NEW REQUIREMENTS FOR LOCAL UNITS OF GOVERNMENT IN WATER RESOURCES PLANNING: INSIGHTS FOR IMPLEMENTATION FROM RECENT WATER RESOURCES PLANNING RESEARCH1

ABSTRACT: Recent Federal and some State legislation has enlarged the scope of permitted or required actions of local units of government in water resources management and protection. Much of the legislation encourages local units of government to introduce water resources planning measures which will be preventive instead of corrective. Extensive public works measures, environmental destruction and the threat to human life can thus be eliminated or reduced. Research has developed and tested a method for identifying the elements of a water resources protection program for small urbanizing watersheds which was technically adequate and socially acceptable to the communities implementing such programs. Research results suggest that deliberate efforts will be necessary to inform and educate local units of government as to the usefulness of the legislation; and that the program must reflect local natural resource conditions and local preferences for the method of accomplishing the protection. Successful implementation could be restrained by inertia of local units of government, a lack of tradition in such programs, and hostile existing agencies.     

EMERGING STATE ROLES IN URBAN STORMWATER MANAGEMENT1

ABSTRACT: The technology of urban stormwater management has far outpaced its actual application in new urban development. This article documents that implementation gap, but shows that state and local governmental measures, particularly storm drainage regulations, can lead to improved performance in the private sector. Although state stormwater management programs are in their infancy, they are already having a measurable effect in stimulating the adoption of local governmental programs to manage urban storm water. Pioneering state programs in Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, described in this article, provide models for states contemplating the formulation of stormwater management programs.     

INSTITUTIONAL INTERACTION IN METROPOLITAN WATER RESOURCE PLANNING1

ABSTRACT Methods of institutional coordination derived from the applied behavioral sciences have been useful in determining the policy planning, and implementation responsibilities that must be shared between local governments, watershed districts, and a regional planning body in the Minneapolis-St. Paul Metropolitan Area. The confines of the traditional behavioral science models of organizations and institutional change processes, and the realities of administrative systems imbedded in political processes at both the local and state levels, have created conflicts between regional planners, watershed district staff and consultants, and municipal administrators. A conceptual framework based on work by Selznick on institutions was applied to two watershed districts, and the results evaluated for other research purposes as well as policy development for the 1973 Minnesota legislative session.     

Do people have a negative impression of government on polluted days? Evidence from Chinese Cities

Chinese governments play a key role in providing environmental public goods. Urban air quality is a significant indicator with which people evaluate the effects of governments’ environmental regulations and investments. This study aims to investigate how people's impression of government varies with air pollution in Chinese cities. Using the Baidu online search index on the specific keyword ‘corruption’ to represent public attitude toward the government, our estimations show that an increase in air pollution level yields a significant increase in online searches on this word. Such an effect is more significant on heavily polluted or severely polluted days. In further estimations, we find that people will not pay more attention to the polluters themselves on polluted days. These results are consistent with previous studies that air pollution causes people to be more depressed, selfish and sensitive to fairness. We conclude that efforts on air quality improvement will create a positive impression of government.     

Institutional quality effects on separate waste collection: some evidence from Italian provinces

Separate waste collection in Italy comes under the responsibility of local authorities, provinces, while national laws set quantitative targets to be achieved over time. Overall, just a few provinces have reached the thresholds set by the latest law (Legislative Decree 152/2006) and some territorial differentiation has been detected. The aim of this paper is twofold: to verify the effectiveness of Legislative Decree 152/2006 in promoting higher levels of separate collection and to test whether institutional quality (considering the following indicators: voice and accountability, regulatory quality, rule of law and corruption) affects provinces’ efficiency in the separate collection process. For this purpose, we implement the stochastic frontier analysis (SFA). Results suggest that the effectiveness of Legislative Decree 152/2006 has been affected by provinces’ institutional quality. In particular, the presence of institutional constraints did not allow the most virtuous provinces to achieve the targets set by law.     

现阶段环境监测在市场经济中的地位浅析

环境监测是一项政府行为，如何在社会主义市场经济条件下，正确处理“政府行为”与市场经济的矛盾，已成为各级环保部门共同探讨的、需要妥善解决的问题。因此，根据经济学的有关理论，对环境监测这一领域在社会主义市场经济中所处的地位、作用作了全面论述，并对理解环境监测的“政府行为”提出看法和见解。     

政府部门建立ISO14001环境管理体系探讨

本文从城市的可持续发展战略的高度出发，论述了政府部门建立ISO14001环境管理体系的必要性和可行性，并从九个方面阐述了建立环境管理体系的重要意义。     

政府制度安排与循环经济发展

发展循环经济,建立循环型社会需要政府、企业和社会公众的共同努力,而在当前的我国发展循环经济需要政府的大力推动,发挥主导作用.就此本文详细分析了当前我国政府在促进循环经济发展过程中应采取的具体措施.     

浅析政府和市场在环境保护中的作用

在环境保护与治理中，政府和市场均扮演了重要角色，但由于历史和体制的种种原因，在我国的环境保护与治理中，政府的作用被夸大，而市场的作用不明显，使环境保护与治理效益低下，本文对政府和市场在环境保护与治理中应发挥的作用进行了分析，并对环境管理的经济手段做了进一步的阐述。     

结合数字签名和电子图章技术实现公文认证

对于电子政务中的公文认证问题,本文借助加密和数字签名理论以及数字图像处理技术实现公文流转的安全性及公文的权威认证,使其达到了安全性和直观性的统一。