Most countries aim to regulate and protect the state of our environment under a system of environmental standards to control the level of certain pollutants present in various media of concern. Many such standards are often set without due consideration of uncertainty and variation and based on poorly defined principles. A sound statisticallybased approach to setting environmental standards can be based on the statistically verifiable ideal standard (SVIS) of Barnett and O'Hagan (1997). The SVIS is developed and practical implications of its use considered in terms of applications to pollution situations in air, water and soil, working in co-operation with relevant bodies. Developments include a non-parametric binomial approach and quantile testing for several simple parent pollutant distributions; properties of these approaches are examined in detail. A best linear unbiased quantile estimator (BLUQE) is examined, and 5% and 1 % critical values for the 0.95 and 0.99 BLUQE tabulated for use in an approximate significance testing procedure. This work is extended to a BLUQE for ranked set sampling, demonstrating impressive efficiency gains. Assessment of the SVIS using composite sample data is also investigated, with major improvements in test perrormance over the use of the commonly accepted 'divide-by-n' rule for critical value calculation. Following Barnett and O'Hagan (1997), the problem of setting directly equivalent compatible standards at different stages of the pollutant cause-effect chain is investigated. A statistically verifiable ideal guard point standard with two levels is also developed to avoid benefit of the doubt in testing procedures for standards, and its use demonstrated for both normal and gamma parent pollutant distributions. A reference point standard is proposed for a spatially dependent pollutant variable, with a krigingbased testing procedure. Finally, a 'hotspot' identification procedure is also developed, using outlier methods and composite sampling. The work concludes with suggestions for further related research.

This thesis is composed of two parts; the first addresses theoretical aspects of the economics of targeting pollution control policy, whilst the second is an illustrative case study designed to embellish the more abstract insights of the first section.

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No description available.

This thesis examines the contention that effective regulation has as much to do with the capacity for co-operation between inter-dependent actors as it has to do with the state's capacity for control. This contention, and the alternative conception of regulation that it implies, is significant because it is associated with a tension that runs through many areas of public policy: does cooperation between the public and the private, or between the regulators and the regulated, lead to effective collective action or to regulatory capture? Following a conceptual examination of the nature of regulation and implementation, the thesis considers the explanatory value of two different perspectives on cooperation and collective action: the rational choice perspective, which suggests that the behaviour of economically responsive actors is shaped by the incentives for cooperation that stem from their interdependence, and the institutional perspective, which contends that as particular forms of behaviour emerge, evolve and become institutionalised, so the implementation process becomes embedded in particular institutional structures that enable the continuation of existing approaches whilst restricting the potential for change. In seeking to examine the explanatory value of these perspectives, the thesis considers the factors shaping the implementation of two frameworks of environmental regulation, namely the frameworks of Integrated Pollution Control and Local Air Pollution Control as applied in England and Wales. Based on a comparative analysis of the factors that shape the nature and influence of each implementation process, the thesis concludes that the explanatory value of the rational choice perspective is fundamentally limited and that the value of the institutional perspective is much more complete. On this basis, the thesis proposes an institutional perspective on regulation and implementation that recognises the significance of resource inter-dependencies and the ways in which cooperative approaches can increase the prospects for collective action whilst reducing the accountability and the manageability of the implementation process. As is discussed, this conclusion has significant implications for broader debates on regulation and governance.

Thesis--Wisconsin. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 281-286).

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 142-147). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Washington State University, December 2006. / Includes bibliographical references.

No description available.