Managing stormwater for urban sustainability: an evaluation of local comprehensive plans in the Chesapeake Bay watershed region

This study uses a developed plan coding protocol in evaluating the quality of 76 comprehensive plans to examine whether local comprehensive plans have adequately integrated the concepts of sustainable stormwater management. The Chesapeake Bay watershed was chosen for the investigation because degraded stormwater runoff from nearby urban and suburban jurisdictions have critically polluted the watershed. The findings indicate that the majority of local governments have not sufficiently incorporated the sustainable stormwater management principles into their comprehensive plans. Five plan components (factual basis, goals and objectives, inter-organizational cooperation, policies, tools and strategies, and implementation) appear weak in realizing the concepts. The current study concludes by providing policy implications and recommendations to increase awareness and understanding of sustainable stormwater management concepts and to produce better implementation plans that integrate stormwater, ecosystem, and environmental planning comprehensively.     

Planning for cooler cities: a plan quality evaluation for Urban Heat Island consideration

ABSTRACT

City strategic plans and enabling policies provide a framework for and inform future development across multiple scales. An exemplar city strategic plan will be one based on evidence, enabled by complementary policy outcomes, and built on the knowledge of the existing landscape. This study evaluated the plan quality of eighteen metropolitan strategic plans for city members in the 100 Resilient Cities initiative. A protocol was developed containing thirty-two indicators to assess plans capacity to act as a strategic planning tool to develop, analyse and implement strategies for the Urban Heat Island (UHI) and climate change mitigation and adaptation. The evaluation indicated that strategies addressing the UHI are rarely included in metropolitan plans. Strategic plans showed a lack of evidence-base to inform the potential actions. Urban warming is often linked to extreme weather events anticipated under climate change, not the UHI as a systemic and increasing phenomenon. We recommend that the pathway to addressing UHI mitigation and adaptation may lie in its nexus to aspects of climate change that concurrently can serve to support liveable and resilient cities.     

Government response to climate change in China: a study of provincial and municipal plans

In this paper, we provide an overview of local and regional climate change plans in China by scrutinizing planning documents from 16 cities, four autonomous regions, and 22 provinces. We develop and apply an evaluation protocol to understand goals, process, and strategies in these plans. We also conduct interviews with government officials to provide a context for subnational climate change planning. The results indicate that current climate change planning in China is characterized by the ‘top-down’ approach, in which the central governmental incentives play a vital role in shaping provincial and municipal plans. In addition, most plans have the following issues: vague definition of what characterizes a low-carbon city/region; deficiency in the quality of greenhouse gas inventory and reduction targets; insufficient strategies provided to respond to climate change; inadequate stakeholder engagement; and weak horizontal coordination. Finally, we offer recommendations to improve climate change planning in China.     

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.     

Environmental performance policy indicators for the public sector: the case of the defence sector

The development of environmental performance policy indicators for public services, and in particular for the defence sector, is an emerging issue. Despite a number of recent initiatives there has been little work done in this area, since the other sectors usually focused on are agriculture, transport, industry, tourism and energy. This type of tool can be an important component for environmental performance evaluation at policy level, when integrated in the general performance assessment system of public missions and activities. The main objective of this research was to develop environmental performance policy indicators for the public sector, specifically applied to the defence sector. Previous research included an assessment of the environmental profile, through the evaluation of how environmental management practices have been adopted in this sector and an assessment of environmental aspects and impacts. This paper builds upon that previous research, developing an indicator framework--SEPI--supported by the selection and construction of environmental performance indicators. Another aim is to discuss how the current environmental indicator framework can be integrated into overall performance management. The Portuguese defence sector is presented and the usefulness of this methodology demonstrated. Feasibility and relevancy criteria are applied to evaluate the set of indicators proposed, allowing indicators to be scored and indicators for the policy level to be obtained.     

Seeking a balance: a procedure-based evaluation of localized approaches for brownfield management in the USA

Brownfield programs in the USA now use bottom–up approaches where the principle agent is no longer federal but local government. Although the approaches by federal government to manage national priority sites are well established, clear approaches for local brownfields and to engage nearby communities are difficult to find. This study sought to determine whether the current approaches adopted by local municipalities are effective and identify the challenges experienced to develop guidelines tailored to meet the needs of local projects. The results revealed that the effectiveness of local brownfield programs is often challenged by the existing normative assessment procedure utilized by the federal government. Experts’ interviews provided evidence that legislation set up to eliminate contamination is actually hurting efforts to reuse lightly polluted local sites. The challenges were associated with outreach activities, particularly those involving reluctant property owners and developers. Community residents had only a minimal opportunity to participate in decision-making.     

Comparative study of photovoltaic technologies based on performance,cost and space requirement: Strategy for selection and application

The module performance is an important consideration for selecting PV technologies for electricity production, as well as the economic aspect. Also, PV energy yield under varying environmental conditions is largely dependent on the type of technology used. Therefore, this article presents a comparative analysis of different PV modules, of the same power, namely, monocrystalline, polycrystalline, amorphous silicon and hybrid, based on performance, cost and space requirement. The performance is evaluated in terms of module power output, yield, capture losses, fill factor and efficiency, according to the IEC 61724 standards, using Gwako, Nigeria as a case study. A novel technique called Fundamental PV Module Performance Analysis is used to analyze and compare the performance of the PV modules. The performance of a single module is then employed to calculate the overall performance of a PV array designed for a small off-grid house, and a suitable module is determined amongst the modules under study. Results provide insights into the behaviors of the different technologies with the environmental factors of the location, which have an impact on their power and kWh/kW outputs and the efficiency. This knowledge, coupled with the understanding of the constraints of cost and the module space requirements would be useful to researchers, engineers, installers etc. in Nigeria, for planning and developing photovoltaic electric systems for off-grid applications.     

Participatory diagnosis in urban planning: proposal for a learning process based on geographical information

Urban planning involves compromise between the diverse and often contradictory issues supported by the different stakeholders. The literature generally agrees on the need to broaden the participation base to overcome this difficulty. However, participation should not be limited to problem solving, but should also take place in the problem setting phase. This paper proposes a participatory diagnosis process for structuring the problem setting phase. We describe an experiment in a participatory diagnosis conducted with the residents of a Geneva neighborhood. The experiment began by identifying the residents' concerns, which were then reformulated under broader issues. Some 20 spatial indicators were built using GIS tools, and were then applied in a second phase of resident consultations to assess the relative importance of each issue. The ensuing priority issues formed the core of the diagnosis. The approach emphasized comparison between the daily experiences of residents and so-called official information (i.e. census tract, traffic measurement, and so on). The residents were therefore involved in a learning process that allowed them to consolidate or modify their opinions. The process led to the emergence of a clearly defined collective awareness that supplanted individual aspirations.     

Multilevel assessment of a large-scale programme for poverty alleviation and wetland conservation: lessons from South Africa

The implementation of large-scale programmes for environment and development presents two main challenges: the tensions between both goals and the disconnect across policy levels. To contribute to overcoming these challenges, we assess a national multi-partnership programme for poverty alleviation and wetland restoration in South Africa: Working for Wetlands. We analyse this innovative polycentric programme at the macro and micro levels. At the national level, we assess the policy development and implementation model. At the local level, we analyse its impact on livelihoods and on opinions about development and the environment at a specific location. We use data from in-depth interviews across scales, household surveys (n = 47) and focus group discussions. The strengths of this programme can inform more effective design of further large-scale environment and development policies. However, critical issues originated at the national scale are likely to hinder the permanence of improvements at the micro level.     

Closing the water cycle for industrial laundries: An operational performance and techno-economic evaluation of a full-scale membrane bioreactor system

To reduce the consumption of freshwater in the laundry industry, a new trend of closing the water cycle has resulted in the reuse/recycling of water. In this study, the performance of a full-scale submerged aerobic membrane bioreactor (9 m³) used to treat/reuse industrial laundry wastewater was examined over a period of 288 days. The turbidity and total solids (TS) were reduced by 99%, and the chemical oxygen demand (COD) effluent removal efficiencies were between 70% and 99%. The levels of COD removed by the membrane were significantly greater than the levels of biodegraded COD. This enabled the bioreactor to sustain COD levels that were below 100 mg/L, even during periods of low wastewater biodegradation due to bioreactor sludge. An economic evaluation of the membrane bioreactor (MBR) system showed a savings of 1.13 € per 1 m³ of water. The payback period for this system is approximately 6 years. The energy and maintenance costs represent only 5% of the total cost of the MBR system.     

Towards a framework for assessing the sustainability of local economic development based on natural resources: honeybush tea in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa

Despite the popularity of local economic development (LED) as a job creation and economic growth strategy in South Africa, many LED projects have not proved to be sustainable in the long-run, especially where human systems interact with biological ones. This article examines the relationship between sustainability and LED within the context of the emerging honeybush tea industry in the Eastern Cape. Data were gathered from provincial as well as local government policy documents and reports, and via key informant interviews. The data were analysed using Connelly’s [(2007). Mapping sustainable development as a contested concept. Local Environment, 12 (3), 259–278] three pronged approach to sustainable development as a lens through which to view the local industry. Findings showed that the industry offers many opportunities for development, including job creation in poorer, rural households; sustainable wild harvesting using a permit system; commercial cultivation; potential to develop social capital; potential for community-based LED; and product diversification. However, there are also corresponding challenges: There is currently no reliable data on the maximum sustainable yield, which is needed to guide quota allocations for entrepreneurial harvesters harvesting from wild stocks; possible biodiversity loss; and enforcing the permit scheme is proving difficult in remote rural areas.