EFFICIENCY PROBLEMS FROM USER FEES IN MUNICIPAL WASTEWATER TREATMENT1

ABSTRACT: The Environmental Protection Agency administers a construction grant program to encourage abatement of wastewater pollution by sharing with municipalities the costs of wastewater treatment facilities. The enabling legislation (P.L. 92–500) specifies that EPA's cost share will be 75% of construction costs. It further requires municipalities to collect user fees from industrial users of the facilities to repay that part of the federal grant allocable to the treatment of industrial wastewater. The municipality must return half of the user fees collected to the U.S. Treasury; the municipality is allowed to retain the remaining half. Retention by municipalities of these user fees lowers their effective cost shares and results in the following consequences: (1) a bias for municipalities to select certain kinds of abatement techniques regardless of whether or not they are the least-cost techniques from the national perspective; (2) a bias for municipalities to select larger-than-optimal scales of abatement facilities; (3) a hidden federal subsidy to industry; and (4) grants that favor industrial communities. This article examines the legislative and regulatory requirements for user charges, derives the algebraic expressions for calculating the real federal, municipal, and industrial cost shares with user fees; computes municipal cost shares for selected values of the determinant factors; evaluates efficiency and other consequences of current user fee arrangements; and concludes that the efficiency distortions brought about by the impacts of user fees on cost sharing could be eliminated by requiring that all user fees collected from industry against the federal cost share be returned to the U.S. Treasury.     

Urban waterfowl population: Ecological evaluation of management and planning

An urban population of ducks in Puyallup, Washington, USA was studied for 14 consecutive months beginning in November 1978. Observations were made weekly from four study sites where ducks would congregate at early morning hours. Factors contributing to the presence of waterfowl in Puyallyup included abundant food supplies and a creek corridor that connected fragmented habitats in the urban area to the larger rural populations of waterfowl. Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) were the most abundant of the 13 species observed and were the only ducks remaining during the nesting season. Habitat size and complexity were important factors influencing the species diversity of a particular site. Nesting success of mallards was poor due to limited distribution of nesting habitat, intraspecific aggression, and human disturbance. Both site-specific and more broad-based strategies are suggested for managing and planning for duck populations in urban areas.     

ON THE MEASUREMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF PUBLIC PROJECTS FROM A SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE1

ABSTRACT: The major objectives are (1) to identify the problems involved in measuring the environmental impacts of public projects from selected perspectives, and (2) to elaborate a sociological approach used in an empirical investigation in that respect. The construct of environmental impact of a planned action is generally operationalized from different perspectives and with different methodological emphases in the various disciplines. Even the term environment does not elicit agreement among users as to its exact meaning. Although there has been a steady increase in the number of studies from a sociological perspective concerning environmental problems, there is lack of sociological counsel in writing environmental impact statements. Overall, we lack sociological methodology and operational procedures for that purpose. In an attempt to bring some empirical focus to this field, attitudinal measures employed to discover how residents of a river basin perceived negative and positive environmental impacts of a proposed watershed development project are reviewed. These come from a study of creation of the Cooper Reservoir and Dam in Texas. Data on 343 heads of households m the selected areas were collected through structured questionnaires with items on personal information, a vested interest scale, a knowledge of the project scale, and an environmental impact scale. Data show that perception of impacts by residents is influenced significantly by degree of their vested interests involved. Variables for inclusion in a sociological model of environmental impact are suggested.     

Vietnamese Uplands: Environmental and Socio-Economic Perspective of Forest Land Allocation and Deforestation Process

Vietnam, in the ongoing transition to market economies, has to cope with high rural poverty and a dramatic process of forest loss and environment degradation, particularly in the mountainous regions. The government considers rural poverty as the main cause of environment degradation, associated with slash-and-burn cultivation and to an unclear definition of property rights on forest land. In 1993, the government launched a Forest Land Allocation programme aiming to lease forest lands to individual households and, on this basis, to solve food security problems, halt the increasing environment degradation and preserve the remaining forests.To evaluate the results of this land reform policy, two upland pilot communes have been intensively monitored. The environmental and economic impacts of the forest land reform allocation in the two study areas are presented, after providing a background on the Vietnamese situation of mountain zones. On the basis of these findings, it is discussed as to whether the current forest land allocation process may actually promote local development and natural resources conservation, and under what conditions. Deforestation problems must be tackled also with new macroeconomic policies (e.g. credit programmes to support sustainable agriculture practices) and social policy (e.g. reduction of demographic pressure), together with the reform of the State institutions (e.g. State Forest Enterprises) involved in management of the forest areas.     

The role of science-policy interface in sustainable urban water transitions: Lessons from Rotterdam

This paper investigates the role of the science-policy interface in leveraging transitions to sustainable urban water management. The paper presents a case study of the Dutch city of Rotterdam, which is increasingly regarded as a global leader in adaptive and resilient urban water management. The analysis reveals that Rotterdam’s transition has occurred incrementally over the past 15 years, driven by policy entrepreneurs: largely municipal policy makers and policy practitioners. Strategic use of the science-policy interface (SPI) has facilitated the development of innovative solutions to achieve policy goals and created the enabling conditions necessary for transformative change. The Rotterdam case suggests that an effective SPI requires: (1) compelling water narrative; (2) cross-sectoral collaboration; (3) co-production of knowledge; (4) experiential evidence-based learning; (5) strategic use of trusted scientists; (6) fostering networks; and (7) generating business from science-based innovation. Rotterdam’s strategic approach to knowledge and innovation coupled with a new narrative around water sets it apart from many other cities and adds a new dimension to debates regarding enabling factors for advancing sustainable practices. These findings will be of interest to those engaged in urban water management policy and practice, environmental governance, and debates over transitions more broadly.     

隧道排污量估算与治污效果预测

通过隧道排污量和排污效果的简单分析，指出了其排污治理过程中应注意的有关事项，如进 行人口控制，改善居民的生活方式，提高环境保护意识和治理技术等，所述分析方法可供其它类似 工程参考。     

广西典型岩溶水系统环境中222Rn的分布及指示意义

放射性同位素氡222是来源于地层中铀衰变生成的惰性元素.由于其半衰期只有3.82d，且其活度在地下水和地表水中差异显著，近年来氡在水文学中的应用日渐兴起.但²²²Rn在岩溶环境中的分布和行为特征少有研究.以广西三个典型岩溶水系统为例，研究²²²Rn在包气带、非饱和带和饱水带中的浓度分布和指示意义.发现²²²Rn在上部包气带中的活度不足500Bq/m³，但在非饱和带中有局部异常高区，与局部小地质构造的分布有关.在饱水带中，地下水的滞留时间、不同地下水组分的混合和氡运移的距离等是导致²²²Rn活度差异的原因.管道介质的²²²Rn活度比裂隙介质的高；含水介质土壤覆盖层大的比土壤浅薄的普遍高.在大型岩溶水系统的排泄区，地下水补给河流，河流也可能短暂反补地下水，由于地下水和河流²²²Rn的差异显著，²²²Rn可能成为地下水-地表水相互作用研究的理想示踪剂.     

人与居室环境

本文通过对居室环境概念的阐述,剖析了人与居室环境功能的关系,并指出了居室环境对人行为的规范作用及营造良好居室环境的重要性。     

The value of urban ecosystem services in New York City: A spatially explicit multicriteria analysis of landscape scale valuation scenarios

Mapping, modeling, and valuing urban ecosystem services are important for integrating the ecosystem services concept in urban planning and decision-making. However, decision-support tools able to consider multiple ecosystem services in the urban setting using complex and heterogeneous data are still in early development. Here, we use New York City (NYC) as a case study to evaluate and analyze how the value of multiple ecosystem services of urban green infrastructure shifts with shifting governance priorities. We first examined the spatial distribution of five ecosystem services – storm water absorption, carbon storage, air pollution removal, local climate regulation, and recreation – to create the first multiple ecosystem services evaluation of all green infrastructure in NYC. Then, combining an urban ecosystem services landscape approach with spatial multicriteria analysis weighting scenarios, we examine the distribution of these ecosystem services in the city. We contrast the current NYC policy preference – which is focused on heavy investment in stormwater absorption – with a valuation approach that also accounts for other ecosystem services. We find substantial differences in the spatial distribution of priority areas for green infrastructure for the valuation scenarios. Among the scenarios we examined for NYC, we find that a scenario in which only stormwater absorption is prioritized leads to the most unevenly distributed ES values. By contrast, we find least variation in ES values where stormwater absorption, local climate regulation, carbon storage, air pollution removal, and recreational potential are all weighted equally.We suggest that green infrastructure planning strategies should include all landscape components that contribute to the production of ecosystem services and consider how planning priority alternatives generate different ecosystem services values.     

Using participatory geographic approaches for urban flood risk in Santiago de Chile: Insights from a governance analysis

Studies based on information acquired by participative geographic approaches have sought to cope with emergency situations and disasters such as floods. However, the impact of these approaches to flood risk governance systems in order to understand these types of events as a complete risk cycle is still not clear. This paper focuses on analysing the governance possibilities of using participative geographic information like volunteered and public participatory geographic information for flood risk reduction in the case of Santiago de Chile, a city which regularly experiences urban floods during rainy seasons. Based on in-depth interviews and document analysis, our study indicates that a relevant part of the current information used for flood risk reduction efforts is provided to local and regional authorities by the affected population. Though, local actors are not recognized by central agencies as valid agents for the production of official information. Moreover, there are neither instances of communication or deliberation with the community, which reduces the capacity of local actors to discuss possible solutions. Participative geographic instruments are seen as potential mechanisms to strengthen work relations among local actors and authorities, by enhancing new logics for producing and sharing information. The impacts for the current risk governance system though can be diverse depending on the participants' level of commitment of participants and the political relations between actors and agencies. Considered as merely data acquisition and analysis mechanisms, participative instruments reproduce the existing hierarchical top-down structures. Furthermore, local-based approaches can enhance local work, support local diagnostics and increase the decision capacity of citizens.