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This thesis investigates the impact of the provisions contained within a specific piece of legislation - the Environmental Protection Act 1990 [EPA] - upon the management of municipal solid waste. The legislation and its impact are considered within the broader context of the Conservative government's privatisation policy during its eighteen year period of office between 1979 and 1997 - and in particular the requirement for local authorities to subject services to compulsory competitive tender. Two sets of data covering the thirty-nine English shire county waste disposal authorities [WDA] are analysed. The first provides a snapshot of local authorities' expectations of the impact of the legislation as it began to be implemented whilst the second, more detailed and comprehensive set, provides cost and other information on an annual basis - covering a seven year period prior to the implementation of the EPA legislation plus five years post-EPA. Annual VEDA unit cost data is derived and trends and patterns identified, together with potential cost drivers. As the analysis progresses the approach focuses more upon using multiple regression techniques in an attempt to derive a predictive model for changes in waste disposal costs. This is then supplemented by the consideration of data envelopment analysis as a tool to be used to search for additional insights into the picture painted by the multiple regression work. The research concludes with a summary of the work done and draws conclusions, together with outlining options for developing and extending the work further.

The electricity supply industry (ESI) in England and Wales does not operate efficiently, in terms of optimising the balance between benefits of electricity and costs associated with environmental impacts. The optimal situation would be one where such impacts are minimised per unit of electricity service used, notwithstanding cost considerations. However, the present regulatory regime fails to account sufficiently for environmental impacts. Indeed, it cannot do so at present, due to lack of objective, complete and sufficiently accurate information. The main methods currently advocated for valuing environmental impacts are based on the theory of neo-classical environmental economics. These aim to place monetary values on impacts, which can then, in theory, be used to internalise environmental externalities, by applying market mechanisms to correct for the market inefficiency. However, numerous objections have been raised and weaknesses identified, including, principally, the lack of a systematic approach and the inability of the technique to accurately value impacts which are not usually considered in monetary terms. Better regulation starts with better understanding of the issue(s) to be regulated. In this case, it requires appropriate data about values of environmental impacts. While environmental economics is not rejected outright, further improvements are required and, in any event, it must be supplemented by a systematic approach, which encompasses a means of valuing non-economic elements of value. The Environmental Analysis, Valuation and Application (EAVA) Framework proposed here has been designed and developed in order to address these requirements. It also satisfies the need for objectivity, rigour, transparency, versatility, practicality and a step-by-step, sequential procedure for dealing appropriately with environmental impacts. The EAVA Framework encompasses four separate methods which have been developed simultaneously to work together in order to address different areas of the problem. The output analysis method allows the production of a complete inventory of released incidental outputs (RIOs) which arise from the process being studied. The pathway analysis method provides a means of tracing these RIOs through the environment and generating objective data about the resulting environmental changes. The valuation method is where the only necessary subjectivity of valuation is concentrated by accommodating the views of those whose quality of life is damaged by the impacts. The unit of valuation is the "natural" unit of quality of life outcome state (QLOS), and quantification is achieved through use of the QLOS Index. The final method is the application method, where valuation data and information about unknowns or other "gaps" in knowledge or data are utilised in mechanisms to ensure decision making and operation of the process concerned correctly reflects the environmental impacts caused. It should be noted here that procedures exist throughout the EAVA Framework for identifying and quantifying "gaps". The overall result is the EAVA Framework - a single integrated process for regulating environmental impacts, from the point of origin, to the point of applying regulation.

One of the major tools for assisting in the implementation of sustainable development is environmental assessment (EA). This thesis has sought to develop a model and associated techniques required to provide an effective and efficient EA of projects in the water environment. The challenge has been to integrate a number of disparate elements into a cohesive model that provides workable procedures and outputs. The conceptual elements of the EA process have included the needs of environmental ethics and values; the political decision-making processes; current legislation and policy; the communication of infonnation for a range internal and external stakeholders and decisionmakers; the links with technical and economic issues; and The Environmental Agency's project management systems.

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The literature attributes a great deal of activity in many UK local authorities to their commitment to the •sustainable development green ideology of the Earth Summit's Agenda 21 action plan for managing our Planet's future. Most studies of this response have focused on behaviour and process, including that of some of the four UK Environment City local authorities, alleged front runners in this field ie. Leicester, Middlesbrough, Leeds and Peterborough. This thesis, however, examines closely the degree of actual political commitment by the leaderships of these local authorities and the effect which the EC Programme has had on them. The assessment of EC leadership commitment is made against the radical assertion that Agenda 21 expects local authorities to lead a major shift of both behaviour and altitude. In part, the assessment relies on a novel use of Schein's (1987) method for uncovering levels of culture in combination with a new typology of political commitment. It is found that actual, as opposed to declared and organisational, ideological commitment is generally weak though varying widely between the local authority leaderships and is strongest in Leicester, the 'lead' Environment City. Explanations are presented for this. From public policy agenda building and implementation theory perspectives, the designation of 'Environment City', itself, is judged to have been effective in influencing behaviour and to a more limited extent, deeper levels of commitment. Theory improvement helps to explain this through several newly defined concepts including those of 'public policy franchising', 'issue wooden horsing' the 'politics of embarrassment' and 'grand mastery'. Other insights into how greater commitment by local authority leaderships is encouraged is drawn from the case studies including the utilized opportunity for greater local governmental power offered by the Agenda 21 role and the existence of environmental 'statesmanship'. Citizens in the Environment Cities are found to be more environmentally positive than has been reported of the UK population at large. Also, local level evidence is presented of the nationally observed positive relationship between our concern for each other as 'welfarism' and our concern for the rest of nature as 'environmentism'.

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