A agricultura é considerada uma das atividades antrópicas ambientalmente mais impactantes, sejam esses impactos em âmbito econômico, social e ambiental. Acarreta, portanto, interferência nos meios natural e socioeconômico, tanto positivos quanto negativos. Destaca-se, no Brasil, o cultivo da cana-de-açúcar, que utiliza práticas consideradas impactantes em todo o seu ciclo agrícola e industrial. Com o objetivo de praticar os valores de sustentabilidade, o setor sucro-alcooleiro precisa incorporar a variável ambiental na tomada de decisão desde as etapas iniciais do planejamento, permitindo a construção de cenários preditivos que tornem as atividades humanas menos impactantes negativamente para os sistemas ambientais, econômicos e sociais. Com isso, fazer esforços no sentido de praticar o desenvolvimento sustentável. Assim, o presente trabalho avalia as possíveis contribuições do instrumento de política ambiental Avaliação Ambiental Estratégica - AAE - para o setor agrícola, tendo como referência o Projeto Ambiental Etanol Verde Estratégico (PAEVE), do Governo do Estado de São Paulo, tomando como estudo de caso da região da bacia do rio Pardo. Para tanto, após uma revisão bibliográfica internacional dos conceitos, procedimentos e resultados do uso do instrumento (AAE), com maior enfoque para os casos realizados na agricultura, são analisados os procedimentos utilizados para a elaboração do PAEVE como um plano setorial estratégico da cana-de-açúcar no estado de São Paulo, à luz dos procedimentos comumente utilizados em AAE, por meio de uma matriz de avaliação da qualidade, técnica SWOT e análise crítica. Posteriormente é utilizado Sistemas de Informações Geográfica para avaliar aspectos relacionados ao Zoneamento Agro Ambiental do PAEVE e seus condicionantes técnicos, tendo como estudo de caso a região da bacia do rio Pardo, no estado de São Paulo. Dentre os resultados, merece destaque a indicação dos procedimentos dos planos e programas relacionados ao setor agrícola sucro-alcooleiro que podem ser influenciados pela Avaliação Ambiental Estratégica a fim de endereçar a sustentabilidade ao processo decisório. / Agriculture is considered one of the most environmentally impacting human activities. These impacts are in the economic, social and environmental aspects. Therefore, it entails interference in the natural and socio-economic, both positive and negative issues. It stands out in Brazil the cultivation of sugar cane, which uses practices considered striking all along its life cycle. Aiming to incorporate the environmental variable into decision make since its initial stages of planning, an important task is to build predictive scenarios on sugarcane sector activities for a less harmful development into environmental, economic and social aspects. Thus, this study assesses the possible contributions of environmental policy instrument Strategic Environmental Assessment - SEA - for the agricultural sector, with reference to the Strategic Green Ethanol Project of São Paulo State, in a case study on Pardo´s river basin. To do so, it is established an international review of the use of the instrument, with greater focus on the cases used in agriculture. So, it is analyzed the procedures of Strategic Green Ethanol Project within a SEA framework, throughout a quality assessment matrix, SWOT and critical analysis. Its used Geographic Information System for evaluating aspects related to the Agro Ecological Zoning of Strategic Green Ethanol Project, its conditioning technical factors, having as case study the region of Pardo´s river basin, in the state of São Paulo, Among the results, deserves attention the indication of the procedures in plans and programs related to agricultural sector of sugarcane that could have beneficial influential of Strategic Environmental Assessment towards promoting sustainable development into the decision making.

Urban areas cover 2% of the Earth’s land surface, host more than 50% of global population and are estimated to account for around 75% of CO2 emissions from global energy use. In order to mitigate existing and future direct and indirect environmental pressures resulting from urban resource use, it is necessary to investigate and better understand resource and pollution flows associated with urban systems.Current urban environmental assessment methodologies enable the quantification of resource use and pollution emissions flows entering, becoming stocked and exiting urban areas. While these methodologies enable to estimate the environmental effect of cities, they often consider urban areas as being static and homogeneous systems. This partial and simplistic representation shadows the complex spatio-temporal interrelationships between the local context and its associated local and global environmental pressures. This characterisation of urban systems is a significant limitation, not only for the urban environmental assessments, but also for the identification of their drivers as it may lead to inadequate urban environmental policies. To overcome this limitation and effectively reduce glocal urban environmental pressures, it is necessary to better understand the complex functioning of cities and identify their drivers.This research developed a comprehensive urban environmental assessment framework that helps to better explicit and understand the complex relationship between an urban system and its environmental profile in a systemic and systematic way. This framework was applied to the case study of Brussels Capital Region (BCR).Results from the application of this framework show that urban systems are neither static nor homogeneous. In fact, different relationships between the urban and metabolic profiles appear when considering different spatial scales and temporal intervals as well as different urban and metabolic metrics. The establishment of BCR’s urban profile showed that components that shape the urban system evolve in an organic way over time. Moreover, the spatial expression of an urban system portrays its heterogeneous aspect and how different metrics of the same urban indicator can reveal distinct facets and challenges for an urban area or a neighbourhood. Finally, it was demonstrated that the relationship between urban indicators is different for each spatial scale and therefore knowledge from one spatial scale is not necessarily transferable from one scale to another. The establishment and analysis of BCR’s metabolic profile also underlined the complex functioning of cities as each flow has a different temporal evolution and spatial expression. Due to the multifaceted and intertwined aspect of metabolic flows it becomes clear that no single parameter enables to explain or predict their behaviour. This leads to the conclusion that a great number of questions still need to be considered, understood and answered before effectively and coherently reducing environmental pressures from cities. The developed framework proposes a number of concrete steps that enable existing and new cities to better understand their metabolic functioning and ultimately transition towards less environmentally harmful futures. / Doctorat en Art de bâtir et urbanisme (Polytechnique) / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Samtidigt som debatten kring jordens klimatförändring är i full gång har intresset för att miljöcertifiera byggnader vuxit oerhört. För fastighetsägare är det en möjlighet att bevisa för sina hyresgäster och köpare att byggnaden är hållbar. Är en byggnad miljöcertifierad har en oberoende part intygat att den uppfyller en nivå av hållbarhet som bestäms utifrån standardiserade kriterier. Fastighetsägaren kan alltså använda certifikatet i marknadsföringssyfte. Den här studien undersökte om en byggnad som är byggnadsminnesförklarad kan miljöcertifieras med Miljöbyggnad. Målet var att hitta kostnadseffektiva lösningar för att uppfylla de miljöcertifieringskriterier som eventuellt inte uppfylls idag. Miljöbyggnad har i dagsläget inga specifika kriterier för kulturhistoriskt värdefulla byggnader, så bedömningen har skett mot de allmänna kriterierna. Vid certifiering med Miljöbyggnad sker en granskning utifrån energi-, inomhusmiljö- och materialrelaterade kriterier. Verktyget mäter alltså inte bara byggnadens hållbarhet i fråga om växthusgasutsläpp utan även i hänseende till hälsan och välbefinnandet hos personerna som vistas i byggnaden. Byggnaden som har utvärderats är Kungliga Tekniska Högskolans studenters kårhus. Den byggnadsminnesförklarades 2012 på grund av sin utpräglade och välbevarade funktionalistiska utformning. Byggd 1930 uppfördes den mitt under en brytningstid när funktionalismen var på intåg i Sverige. I studien har alla kriterier som krävs för en miljöcertifiering gåtts igenom och stämts av mot hur byggnaden ligger till idag. Särskild fokus har lagts på Miljöbyggnads energirelaterade kriterier. För att minska energianvändningen har energieffektiviseringsåtgärder tagits fram som ger en besparing på hundratusentals kronor per år. Energieffektiviseringsåtgärderna består av bättre drift av ventilationen samt byte till effektivare belysning. Energiberäkningsprogrammet DesignBuilder har använts för att utvärdera energieffektiviseringsåtgärderna samt för att simulera termisk komfort och dagsljusinsläpp. Energikällornas hållbarhet vid olika miljöval på elhandelsavtalet och om det finns möjlighet att installera solskydd för fönstren har också undersökts. Hindret för en certifiering är att byggnaden åtminstone behöver uppfylla myndighetskrav på tillgång till dagsljus. Det finns också osäkerheter som har att göra med om energieffektiviseringsåtgärderna minskar energianvändningen så mycket som krävs för en certifiering. För övrigt finns goda förutsättningar för en miljöcertifiering. / Climate change is widely discussed these days, and the interest in environmental assessment for buildings has increased enormously. For landlords and house-owners, it brings the possibility to prove to their tenants and customers that their buildings are sustainable. A building with an environmental assessment certificate is assured by an independent inspector to fulfill a certain level of sustainability that is specified by standardized criteria. The landlords can subsequently use the certificate for advertising. This study investigated if a listed historic building can be certified according to the Swedish environmental assessment method Miljöbyggnad. The objective was to find cost effective ways to meet those criteria for environmental assessment that are not fulfilled today. Miljöbyggnad has no specific set of criteria for historical buildings today, so the investigation has been performed using the general criteria. For a certification with Miljöbyggnad, an audit from energy, indoor environment and material point of view is performed. Thus, the assessment method does not only measure sustainability regarding greenhouse gas emissions, but also concerning well-being of the occupants of the building. The examined building is the student union house of the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm. The building was listed in 2012 due to its pronounced and well preserved functionalistic design. Built 1930, it was raised during the time when the functionalism was introduced in Sweden. In the study, all criteria for the environmental assessment have been evaluated for the current situation of the building. The energy related criteria has been emphasized. In order to decrease the energy use, measures for improving the energy efficiency has been found, that will save several hundred thousand SEK per year. The measures consist of improved operation of the ventilation system and retrofitted lighting for better efficacy. The energy calculation program DesignBuilder has been used to evaluate the energy efficiency measures and to simulate thermal comfort and daylighting. The sustainability of the energy sources for different environmental options for the electricity contract and the possibility of installing shadings for the windows have been investigated as well. The main difficulty for a certification is that the building has to fulfill building codes for daylighting. There are also uncertainties regarding the energy efficiency measures being able to decrease the energy use sufficiently for a certification. Other than that, the prospects are good for a certification.

Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how food start-ups (FS) can make their primary food packaging (PFP) more eco-friendly by identifying and evaluating the performance of suited packaging alternative. The purpose was fulfilled by answering the three research questions:  RQ1) How to assess the eco-friendliness of PFP? RQ2) Which are areas of improvement in environmental performance? RQ3) What are the differences in performance across similar PFP’s?  Methods: To answer the research questions both the literature review and empirical data was required. The literature study was conducted to gather relevant theories about primary food packaging in food start-ups. To get the required empirical data, a single case study was conducted at a case company that suited the subject. The case study consisted of multiple interviews and document study. This enabled for an analysis in the form of pattern matching in order to answer the research questions and achieve the purpose.  Findings: The Study found that to assess the PFP that have direct impact on the environment the functional features and the environmental framework play a central role in the eco- friendliness of PFPs which analyzed the requirements for the PFP and a multi criteria decision making approach for the environmental assessment for the Green-PE. The stakeholder expectations were found by analyzing the criterion for the PFP. In addition, a comparison for an eco-friendlier alternative was analyzed with the current Green-PE to justify the performance for the PFP in FS.  Implications: The study results present practical implications with assessing the current Green-PE and evaluating the gaps for improvement areas, while also comparing similar PFP which is an eco-friendlier option for food packaging start-ups. As there has been no general theoretical implications, the findings of the thesis can be used as a basis for deeper insights into the subject through more extensive research.  Delimitations & Scope: The focus was to identify and evaluate the current PFP environmental impact and not the other aspects of the life cycle assessment since the scope was limited. Also, a single case study was used rather than multiple case studies to analyze the eco-friendliness for PEPs.

With the rapid somatic growth and development in infants, simultaneous accurate measurements of lung volume and airway function are essential. Raised volume rapid thoracoabdominal compression (RTC) is widely used to generate forced expiration from an airway opening pressure of 30 cmH2O (V30). The (dynamic) functional residual capacity (FRCdyn) remains the lung volume most routinely measured. The aim of this study was to develop comprehensive integrated spirometry that included all subdivisions of lung volume at V30 or total lung capacity (TLC30). Measurements were performed on 17 healthy infants aged 8.6-119.7 weeks. A commercial system for multiple-breath nitrogen washout (MBNW) to measure lung volumes and a custom made system to perform RTC were used in unison. A refined automated raised volume RTC and the following two novel single maneuvers with dual volume measurements were performed from V30 during a brief post-hyperventilation apneic pause: (1) the passive expiratory flow was integrated to produce the inspiratory capacity (IC) and the static (passive) FRC (FRCst) was estimated by initiating MBNW after end-passive expiration; (2) RTC was initiated late during passive expiration, flow was integrated to produce the slow vital capacity (jSVC) and the residual volume (RV) was measured by initiating MBNW after end-expiration while the jacket (j) was inflated. Intrasubject FRCdyn and FRCst measurements overlapped (p = 0.6420) but neither did with the RV (p < 0.0001). Means (95% confidence interval) of FRCdyn, IC, FRCst, jSVC, RV, forced vital capacity and tidal volume were 21.2 (19.7-22.7), 36.7 (33.0-40.4), 21.2 (19.6-22.8), 40.7 (37.2-44.2), 18.1 (16.6-19.7), 40.7 (37.1-44.2) and 10.2 (9.6-10.7) ml/kg, respectively. Static lung volumes and capacities at V30 and variables from the best forced expiratory flow-volume curve were dependent on age, body length and weight. In conclusion, we developed a comprehensive physiologically integrated approach for in-depth investigation of lung function at V30 in infants.

För att möta de kommande samhällsutmaningarna, med klimatförändring, miljödegradering och sociala problem, krävs en mer hållbar samhällsutveckling där den fysiska planeringen spelar en stor roll. Översiktsplaner, som regleras i den svenska plan- och bygglagen (2010:900), är kommunernas strategiska dokument och avsiktsförklaring om hur den fysiska miljön i kommunen ska användas, utvecklas och bevaras. Enligt den svenska miljöbalken (1998:808), som är en miljölagstiftning med syfte att främja hållbar utveckling, krävs att en strategisk miljöbedömning utförs av de planer och program som innebär betydande miljöeffekter eller anger förutsättningar för kommande tillstånd, vilket översiktsplaner alltid ska antas medföra. Med anledning av de olika och ibland motstridiga vägledningarna utgivna av myndigheter samt avsaknad av ett bredare hållbarhetsperspektiv i lag och vägledning, har vissa kommuner valt att utvidga den strategiska miljöbedömningen av den senaste översiktsplanen till en så kallad hållbarhetsbedömning. Detta med syftet att miljöbedömningen ska omfatta såväl ekologiska, sociala som ekonomiska konsekvenser. Det finns olika åsikter om hållbarhetsbedömningar. Dels anses hållbarhetsbedömningar vara progressiva, nödvändiga samt att de följer det europeiska direktivet om strategisk miljöbedömning. Dels anses hållbarhetsbedömningar marginalisera miljöeffekternas betydelse och riskera att utelämna lagstadgat innehåll. Det råder således inte konsensus om på vilket sätt hållbarhet ska inkluderas i den strategiska miljöbedömningsprocessen och presenteras i det slutgiltiga dokumentet på bästa möjliga sätt. Ett syfte med denna studie är att bidra med kunskap och förståelse kring den svenska strategiska miljöbedömningsprocessen för översiktsplaner. Ett andra syfte har varit att identifiera och analysera hållbarhetsbedömningars styrkor och svagheter som utveckling- och bedömningsverktyg samt som beslutsunderlag för översiktsplaner. Metoderna som används i studien är kvalitativa där en litteraturstudie, innehållsanalys samt en intervjustudie genomfördes i syftet att undersöka de utmaningar och möjligheter verktyget medför i arbetet med kommunal översiktsplanering. Resultatet av studien visar att strategisk miljöbedömning inte används med dess fulla potential beroende på att den inte genomförs proaktivt och integrerat med besluts- och planeringsprocessen för att identifiera hållbara planalternativ. Detta beror på felaktiga tolkningar av direktiv och lagstiftning samt bristande vägledning för angreppssätt och genomförande. Det har även identifierats avsaknad av lagstiftat innehåll i granskade hållbarhetsbedömningar och att en tillsyn av processens och dokumentets uppfyllelse av krav saknas. Den bredare tolkningen av de ingående aspekterna har identifierats som en möjlighet till utveckling av verktyget, öka överensstämmelsen med EU direktivet och möjliggöra för kommuner att proaktivt arbeta för ett helhetsgrepp om hållbar utveckling och verkställande av hållbarhetsmål. Kunskap och resurser saknas dock inom kommuner och konsulter varvid en översyn av vägledning och samsyn mellan myndigheter och politiker är av stor betydelse. / To meet the upcoming societal challenges, with climate change, environmental degradation and social problems, a more sustainable societal development is required where spatial planning is of great importance. Comprehensive plans, regulated in the Swedish Planning and Building Act (2010:900), are the municipalities' strategic documents and a statement of intent on how the physical environment in the municipality should be used, developed and maintained. According to the Swedish Environmental Code (1998:808), which is an environmental legislation with the aim of promoting sustainable development, a strategic environmental assessment is required to be carried out on plans and programs that have significant environmental effects or plans that specify conditions for future permits, which comprehensive plans are always assumed to do. Due to the different and sometimes contradictory guidelines issued by authorities and the lack of a broader sustainability perspective in law and guidance, some municipalities have chosen to extend the strategic environmental assessment of the latest comprehensive plan to a so-called sustainability assessment, with the aim to include ecological, social and economic consequences. The opinions about sustainability assessments are various. On the one hand, sustainability assessments are considered to be progressive, necessary and that they comply with the EU directive on strategic environmental assessment. On the other hand, sustainability assessments are considered to marginalize the significance of environmental effects and risk omitting statutory content. There is thus no consensus on how sustainability should be included in the strategic environmental assessment process and presented in the final document in the best possible way. One aim with this study is to provide knowledge and understanding about the Swedish strategic environmental assessment process for comprehensive plans. A second aim has been to identify and analyse the strengths and weaknesses of sustainability assessments as a tool for development, assessment and decision-making of comprehensive plans. The methods used in the study are qualitative; a literature study, content analysis and an interview study were conducted with the aim of investigating the challenges and opportunities the tool implies for the work with municipal comprehensive planning. The study shows that strategic environmental assessment is not used to its full potential since it is not done proactively and integrated with the decision and planning process to identify sustainable planning alternatives. This is due to incorrect interpretations of directives and legislation as well as lack of guidance for approaches and implementation. Lack of legislative content has also been identified in audited sustainability assessments and that a supervision of the legality of the process and document is missing. The broader interpretation of the aspects has been identified as an opportunity for the development of the tool, increase the coherence with the EU directive and enable for municipalities to proactively work for a holistic approach to sustainable development and the implementation of sustainability goals. However, there is a lack of knowledge and resources in municipalities and consultancy firms, whereby a review of guidelines and consensus between authorities and politicians are of great importance.

This thesis presents a general description of approaches to energy efficient building development under Chinese contexts. The purpose of the work is to discuss how Chinese building development can be approved from an energy saving perspective. Building development is a complicated process that relates to many stakeholders’ interests. The developed countries have studied in this field extensively for several decades. Generally, the approaches to energy saving can be set at three levels: administration, construction industry and architectural design. More new strict codes for energy efficient buildings are being issued for enforcement. At the same time, many research institutes have developed Building Environmental Assessment (BEA) methods, where energy efficiency is an important factor in the models. Various technical solutions for energy efficiency are developed as well. The administrative approaches are not the main objective discussed in the thesis, though the importance of them is undeniable. BEA systems are not only assessment methods, but also market-based stimulating approaches for sustainability of construction market. Technical methods have been developed for a long period. Passive House and Low Exergy (LowEx) Systems are two representative examples in European countries. All of these approaches are relatively unfamiliar to Chinese architects and developers, let alone their effect and applicability. The thesis tries to analyse this situation and their applicability within Chinese context. In China to a certain project, the importance of technical issues is relatively recognized. However, a few successful individual cases in technique can not change the reality that most of new building development has failed in energy efficiency in China. This is a serious situation when China is in an enormous expansion phase in building new houses. The thesis tries to discuss the reasons for this phenomenon. One reason could be that the stakeholders in the developing process are not aware of the importance of collaboration which is the only method to get “Both Win” according to Game theory. The thesis discusses a paradigm to replace two traditional linear paradigms in building developing process. Architects should act as coordinators of different stakeholders rather than technical supporters. The thesis tries to discuss the propositional route of developing energy efficient buildings. Technical approaches are basic research, which presents the concepts that have been proved realizable; BEA encourages developers to develop more energy efficient buildings for economic benefit, which will make good demonstrations for whole market; national laws and policies are final approaches, which ensure that every project will have good performance of energy efficiency. When the old standardization and legislation are finished, a new cycle will begin with more advanced techniques. China government has started the progress to enhance energy efficiency. However, this process will be tough and slow. The thesis discusses Chinese special conditions and the problems that cry out for solution in the future. / QC 20101105

<p>  </p> <p>The rise of technology as a data source for ecological research and biodiversity conservation has led to a host of new opportunities, and new challenges, for researchers, conservationists, policymakers, and land managers. As these technologies have become more common and more capable, researchers need improved methods and improved theoretical frameworks to integrate these technologies with each other; with social science and policy; and with land-use planning. This thesis proposes several of these conceptual and theoretical frameworks—one for integration of heterogeneous data and another for the integration of ecological data with economic decision-making and policy analysis. It then suggests new methodologies for data quality assurance. Lastly, it demonstrates the applicability of acoustic monitoring in a key land-use context: agriculture in a premium crop that is grown in global biodiversity hotspots. </p>

Разработана методика экологической оценки инвестиционно-строительных проектов на основе применения известного математического метода стандартизации рангов, применение которой позволит инвесторам и застройщикам оценивать экологические риски и возможности при принятии инвестиционных решений, а также уменьшить негативное воздействие на окружающую среду и повысить экологическую устойчивость проектов. / A method for environmental assessment of investment and construction projects have been developed based on the application of the well-known mathematical method of ranks standardization, the use of which will allow investors and developers to assess environmental risks and opportunities when making investment decisions, as well as reduce the negative impact on the environment and increase the environmental sustainability of projects.

Diese Studie befasst sich mit den durch den Bergbau verursachten Umwelt- Sozial- und Territorialkonflikten in der Region Tarapacá, deren Probleme nicht nur mit den Umweltauswirkungen, sondern mit der allgemeinen Behandlung der Natur zum Zwecke des Profits und des Exports verbunden sind. Die Monographie konzentriert sich auf die Konfrontation zwischen dem Staat, den indigenen Gemeinschaften und den Bergbauunternehmen und beschreibt nuanciert die vielen Beziehungen und Verflechtungen zwischen ihnen. Im Mittelpunkt dieser Arbeit stehen die verschiedenen politischen, wirtschaftlichen, institutionellen und kulturellen Elemente im Zusammenhang mit der Entwicklung von Bergbau und ihre Folgen und Interdependenzen die in den einzelnen Kapiteln beschrieben und dargestellt werden. Im Rahmen nationaler Umweltvorschriften, die die Entwicklung des Bergbaus und anderer Tätigkeiten mit großen Auswirkungen auf die Umwelt zu regulieren versuchen, generiert der heutige ressourcenabbau bestimmte Vereinbarungen mit den lokalen Gemeinschaften die in der Nähe der Bergbaugebiete leben. Das Fehlen von Vereinbarungen kann zu Konflikten und Widerstand seitens der Gemeinschaften führen. Dadurch könnten bestimmte Bergbauprojekte mit hohen Investitionskosten gestoppt oder verzögert werden. Auf diese Weise werden Institutionen, unternehmerisches Engagement, Partizipation und Widerstand in komplexen Beziehungen miteinander verwoben. Die Arbeit integriert auch einen historischen Rahmen in Anbetracht des früheren Salpeterabbaus in der Region und der Entwicklung der Chilenischen Ressourcenpolitik des 20. Jh. mit starken Einfluss auf die nationale Vorstellung vom Bergbau als grundlegende Wirtschaftstätigkeit für die nationale Entwicklung. Sowohl werden auch die Merkmale des chilenischen Neoliberalismus und die Rolle des Bergbaus anhand einer Extraktivismus Kritik behandelt. / This study addresses the environmental, social, and territorial conflicts caused by mining in the Tarapacá region, whose problems are linked to environmental impacts and the general treatment of nature for profit and export. The study focuses on the confrontation between the state, indigenous communities, and mining companies and describes the many relationships and interconnections between them in nuanced terms. This work focuses on the various political, economic, institutional, and cultural elements associated with mining development and their consequences and interdependencies, which are described and illustrated in each chapter. In the context of national environmental regulations that seek to regulate the development of mining and other activities with significant environmental impacts, contemporary resource extraction generates certain agreements with local communities living near mining areas. The lack of agreements can lead to conflict and resistance from communities, and this could stop or delay specific mining projects with high investment costs. This way, institutions, corporate engagement, participation, and resistance become interwoven in complex relationships. The work also integrates a historical framework considering the former saltpeter mining in the region and the development of Chilean resource policies of the 20th century, with a strong influence on the national conception of mining as a fundamental economic activity for national development, discussing at large the characteristics of Chilean neoliberalism and the role of mining.