Darbe analizuojami atsinaujinančios elektros energijos ištekliai, pasirinkti remiantis atsinaujinančių išteklių energetikos įstatyme plačiausiai analizuojamais ir didžiausias perspektyvas turinčiais energijos ištekliais Lietuvoje. Išskirti trys pagrindiniai atsinaujinančios energetikos šaltiniai: vėjo energetika, biomasės deginimo metu gaunama elektros energija, bei hidroenergetika, pastarąją skirstome į didžiąsias hidroelektrines ir mažąsias hidroelektrines. Naujuoju atsinaujinančių išteklių energetikos įstatymu tikimasi elektros energijos dalį bendrajame šalies elektros energijos sunaudojime (pagamintos iš atsinaujinančių energijos išteklių), padidinti iki 20 procentų, kas reikštų sparčias AEI elektrinių statybas. Investicijų į atsinaujinančią energiją, taupų jos naudojimą ir naujas technologijas stiprinimas prisideda prie darnaus vystymosi ir padeda kurti naujas darbo vietas, skatinti ekonomikos augimą, stiprinti konkurencingumą ir plėtrą, kad Lietuva galėtų žengti į saugesnę, švaresnę ir konkurencingesnę ateitį. Todėl aplinkosauginiu požiūriu svarbu palyginti AEI elektrinių efektyvumo rodiklius bei atlikti poveikio aplinkai vertinimą, palyginant jų poveikį aplinkos komponentams. / This work analyzes the use of renewable energy resources (wind, hydro and biomass burning) and the effectiveness of their environmental impact. From the pending renewable energy sources in Lithuania we have the highest prospects for wind energy, especially offshore, and biomass burning. Hydropower development opportunities in Lithuania, the typical plains region, where the energy potential of rivers is small and flooding areas causes’ significant ecological damage, prospects are limited. Renewable energy resources impact to the environment is very different. The biggest environmental impacts of hydropower, the smallest - biomass burning derived electricity.

The quality of the human experience depends on a dramatic change in how we think about economics and, more specifically, about the relationship between human economic activity and the natural world. The continued pursuit of a growth agenda threatens the health and stability of global ecological systems, jeopardizes the wellbeing of many people, and undermines opportunities for future generations. In an era of sustainability challenges, we must measure the impacts of economic activity and use that information toward designing more sustainable human systems. This dissertation supports an ecological economic worldview by extending biophysical based measures to local scale applications to improve understanding of environmental impact at the urban and sub-regional scale. To account for environmental impact, I test two calculation approaches: one to estimate municipal ecological footprint values and one to measure environmental impact at a neighbourhood level. The novel calculation approaches account for environmental impact at finer scales of resolution than has traditionally been applied. I also explore drivers of environmental impact using Halifax Regional Municipality as a case study. I examine the relationship between direct GHG emissions and socio-economic and wellbeing variables using a multivariate model. Those reporting to be married, young, low income, and living in households with more people have correspondingly lower direct GHG emissions than other categories in respective groupings. Respondents with lifestyles that generate higher GHG emissions did not report to be healthier, happier or more connected to their communities, suggesting that individuals can experience similar degrees of wellbeing largely independent of their GHG emissions. I explored whether where we live influences direct GHG emissions. Findings indicate that individuals living in the suburbs generate similar GHG emissions to those living in the inner city, challenging a widely held assumption that living in the inner city is better for sustainability. These results underscore the importance of understanding the spatial distribution of GHG emissions at the sub-regional scale. The research offers new insights to measure and understand environmental impact at the local level toward supporting ecologically informed decision-making.

This research critically examines the process of public participation in the politically contested arena of environmental impact assessment (EIA) in two case studies: the Ekati diamond mine in Canada’s Northwest Territories and the Richards Bay Minerals project in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Each case offers the chance to examine and compare the potentialities of expanded public participation in EIA and the promise of deliberative environmental decision-making. The concept of deliberative public participation has become the new normative standard for citizen engagement in numerous planning and policy-making processes, including EIA. It calls for increased participation by previously disadvantaged communities in the decisions that affect them through multi-stakeholder dialogue. Addressing the need for a realistic assessment of deliberative democratic practice, this study explores the limits of deliberative process by looking at specific examples of EIA, bringing into focus political processes, power relations and the structural conditions affecting citizen engagement.

The high pressures for coastal development, translated as prolific land cover transformation, coupled with the weaknesses of management to protect the environment has led to the gradual deterioration of environmental conditions in many coastal areas. Land use decisions in coastal areas are based on opportunities and constraints affected by both biophysical and socio-economic drivers, and hence present one of the main issues integrating the large debate on sustainable development in coastal zones (Lourenço and Machado, 2007: 1). The aim of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of the integration of spatial analysis and participatory approaches in SEA (particularly its ability to identify and predict ecological impacts) on the KwaZulu-Natal north coast of South Africa. The study adopted a conceptual framework based on landscape ecology, which was underpinned within the overarching political ecology framework. The former underscores the importance of integration, while the latter critiques the institutionalization of environmental concerns, which are characterized by inequalities in terms of social and political power and of how problems are defined, mediated and resolved. Hence this conceptual framework was considered appropriate to assess the strategic environmental issues pertaining to the coastal zone on the KwaZulu-Natal north coast. The researcher used participatory methods, primarily focus group discussions (which included venn diagramming, ranking exercises and participatory mapping) which were triangulated with both quantitative and qualitative methods as part of an integrated impact assessment. These relate to the use of semistructured questionnaires which were administered to a purposive sample of six key stakeholder interest groups within the study area. A spatial GIS time series analysis of land use and cover change was employed to determine baseline conditions, changes in the state of key ecosystems, key development drivers and emerging threats. Additionally, a policy and institutional review was undertaken. The analysis revealed that major natural land cover classes are in decline in the study area,within a time period of less than 10 years. The most sensitive ecosystems were found to be grasslands (-19.99%), coastal forest (-40%), wetlands (-37.49%) and secondary dunes (- 21.44%). Furthermore, agriculture and forestry are also indicating severe declines. The reasons attributed to this transformation of land cover are increasingly being linked with economic motives such as individual private land-owner dynamics, tourism growth and development in the area. Furthermore, the policy agendas are clearly economically motivated. These losses signify the cumulative decline in ecosystem goods and services, and could undermine pose risks to the society that relies on them either directly or indirectly. One of the main considerations in this research endeavor was to formulate a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) Framework to inform future ICZM in the study area. SEA is planning with a long-term perspective, with a focus on a spatial rather than a project level, an element that is clearly lacking in the current development scenario of this coastline. It is critical that the SEA Framework advocated in this study include a range of variables that will permit short-term, medium-term and long-term monitoring and evaluation aimed at ensuring sustainable planning in the area. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2010.

These four presentations were prepared for the Society for Applied Anthropology's annual meeting in March 2013 in Denver, CO. These presentations present findings from the Solar PEIS Native American ethnographic study. / The United States government is considering areas in the five states for the large-scale solar energy development. These solar energy zones (SEZs) contain important Native American resources ranging from traditional use plants, healing places, and trail networks. During the environmental impact assessment, Numic-speaking peoples shared with University of Arizona ethnographers their thoughts regarding cultural uses of the SEZ and associated resources and potential impacts. This session focuses on unique cultural resources and the cultural implications of solar energy development.

It is very unfortunate that despite laws that require adequate incorporation and integration of environmental concerns at all phases of the economic developmental projects in Zambia, the research findings of this dissertation show that they are not applied well. The dissertation consists of six chapters. The Introduction (Chapter One) gives a general overview of Zambia, its geographical position in relation to other African countries, its macro and micro economic policies and its economic needs for a sound transport infrastructure. It also gives a rationale for the Monze-Zimba road rehabilitation project. Chapter Two reviews and states existing policies, legal, strategies and the institutional framework for environmental management and protection in Zambia. It also states and identifies key institutions involved in administering the various environmental laws/regulations and briefly refers to applicable International Conventions. Chapter Three gives a descriptive overview of baseline information - particularly within the catchment area of the road - regarding the biophysical, socioeconomic and cultural environments. The baseline studies provide insights into the normal background environmental variability such that appropriate monitoring programmes can be designed. It is now abundantly and evidently clear that the despoiling of the environment has negative repercussions on the health and wellbeing, culture and economic opportunities of humans. Chapter Four, therefore, provides in-depth discussions of each of the major impacts identified, their nature and scale and appropriate practical measures for their mitigation. The measures are incorporated into an Environmental Management Plan. Chapter Five addresses the environmental monitoring of the impacts resulting from the activities of the road. The Conclusion (Chapter Six) gives substantiated opinions on the overall findings of the research. Recommendations are given to the government of Zambia and all stakeholders on the best ways that environmental issues should be handled at all levels of society. / Thesis (M.Sc.Eng.)-University of Durban-Westville, 2001.

An Environmental Management Plan (EMP) details mitigation measures and monitoring thereof as well management of the whole project implementation. As a management tool, the concept of an EMP was developed to ensure proper environmental management throughout the life-cycle of a development project. Despite EMPs having been in existence for quite some considerable period, environmental damage still persists. Furthermore, the environmental legislation of different countries and in particular South Africa does not use/make development of an EMP a specific requirement. This has implications on a number of issues such as EMP purpose, EMP implementation and the whole rationale behind an EMP. The motivation to investigate EMPs stemmed from a discussion I had with Dr Quinn, my supervisor, about my research proposal. He mentioned EMPs and encouraged me to investigate further. A review of literature about EMPs revealed the importance of EMPs in Integrated Environmental Management (IEM). A lot of questions arose as I was reading: • Are the provincial departments actually doing what is said in the literature? • Does the current use of EMPs achieve its purpose? • What is the whole rationale behind EMPs? • How are they implemented internationally and nationally? • What are the problems affecting EMP implementation? • How can the current situation be improved? As these questions came into my mind I thought the best way of discovering problems and solutions with respect to EMP implementation is to actually work with people whom I thought are knowledgeable about the subject. I then chose environmental authorities as the professionals who review EMPs and environmental consultants as the professionals who prepare EMPs as respondents. I hope some of the strategies suggested here will be implemented by the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Department of Agriculture and Environmental Affairs (DAEA) as the relevant authority in terms of section 22 of Environment Conservation Act (ECA) No. 73 of 1989. DAEA requests EMPs to be submitted as part of the conditions of approval when authorizing projects in terms of the ECA of 1989. If submitted, DAEA is also responsible for assessing and authorizing EMPs. I also hope that in the future there will be a study to investigate any improvements in the EMP implementation. This dissertation is presented in two parts, Component A and Component B. Component A includes the theoretical underpinnings for the results and Component B includes the analysis. Component A consists of the three chapters which are; the introduction, the literature review and the methods and conceptual framework used for the study. The referencing system used in this component complies with the Harvard System. Component B is written in preparation for submission to the Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal Journal but the format is in keeping with Component A. However, the referencing system used in this component complies with the journal requirements. The abstract has been placed at the beginning of component B as per the requirements of the journal. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2004

Land is a non-renewable and finite resource which comprises a variety of ecosystems that support biological diversity and provide food, shelter and raw materials to society. With a multitude of land uses competing for this precious resource, the land is becoming fragmented, altered and transformed. Land transformation has been acknowledged as a key contributor to the degradation of the environment and has serious implications for poverty, food security and biodiversity. This research focuses on land use changes within the uMngeni and Mpofana municipalities in KwaZulu-Natal. The main objectives were to critically review Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) decisions and document those EIAs received and finalised over the period 1999 – 2010, spatially define the location of decided EIAs, determine the types of EIA decisions issued, characterise the type and extent of land uses, describe patterns of land use change and identify the key factors responsible for changes in land use. During the research period a total of 337 EIA applications were received and 332 EIA applications were completed in the uMngeni Municipality and 182 EIA applications were received and 178 completed in the Mpofana Municipality. The types of EIA decisions issued consist of Records of Decisions, Environmental Authorisations, Exemptions, Withdrawals and Commencements. The key classes of land use changes that have occurred in uMngeni Municipality are Agriculture to Residential, whilst within the Mpofana Municipality the predominant land use change occurred within the Agricultural land use category. For both municipalities the Agriculture to Residential land use category experienced the greatest extent in land use change. In authorising EIA applications, the predominant key decision factors were based on the comments from Ezemvelo KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife and Amafa aKwaZulu-Natali. In refusing EIA decisions the findings of various specialist studies, incompatible land uses and land use planning initiatives were the predominant key decision factors. The conclusions are that agricultural land is being transformed for use as nonagricultural activities specifically that of residential use. The recommendations include the need for accurate record keeping of data and information pertaining to EIAs and the integration of spatial planning tools and initiatives including Geographical Information Systems in the review of EIAs to improve decision making. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2010.

With documented declines in the biophysical state of the planet, there is an increasing need to develop good environmental management tools to measure sustainability. Some of the traditional environmental management tools that are currently in use, such as Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) and Strategic Environmental Assessments (SEAs) do not adequately quantify sustainability for large events such as conferences, rock concerts and sporting events. In this research, Ecological Footprint Analysis (EFA) is considered as a tool for assessing the sustainability of a large event, viz. the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD). The WSSD, a follow-up to the 1992 United Nations' Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), was held from 26 August to 4 September 2002 in Johannesburg, South Africa. It is the largest event of its kind in the world, with 80 635 registered' (mostly international) delegates attending. EFA can be considered as a tool to measure sustainability that converts consumption and waste production into units of equivalent land area. Based on the reality of biophysical limits to growth, and presenting. data in an aggregated, quantifiable, yet easily comprehensible form, EFA is also a . useful tool for environmental policy and management. EFA has typically been applied at national and regional levels,as well. as in the assessment of technology. The application of the ecological footprint (EF) concept to a conference is the first of its kind undertaken. The case study shows conferences to be net importers of consumption items and thus dependent on a vast external environment. The EFA highlights those areas of consumption which constitute the largest part of the footprint and thus provides an opportunity for targeting those areas for proactive management. EFA for a conference clearly identifies that a reduced ecological footprint would mean a movement towards strong sustainability. Due to the vast resources consumed during a conference over a short period of time, initial observations and results show that conferences are ecologically unsustainable. In estimating the EF of the WSSD, data were obtained on the following items: carbon emissions from electricity usage for the WSSD by conference venues and accommodation; carbon emissions from air and road transport used by delegates; total water consumed during the WSSD; catchment size required to cater for the volumes of water consumed; carbon emissions from the waste generated; and carbon emissions from volumes of paper used during the WSSD. Data were sourced from various reports and service providers in the Johannesburg area. The total partial EF of the WSSD was the sum of the sub-component footprints of electricity, transport, water, waste and paper. The EF of the WSSD was 2 522.08 ha, comprising an electricity EF of 93.03 ha, transport EF of 1002.86 ha, water EF of 1 406.l4ha, waste EF of 0.45 ha and a paper EF of 19.60 ha. The footprint is 1.72% of the area of Johannesburg and 0.15% of Gauteng, but less than 0.01% the area of South Africa. The per capita EF of the WSSD was 0.03 ha, compared with South Africa's per capita EF of 4.02ha. A number of recommendations are made for the reduction of the EF of large events such as the WSSD, and hence reducing their contribution to environmental degradation. Recommendations include the wider use and application of the EF concept, at the institutional and govemmental level. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu- Natal, Durban, 2004.

Traditional approaches to policy analysis focus on the outcomes of environmental policy making and the relationship between the state and general public in the policy process. These approaches often overlook the policy process itself and the role of professionals, such as environmental consultants, as they are appointed by government to undertake work on behalf of the state. Environmental consultants are commissioned to work on projects, such as a Strategic Environmental Assessments (SEAs), in South Africa because of the complexity of the policy process and lack of capacity in government, especially at the local level. Although the local level is seen as the platform for reconstruction and development, service delivery, and economic growth in South Africa, local government faces several challenges in terms of individual, institutional, and environmental capacity constraints. These challenges create a situation in which there is not sufficient capacity to develop effective environmental policies. In the context of these capacity constraints, the state relies on the skills and experience of environmental consultants to manage the environmental policy process. The aim of this research is to use a discourse analysis of the KwaDukuza and Rustenburg SEAs to understand the role of environmental consultants in the policy processes which inform municipal environmental decision making. The focus of this research is to interpret the role of environmental consultants and to understand the environmental policy process within the context of the challenges facing local government. In order to achieve this aim, the research focuses on two dimensions of environmental policy making. The first dimension of policy making examines the discursive concepts actors use within the new discursive spaces emerging at the local government level. The second dimension of policy making analyses the discursive spaces in which the environmental policy process plays out. The empirical analysis of the KwaDukuza and Rustenburg SEA policy processes are used to understand the environmental policy process and examine the role of consultants within emerging deliberative policy making processes. Evidence collected from the interpretation of the KwaDukuza and Rustenburg SEAs show that several discursive concepts emerged during the SEA policy processes. The concepts included an ‘ecological modernization’ discourse, story lines such as ‘balance brown and green issues’, and policy vocabularies such as an ‘environmental’ policy vocabulary. The concepts were found to be instrumental in the way actors define, interpret, and determine legitimate solutions to particular environmental problems. The three SEAs were also interpreted as a performance using four concepts; scripting, staging, setting, and performances. The evidence shows that these concepts can be used to understand the way actors position themselves and exert power in the policy process. The key finding of this research is that environmental consultants play an influential role in the policy process due to a lack of capacity in local government on complex projects, i.e. a SEA. The role of environmental consultants in these policy processes to manage the process and produce the policy document. The consultants are responsible integrating existing data, specialists’ reports and issues from the public participation process into the policy. Environmental consultants therefore strongly influence the discourses which frame the policies that ultimately inform and guide municipal environmental decision making. Although the evidence indicates that environmental consultants are appointed to undertake the majority of the work, the public officials play an important role in steering the project and ensuring that the policy includes government issues, aligns with existing policies and plans, and is what the municipality needs. The public officials are therefore not only influenced by the discourses of the environmental consultants, but the imperatives, such as economic growth, of the local, provincial, and national spheres of government. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 2008.