Can market-based policies accomplish the optimal floodplain management? A gap between static and dynamic models

The purpose of this short article is to set static and dynamic models for optimal floodplain management and to compare policy implications from the models. River floodplains are important multiple resources in that they provide various ecosystem services. It is fundamentally significant to consider environmental externalities that accrue from ecosystem services of natural floodplains. There is an interesting gap between static and dynamic models about policy implications for floodplain management, although they are based on the same assumptions. Essentially, we can derive the same optimal conditions, which imply that the marginal benefits must equal the sum of the marginal costs and the social external costs related to ecosystem services. Thus, we have to internalise the external costs by market-based policies. In this respect, market-based policies seem to be effective in a static model. However, they are not sufficient in the context of a dynamic model because the optimal steady state turns out to be unstable. Based on a dynamic model, we need more coercive regulation policies.     

Do the variable charges really increase the effectiveness and economy of waste management? A case study of the Czech Republic

According to the European regulation regarding waste management (which is reflected in the increasing pressure on municipal waste separation and recycling) the choice of suitable political instruments seems to be crucial. Based on scientific research, the variable charges are considered as an effective choice for the regulation. Unfortunately, scientific research is not followed by a local decision making process within the Czech Republic. One of the reasons discussed in this paper is the economy of variable charges and their influence on administrative costs and total costs of the municipal waste management system. There is no doubt that the effectiveness of variable charges is higher than by fixed fees, but the crucial question for local representatives is not the effectiveness but the economy of charges in the waste management.     

Can area managers connect policy and tenants? Implementation and diffusion of a new waste management system in Linköping,Sweden

Recycling and reducing household waste are political goals internationally, nationally and locally. In Sweden, households in apartment buildings seem to sort their waste to a lesser extent than households in single-family houses. This paper analyses the challenges of the diffusion of a new waste management system in apartment buildings, and focuses on a municipal housing company and the actions of its area managers. It is argued that area managers can be regarded as street-level bureaucrats who act as ‘collectors’ of tenants’ everyday practices in the studied implementation process. The study is based on interviews, document analysis and observations.     

Abatement cost curves: a viable management tool for enabling the achievement of win-win waste reduction strategies?

Environmental regulation of industrial activity is generally believed to have a negative impact on the industry. Recent literature has suggested, however, that reducing industrial waste outputs can, in some circumstances, result in a 'win-win', or at least 'win-draw', scenario for industry and the environment. The viability of using the abatement cost curve method as a management tool to enable the achievement of a 'win-win' state is investigated here. Copper pollution in the Humber Estuary is used as a case-study, and the abatement cost curve methodology proves to be a valuable tool in identifying barriers to achieving the win-win state, and also in providing future direction for the waste management strategy. Abatement cost curves are concluded to be powerful management tools which greatly improve the transparency of waste reduction information.     

Coastal zone management – between politics and law: new guidelines for differentiated management of the shore zone in Norway

Norway has more than 100,000?km of coastline and associated shore zone. The shore zone is an attractive area for development and infrastructure on the one hand, and recreation and protection of biological diversity on the other. The Norwegian Planning and Building Act contains a general ban on any building in the area between the ordinary high water mark and up to 100?m inland from the shoreline. Exemptions can be granted, however, by the competent municipality through land planning and individual decisions. The importance attached to leaving the shore zone untouched varies from region to region. There are large geographical differences in terms of biodiversity, cultural heritage, landscape, development, development pressure, migration and depopulation, and commercial activity, as well as public access to the coastal areas and the ocean. Since 2011, the entire Norwegian shore zone became subject to guidelines that regulate a geographical differentiation of management and a more severe protection of central areas. This article analyses key aspects of the Norwegian shore zone regulation.     

Implementing SDG 15: Can large‐scale public programs help deliver biodiversity conservation,restoration and management,while assisting human development?

Among the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the proposed SDG 15 promotes activities that, inter alia, “Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems”. An important potential contribution in achieving SDG 15 is through public programmes designed to jointly promote human development through poverty alleviation and improvement of human livelihoods and biodiversity conservation/management/restoration. An analysis of twenty public programmes with such joint objectives yielded twelve lessons learned. In addition to financial commitments, government and intergovernmental agency input for such public programmes includes ensuring political will and appropriate legal frameworks. Local communities and civil society provide input through traditional and indigenous ecological knowledge and stewardship. Appropriate shared inputs in development and the implementation of such public programmes, with communication between local community, broader civil society, the scientific community and governments will result in: better use and management of biodiversity; alleviation of poverty; security of livelihoods and better governance systems. The Ecosystem Approach of the Convention on Biological Diversity provides an ideal framework when planning and implementing new programmes. Application of the lessons learned to new public programmes will ensure that the answer to the question posed in the title is an emphatic “Yes”, and assist with the achievement of SDG 15.     

The evolution of municipal waste management in Europe: how different are national regimes?

The 1994 European Directive on Packaging and Packaging Waste allowed a diversity of conceptions of waste management to be developed and tested in various countries. Such a diversity may raise drawbacks related to the achievement of the single market and the European law of competition. The paper describes the main differences in waste management regimes in five countries: France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and Greece. This comparative approach allows us, first, to identify four main variables in order to characterize policy regimes, explaining the degree of orientation of waste regimes to cost-effectiveness. Second, we will show that implementation has resulted, in each country, in learning, correction and self-regulation, thus reducing the initial divergences between national regimes. Hence, efficient harmonization of waste management regimes may be achieved unexpectedly in a soft way without passing stringent European directives. Moreover, if policy-makers were to adopt explicitly the option of experimenting with competing organizational and policy concepts, as an approach to European harmonization, it would reveal, by 2004, the cost-effectiveness of alternative solutions at a time when European policy has to be reconsidered. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Multi-objective optimization of waste and resource management in industrial networks – Part I: Model description

This article presents a general multi-objective mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) optimization model aimed at providing decision support for waste and resources management in industrial networks. The MILP model combines material flow analysis, process models of waste treatments and other industrial processes, life cycle assessment, and mathematical optimization techniques within a unified framework. The optimization is based on a simplified representation of industrial networks that makes use of linear process models to describe the flows of mass and energy. Waste-specific characteristics, e.g. heating value or heavy metal contamination, are considered explicitly along with potential technologies or process configurations. The systems perspective, including both provision of waste treatment and industrial production, enables constraints imposed upon the systems, e.g. available treatment capacities, to be explicitly considered in the model. The model output is a set of alternative system configurations in terms of distribution of waste and resources that optimize environmental and economic performance. The MILP also enables quantification of the improvement potential compared to a given reference state. Trade-offs between conflicting objectives are identified through the generation of a set of Pareto-efficient solutions. This information supports the decision making process by revealing the quantified performance of the efficient trade-offs without relying on weighting being expressed prior to the analysis. Key features of the modeling approach are illustrated in a hypothetical case. The optimization model described in this article is applied in a subsequent paper (Part II) to assess and optimize the thermal treatment of sewage sludge in a region in Switzerland.     

Creating and sustaining community capacity for ecosystem-based management: Is local government the key?

Recently, collaborative approaches to natural resource management have been widely promoted as ways to broaden participation and community involvement in furthering the goals of ecosystem management. The language of collaboration has even been incorporated into controversial legislation, such as the US Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003. This research examines collaboration and sharing management responsibility for federal public land with local communities through a case study of the Ashland Municipal Watershed in southern Oregon. A policy sciences approach is used to analyze community participation and institutional relationships between the US Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, and local city government in the planning processes of five land management actions occurring over a 7-year period. The knowledge gained from examining differing approaches to planning and decision making in the Ashland watershed is used to suggest future planning processes to develop and sustain the community capacity necessary to support implementation of community-based ecosystem management.     

Multi-objective optimization of waste and resource management in industrial networks – Part II: Model application to the treatment of sewage sludge

In the present article, the thermal treatment of digested sewage sludge generated in the Swiss region of Zürich is modeled and optimized from an environmental perspective. The optimization problem is solved using a multi-objective mixed-integer linear program that combines material flow analysis, process models, life cycle assessment (LCA), and mathematical optimization techniques. The treatment options include co-incineration in municipal solid waste incineration, co-processing in cement production, and mono-incineration with the prospect of phosphorus recovery. The model is optimized according to six environmental objectives. Five of the six single-objective optimal solutions involve splits over the treatment options. The results reflect the available treatment capacities and other constraints, aspects rarely considered in conventional LCA studies. Co-processing in cement production is used to the maximum extent possible when minimizing impacts on climate change, human toxicity, fossil resource depletion, and fully aggregated impacts (ReCiPe H/A), whereas mono-incineration with phosphorus recovery receives the bulk of the sludge when optimizing for ecotoxicity and mineral resource depletion. Four of the single-objective optimal solutions (minimization of fossil energy resource depletion and contribution to climate change, human toxicity, and fully aggregated impacts) outperform the reference case over the six impact categories considered, showing that the current situation can be improved in some environmental categories without compromising others. The results of the sensitivity analysis indicate that assumptions regarding the product systems displaced by recovered by-products are critical for the outcome of the optimization. Our approach identifies in all of the cases solutions in which significant environmental improvements can be attained.     

Squandered profit opportunities? Some historical perspective on industrial waste and the Porter Hypothesis

Despite numerous studies, the ‘Porter Hypothesis’ (PH), which states well-designed regulations can compel manufacturers to develop innovations with both economic and environmental benefits, remains unsettled. We examine two significant cases for which PH claims were once made: the British alkali industry and the (Tennessee) Copper Basin smelting operations. Our conclusions are: (1) the PH is based on a flawed understanding of how ‘win win’ innovations spontaneously emerge in competitive settings, (2) regulatory pressures were only one (and typically minor) factor, and (3) “strict and well designed” environmental regulations are unlikely to deliver superior outcomes to traditional property rights-based approaches.     

A value proposition: Resource recovery from faecal sludge—Can it be the driver for improved sanitation?

There is currently a lack of access to affordable sanitation in urban areas of Sub-Saharan Africa. This study evaluated the potential for resource recovery from innovative faecal sludge treatment processes to generate a profit that could help sustain the sanitation service chain. A total of 242 interviews were conducted in Accra, Ghana; Dakar, Senegal; and Kampala, Uganda to compare markets in different cultural and regional contexts. Products identified to have potential market value include dry sludge as a fuel for combustion, biogas from anaerobic digestion, protein derived from sludge processing as animal feed, sludge as a component in building materials, and sludge as a soil conditioner. The market demand and potential revenue varied from city to city based on factors such as sludge characteristics, existing markets, local and regional industrial sectors, subsidies, and locally available materials. Use as a soil conditioner, which has been the most common end use of treated sludge, was not as profitable as other end uses. These findings should help policy and decision makers of sanitation service provision to design financially viable management systems based on resource recovery options.     

A simple mineral market model: Can it produce super cycles in prices?

This paper develops a stylized supply–demand model for a mineral/nonrenewable commodity. It embodies important distinctions between short-run and long-run mineral supply and the derived demand for minerals as intermediate goods in production sectors with differing intensities of use. This framework is used to address the question: under what conditions might one expect to observe super cycles (i.e. cycles with a period of 20–70 years) in minerals prices? A plausible time path for GDP$GDP$ growth and the structural transformation that accompanies economic development in an emerging region is specified. Using these drivers and reasonable supply and demand parameters, price dynamics are simulated. The result is an asymmetric price cycle with a peak price that is about 250% above trend and an expansion phase that lasts for about 20 years. Thus, this simple model is capable of producing a single cycle with a frequency and amplitude in the range estimated in the empirical literature on super cycles. As other regions reach the development ‘take-off' phase, additional super cycles should emerge.     

Environmental management systems: Opportunities for improved environmental and business strategy?

Less than four years after publication of ISO 14001, thousands of organizations worldwide have adopted the standard. In this article, researchers working with the National Database on Environmental Management Systems (NDEMS) review some preliminary data on organizations' experiences with EMS adoption and implementation. Their findings indicate that, although organizations may face hurdles in implementing EMSs, the majority believes the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Are EMS environmentally effective? The link between environmental management systems and environmental performance in European companies

Based on the analysis of a large dataset on the environmental performance of European companies in five industrial sectors, this paper examines the question of whether the presence of an environmental management system (EMS) has a positive impact on the eco-efficiency of companies. It begins with a review of evidence about the link between EMS and environmental performance in business organisations, finding that, despite much research, there is still little quantitative evidence. The second part of the paper uses three independent statistical methods (simple correlations, Jaggi-Freedman indices and a ‘trend differences’ approach) to assess whether companies and production sites with EMS perform better than those without and whether performance improves after an EMS has been introduced. The paper shows that there is currently no evidence that EMS have a consistent and significant positive impact on environmental performance. Policy action based on the simple assumption that companies with an EMS perform better than those without therefore seems inappropriate.