedness was low, but statistically significantly related to agency size, perceived risk, and information seeking. The implications of these findings underscore the potential for disruption to government service delivery and permit the identification of potential avenues for increasing levels of preparedness.KEY WORDS: Emergency planning; Earthquakes; Government preparedness     

Framing fracking: scale-shifting and greenwashing risk in the oil and gas industry

In this paper, I examine corporate environmental communication on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and industry efforts to shape public perception of resource extraction and its impacts on the environment. I look at how the oil and gas industry (OGI) frames fracking to ease public fear by downplaying risk and shifting its scale with rhetoric presenting the benefits of this emergent technology. Contrasting and building on ecological modernisation versus risk society ideas, I use OGI print advertising supplemented by corporate social responsibility statements and other online material to critically evaluate framing in light of the practice of corporate greenwashing. Findings reveal OGI efforts to positively portray fracking in the interest of unfettered resource extraction and profits from energy production. Several themes emerge in OGI framing rhetoric, starting with the establishment of trust through education and claims of transparency and continuing with ideas touting safety and responsibility, scientific progress, economic benefits and jobs, energy security, environmental protection, and sustainability. On the whole, such rhetoric reflects ecological modernisation ideas that shift the perception of risk and its consequences, framing fracking in a way that obscures the negative impacts of dependency on a fossil fuel-based economy.     

Managing the intractable: communicative structures for management of hexachlorobenzene and other scheduled wastes

This paper explores issues of governance and decision-making structures associated with the problem of hexachlorobenzene (HCB) waste at Botany in New South Wales. From a government perspective, the problem is ‘downstream’ of a well-known national controversy over whether Australia should have a high-temperature incinerator (HTI) to ‘dispose’ of such scheduled wastes. The 1992 decision not to proceed with HTI followed an extensive process of public consultation, which, against the expectations of industry and government, saw the emergence of Australia-wide community opposition. Alternative national management plans were formulated for the treatment of several types of organochlorine waste, with the scheme of these plans first approved in 1993 by the Australian and New Zealand Environment and Conservation Council (ANZECC). The HCB Management Plan is one of three such plans (the others being for PCBs and organochlorine pesticides). With this, ANZECC established the Scheduled Waste Management Group comprising government officials, and the National Advisory Body (NAB) made up of stakeholders. Officially the NAB had oversight of the HCB problem until 2002 when it was disbanded. As a result of the HTI experience, new community consultation protocols were introduced in association with the alternative management plans. For HCBs, which are confined almost entirely to Orica's Botany site in southeastern Sydney, this led to the establishment of the Community Participation and Review Committee (CPRC), a representative body with review and advisory functions. This paper draws conclusions from this history about government processes of decision making, the role of individual and institutional actors, the central importance of trust, and the democratisation of risk management. Using concepts delineated by McDonell [1991. Toxic waste management in Australia: why did policy reform fail? Environment 33(6), 11–13, 33–39; 1997. Scientific and everyday knowledge: trust and the politics of environmental initiatives. Social Studies of Science 27, 819–863.] we identify swings towards, then away from institutionalised trust. Across two decades, government and industry have placed faith in centrally controlled mechanisms for public participation, hoping to garner trust and legitimate privileged technological solutions. On the ‘backswings’, these processes have seen public trust dissipate in the face of government misunderstanding of the opportunities for effective bureaucratic interventions.     

Planning for environmental project implementation and development: as exemplified by the songklha lake basin planning study,Thailand

Summary This paper describes use of the economic-cumenvironmental regional development planning process (as differentiated from regional economic planning and regional environmental planning) for its first application in the Asia-Pacific region, for The Songkhla Lake Basin Planning Study, in southern Thailand. The study project was carried out, with Asian Development Bank (ADB) loan financing, as a joint venture of the national economic and national environmental planning agencies. Because of its pioneering nature, in both technical and institutional aspects, numerous lessons were learned from the project. These are described, and yield guidelines valuable for future studies of this type.Dr Harvey F. Ludwig, Chairman of Seatec International Consulting Engineers in Bangkok, has a unique record of distinguished experience in environmental engineering. This includes, in addition to his present role, experience as a professor at the University of California at Berkeley, in research (four USA national awards), in government (as Assistant Chief Engineer of the US Public Health Service Engineering Group, the predecessor to USEPA), and with numerous international assistance agencies including the World Bank, ADB, and many UN affiliates. Dr Ludwig moved to live in Bangkok in 1973 and has since been a continuing adviser to the National Environment Board of Thailand and to the Institutes of Water Resources Research of Indonesia. He is the author/coauthor of some 160 professional publications and the senior author of a textbook onEnvironmental Technology in Developing Countries, now being printed by CRC Press of Boca Raton, Florida. His work record includes projects in more than 30 Developing countries.     

Taming B.C. Hydro: Site C and the implementation of the B.C. Utilities Commission Act

Public policy making in resources management is greatly influenced by the institutional arrangements that arise out of the legal powers, administrative structures, and financial provisions of the decision system. In British Columbia, the institutional arrangements for energy planning in the province have been greatly altered by the passage of the Utilities Commission Act in 1980. This act redefines the policy implementation process for energy in British Columbia and provides for the regulation of the province's power utility, B.C. Hydro. This is the first time that the hitherto autonomous utility has been subject to regulation and the Utilities Commission Act represents a major reform in the institutional arrangements for energy planning in the province. The article evaluates the effectiveness of the 1980 B.C. Utilities Commission Act and assesses the impact of the legislation upon the institutional arrangements for energy planning in the province. Data for the article were derived from written sources and a series of personal interviews with key participants involved with energy planning in B.C.It is shown that the act represented a major departure in the management of energy resources in B.C. Moreover the implementation of the act's provisions, particularly in regard to B.C. Hydro, had a dramatic impact on the development of new energy projects in the province. It is suggested that while the political and economic climate during the period also favored restraint, the major influence on taming the utility was passage of the Utilities Commission Act. The article concludes by exploring the implications of policy changes that have occurred as a consequence of the act's impact on B.C. Hydro.     

PLANNING PROCESS FOR PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN REGIONAL WATER RESOURCES PLANNING1

ABSTRACT: The state of Texas passed legislation in 1997 that established a process for developing a 50‐year state water plan through a bottoms‐up approach involving representation from at least 11 recommended special interest groups. Moorhouse Associates Inc. was contracted to develop and implement a Public Participation Plan for the South Central Texas Region. The two goals of the public process were to take planning information out to the public and to provide a format for bringing the public opinion back to the planning group. The overall goal of the project was to provide public input throughout the planning process that will facilitate the development of a water plan that is widely accepted by the public. By using county government to establish focus groups, participation was encouraged from all of the twenty‐one counties in the region. The tools used in the process included an Internet site, surveys, focus groups, public meetings, community group presentations, media communications, and newspaper clippings. The public participation process as implemented, maintained communication throughout the planning process and at key decision points. This ongoing communication helped alleviate an initial uneasiness with the integrated resource planning approach.