Encompassing both urban and rural processes, the peri-urban interface (PUI) provides a unique and challenging arena for environmental management. As the urban core expands, the PUI industrializes and urbanizes, undergoing rapid social, economic, and environmental changes. One of the results of this transformation is often an increase in pollutants and environmental degradation. In the twenty years since the initiation of its reforms towards a more market-oriented economy, Vietnam has seen significant growth, much of this occurring within the industrial sector in and around urban hubs such as Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC). Rapid urbanization and industrialization has occurred with limited control, and a trend has emerged where industrial activity has moved out of the urban core and into the PUI. Despite ongoing efforts, the government of Vietnam, as in other Asian countries, is unable to fully regulate firms illegally releasing untreated and often highly polluted wastewater. The result is that farmers in HCMC’s PUI must now contend with lower crop yields or even failures – and food safety concerns due to an influx of pollutants in irrigation waters. Combining a rights-based approach and a good governance approach, this research describes the constraints on both farmers and government officials that prevent a resolution of farmers’ pollution problems. These constraints are argued to stem from systemic water governance issues in Ho Chi Minh City and Vietnam. They include poor communication between farmers and government officials, limited farmer participation in water management, a lack of integration between government agencies, little government accountability and transparency, and water management priorities that favour economic growth over environmental health. It is argued that strengthening farmers’ water rights could address these issues. However using a rights based approach would first require addressing gender inequities in community affairs, institutional changes to ensure the recognition of farmers’ rights in practice, compensating those harmed by pollution, and educating farmers on the legal system and the water rights it provides. In addition to addressing a general lack of literature on water governance in Vietnam, this research has implications for literature regarding peri-urban environmental management, good water governance, and the rights based approach. This research suggests that the challenges present in the PUI exacerbate and thus illuminate poor water governance practices that extend beyond the local scale. It also suggests that water rights be used as a possible platform to achieve good water governance. Lastly, it explores the potential challenges of implementing a rights based approach.

Government (state) command and control strategies for addressing the complexities, uncertainties, and conflicts associated with ecological issues are no longer adequate. This is particularly true when addressing water resources. Water resources are inherently complex as a result of demands related to (1) competition between multiple users of water resources; (2) multiple scales at which water is managed; and (3) the mismatch between administrative and hydrological boundaries. Collaborative strategies for environmental governance are increasingly essential for addressing water resource issues. New legislation in Ontario has specifically mandated that collaboration be used as a strategy for source water protection. Government involvement is important for successful collaboration. However, little research has been undertaken to understand what impact mandating collaboration has on the process and outcomes. This thesis explores the relationship between mandated collaboration, the process of collaboration, and its outcomes in order to critically assess the potential impacts of government-mandated collaboration. The research was guided by a conceptual framework developed from the literature concerning government involvement in collaboration. Evaluative criteria were used to assess processes and outcomes. The empirical work explored a case study of the Niagara Source Protection Area in Ontario. The case draws attention to how government affects the collaborative process and outcomes.

The 49th parallel border dividing the Great Plains region has been described since its delimitation as an artificial construct, as no natural features distinguish the Canadian and American portions of the landscape. While the border subjects the landscape to different political, legal, philosophical, and sociocultural regimes on either side, the regions contemporary and emerging environmental problems span jurisdictional boundaries. Their mitigation requires new forms of environmental management capable of transcending these borders. In this dissertation, I examine the prospects for implementing ecosystem-based approaches to environmental management in the Frenchman River-Bitter Creek (FRBC) subregion of the Saskatchewan-Montana borderland. First, I interrogate the extent to which residents perceive the FRBC region as a borderland. Then, I examine the range of implications of ecosystem-based management approaches for institutional arrangements, environmental governance, and traditional property regimes and livelihoods in the region.<p> The research methodology includes an extensive literature review; multiple site visits to the FRBC region; a series of semi-structured interviews with employees of government agencies and environmental nongovernmental organizations, and with local agricultural producers; the analysis of historical maps and of selected ecoregional planning documents; and attendance at public meetings in the FRBC region. The research results are presented in a series of four manuscripts. The first manuscript describes perceptions of the border and the borderland through time. The second manuscript examines changes to the border and the relationships across it instigated by the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and the 2003 BSE Crisis. The third manuscript examines the extent to which a shared landscape transcends the border, and describes how the different regimes across the border create divergent visions for landscape and species management. The fourth manuscript investigates the ways in which incorporating a broader range of actors and disciplines could reconceptualize environmental management as an inclusive processes that is cognizant of local history and values.<p> By examining the imbrications of the fields of environmental management, border studies, and political ecology, this research advocates adopting an historical approach to environmental geography research so that contemporary problems may be understood within their local contexts. It emphasizes the importance of including a range of stakeholders in environmental management processes. It identifies the difficulties inherent to adopting ecosystem-based approaches to management, and stresses the practical value of transboundary collaboration for goal setting so that the tenets of ecosystem-based management may be achieved under the existing jurisdictional frameworks in place. It provides significant insights for policy makers, in that it presents residents reflections upon their involvement in environmental management processes, and upon the impacts that recent changes to border and national security policies have had upon borderland residents. Moving forward, this research uncovers the need for continued investigations of the impacts of border security policies and legislation on borderland communities and species, for more study of the ability of state agencies to meaningfully incorporate local actors in environmental management, and for investigations of trinational environmental management efforts in the North American Grasslands.

Diss. Uppsala : Uppsala universitet., 2004.

Diss. Stockholm : Tekn. högsk., 2005.

Master's thesis. / Format: PDF. Bibl.

Thesis (M. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 125-127).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--York University, 2000. Graduate Programme in Economics. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 108-117). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/yorku/fullcit?pNQ56248.

Thesis (M. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 72-74).

The utilisation of a willow vegetation filter for the treatment of landfill leachate is an environmentally and economically appealing solution for landfill operators. Investigations into the design and efficacy of the system, the effects of landfill leachate irrigation on soil ecology, soil chemistry and willow growth were undertaken. Two low cost, high density polyethylene-lined experimental willow plots (25x50 m2) were installed at Cranford landfill, Northamptonshire, UK, and irrigated with landfill leachate between June 2001 and October 2005. During the growing season, leachate volume was often reduced to zero. On other occasions, maximum removal efficiencies of between 33 % and 75 % for total Kjeldahl nitrogen, chemical oxygen demand and sodium, potassium and chloride ions were determined in landfill leachate effluent samples. The addition of landfill leachate produced no negative effects on both soil and foliar macronutrients, which were found to be in the range for sufficient or optimum growth and where additional fertilisers would not bring about a further increase in yields. The effects of landfill leachate application on soil microbial communities were explored and were found to be significantly higher for dehydrogenase activity and ammonium oxidising bacteria in the plot receiving a higher rate of leachate application. An economic analysis was carried out to demonstrate the financial viability of a willow vegetation filter as a treatment for landfill leachate. Willow vegetation filters could provide a desirable alternative to conventional treatment systems, such as sequencing batch reactors, as they incur lower capital expenses and potentially similar operational costs. This study also identified additional revenue benefits in the region of £94 per hectare for wood chip heat/energy production. The results from the willow vegetation filter under investigation in this study demonstrated that this type of system can be effective, in terms of volume reduction and removal efficiency in landfill leachate, with no detrimental effect upon the trees or surrounding environment