Master of Arts / Department of Geography / Lisa M.B. Harrington / While environmental concerns have played a secondary role in dam removal rationales thus far, the Condit and Elwha removal projects could signal a change in governmental and public priorities in dam management in the United States (Born et al. 1998; Bednarek 2002). For this research, I compared two dam removal projects designed to restore native salmon runs in two rivers in Washington State: the Condit Dam on the White Salmon River and the Elwha and Glines Canyon Dams on the Elwha River. This thesis asks: given choices of preserving dams that produce clean electricity and the well-established lake-based habitats created by their reservoirs or re-establishing a free-flowing river to reestablish fish and wildlife populations, how are decisions made, and what does the process and outcome mean to local communities? Research interview data was used in combination with policy documents to answer three research questions: 1) What factors affect decision-makers’ and other stakeholders’ support for (or rejection of) dam removal? 2) How did stakeholders’ perceptions and opinions play a role in the decision-making process? and 3) What can we learn from problems and successes evident from the dam removal decision processes? The main factors influencing both the Condit Project and the Elwha Project were environmental (salmon restoration), political (meeting legislative requirements for fish passage), and economic (finding the least cost fish passage alternative). The primary motivation for both projects was salmon restoration via the provision of federally mandated fish passage. The possibility of regaining a valuable resource spurred Tribal, federal, and state agencies to advocate for the removal alternative. Dam owners in both cases desired the least cost option, resulting either in their consent to removal (Condit Project) or selling the dams and relinquishing responsibility to the federal government (Elwha Project). Both took over two decades to complete and were removed in 2011. Perceptions of the relative importance of removal/retention options and dissatisfaction with the decision-making process led to polarization of the communities affected by the dam removals and contributed to the 20+ year project timelines. In order to promote good will and understanding between decision makers and stakeholders, two lessons can be learned from the Condit and Elwha Projects: 1) actively seek to include both proponents and opponents in decision-making and 2) establish robust communication among stakeholders and decision makers. Additionally, preliminary evidence indicates that dam removal does result in movement of salmonids to river reaches that had been blocked by dams, and dam removal may also lead to unintended consequences related to local environmental quality and resource access, such as short term air quality concerns and longer term effects on groundwater availability.

This thesis argues that the management of environmental impacts has many analogies with the management of risk and practice can be improved by using ideas, concepts and principles found in the management of risk in other spheres of human activity. An overview of the challenges faced by environmental impact practitioners in New Zealand and reinforcement of its importance to the sustainable management of natural and physical resources under New Zealand's Resource Management Act is provided. Key risk management ideas, concepts and principles drawn from a variety of sources are listed and parallels drawn between these and existing environmental impact assessment practice in New Zealand. From this list a number are selected and opportunities for improving environmental impact assessment practice are explored. A number of opportunities are identified, starting with the need for a common language and methodology amongst practitioners. Categorisation of impacts to assist transparency of analysis and expression using frequency-consequence curves to aid and promote consistency of decision-making are further areas of opportunity. Risk management has several well-developed techniques for dealing with uncertainty and selection of assessment endpoints. The connection between communication of risk and public perception is an area with significant potential for communication about environmental impacts. Challenges with effective public participation in environmental decision-making are backgrounded and risk management practised in two high profile areas examined for opportunity for improved practice. Neither appears to offer opportunity for improvement in key decision-making areas. A relatively new indicator approach towards risk assessment called "healthy systems method" appears to have significant potential for cost-effective analysis of systems of various types and at various levels. This thesis identifies a number of other areas of risk management requiring further research to determine potential for achieving better practice in environmental impact assessment.

Nearly 45 years ago, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) was signed into law to become the first national policy for the environment of the United States. As it has evolved over time through implementation and litigation, numerous countries and states around the world have emulated NEPA with similar environmental impact assessment requirements. Many scholars have evaluated the success of the legislation in accomplishing its lofty goals. Most commonly, however, these studies address the procedural performance of agencies through the creation of environmental impact statements. This thesis examines the effectiveness of NEPA in accomplishing its substantive, rather than procedural, goals by identifying a set of values essential to meeting the fundamental intent of the Act. The values are then evaluated in the context of the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System Project to determine whether or not the NEPA process was effective in this case and to derive lessons for its future implementation.

Despite the increasing public awareness about the waste that is created while consuming and disposing of products, the waste created by the raw material extraction and production phases is usually invisible to the consumers. In this respect, a product waste footprint indicator based on the life cycle perspective was recently proposed to address this knowledge gap, offering a better understanding of the environmental consequences of human consumption behaviour. Using product waste footprint as an environmental indicator would be limited in capturing the full suite of life cycle environmental damages associated with a product. On the other hand, the strict interpretation of life cycle assessment is quite technical, costly and ineffective for communicating with broader audiences. Therefore, there is still a need for simpler and less costly options, such as the product waste footprint, for environmental decision making and communication. The aim of this study is to find out if product waste footprint is a good proxy for the life cycle environmental impacts for different products. Data for 1400+ products from different product categories (agricultural, forestry, animal products; basic metal and alloys; chemicals; glass and other non-metallic products; machinery; ores, minerals and fuels; processed biobased products) were collected from the Ecoinvent 3.5 cut-off database using Brightway2 LCA framework. The results from linear regression analyses suggest that there is indeed a statistically significant and positive relationship between the product waste footprint and environmental damages to ecosystem diversity, human health, and resource availability. The regression models can explain up to more than 90% of the variance in environmental damages and they predict around 0.8% increase in environmental damages for each 1.0% increase in the waste footprints. The strong association between the waste footprints and environmental damage indicators suggest that the waste footprint is a strong candidate to be part of the environmental sustainability communication between product companies, customers and other decision makers in the product supply chains. While the waste footprint does not aim to replace other environmental indicators, it can be used to increase customer awareness on the invisible waste, influence consumption behaviour and to promote circular economy. / Trots allmänt ökad medvetenhet om avfallet vid konsumtion och bortskaffande av produkter, är avfall från råmaterialutvinning och produktionsfaser vanligtvis osynligt för konsumenterna. I detta avseende föreslogs nyligen en avfallsindikator för produktavfall baserat på livscykeltänkande för att hantera detta kunskapsgap, vilket ger en bättre förståelse för miljökonsekvenserna av människors konsumtionsbeteende. Att använda avfallsfotavtryck som en miljöindikator skulle vara begränsande för att fånga upp en produkts totala miljöpåverkan. Å andra sidan är den strikta tolkningen av livscykelbedömningen ganska teknisk, kostsam och ineffektiv för att kommunicera med bredare publik. Därför kvarstår behovet av enklare och billigare alternativ som PWFindikatorn för miljöbeslut och kommunikation. Syftet med denna studie är att ta reda på om avfallsfotavtryck är en bra proxy för livscykelns miljöpåverkan för olika produkter. Data för 1400+ produkter från olika produktkategorier (jordbruk, skogsbruk, animaliska produkter, basmetall och legeringar, kemikalier, glas och andra icke-metalliska produkter; maskiner; malmer, mineraler och bränslen; bearbetade biobaserade produkter) samlades in från Ecoinvent 3.5 cut-off databas med Brightway2 LCA-ramverk. Resultaten från linjära regressionsanalyser tyder på att det finns ett statistiskt signifikant och positivt samband mellan avfallsfotavtryck och miljöskador på ekosystemets mångfald, människors hälsa och resurstillgänglighet. Regressionsmodellerna kan förklara upp till 90% av variansen i miljöskador och de förutsäger upp till runt 0,8% ökning av miljöskadorna för varje 1,0% ökning av avfallets fotavtryck. Den starka kopplingen mellan avfallsfotavtryck och miljöskadeangivare tyder på att avfallets fotavtryck är en stark kandidat för att vara en del av miljöhållbarhetskommunikationen mellan produktföretag, kunder och andra beslutsfattare i produktförsörjningskedjorna. Även om avfallets fotavtryck inte syftar till att ersätta andra miljöindikatorer, kan det användas för att öka kundernas medvetenhet om det osynliga avfallet, påverka konsumtionsbeteendet och för att främja cirkulär ekonomi.

Great Lakes Areas of Concern (AOC) are designated geographical locations within the Great Lakes Basin with particularly degraded environmental conditions. There is a consensus among diverse sectors in the Great Lakes Basin that contaminated sediment is a major environmental problem and a key factor in many of the impairments of the human and nonhuman uses (beneficial uses) of the Great Lakes. This case study examines Randle Reef in the Hamilton Harbour (AOC) which is the largest Canadian contaminated sediment site in the Great Lakes containing 695,000 m3 of sediment contaminated with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and metals. The cleanup of the Randle Reef site is a major step in the process to restore Hamilton Harbour and remove it from the list of AOCs. The Randle Reef sediment remediation project is finally coming to fruition after more than thirty years of study, discussion, collaborations, and debate. As in the case of Randle Reef, environmental decisions are often complex and multi-faceted and involve many stakeholders with competing (sometimes conflicting) priorities or objectives representing exactly the type of problem that humans are poorly equipped to solve unaided. When professionals encounter complex issues, they often attempt to use approaches that simplify the complexity so that they can manage the problem at hand. During this process, valuable information may be lost, opposite points of view may be ignored and elements of uncertainty may be overlooked. A systematic methodology that combines both quantitative and qualitative data from scientific or engineering studies of risk, cost, and benefit, as well as stakeholder objectives and values to rank project alternatives, has yet to be fully developed for contaminated sediment decision-making. The main goal of this Ph.D. research was to develop a Decision Support System (DSS) framework to aid the complex decision-making in sediment remediation. The proposed DSS framework incorporates the five key themes that, through research, were found to be the most relevant for sediment remediation projects. These themes are 1)participation of appropriate actors with common objectives; 2)funding and resources; 3)decision-making process; 4)research and technology development; and 5)public and political support. There was a need to gather relevant information and data from various sources to develop the required DSS framework. For this purpose, expert interviews were conducted, responses were collected through a public survey, Qualitative Document Analysis (QDA) was performed on available policy and research documents, and a review was undertaken of how other jurisdictions have employed DSS to aid their decision-making process. The final DSS framework has six key components as follows: 1)data module; 2)communication module; 3)document module; 4)knowledge module; 5)tools module; and 6)DSS optimization module. This generic framework can assist practitioners in developing more systematic and structured decisions for sediment remediation by incorporating an Integrated Information Management System (IIMS) along with a DSS optimization module. This IIMS+DSS method can aid the decision-making process by making it documented, reproducible, robust, transparent and provide a coherent framework to explore and analyze available alternatives in an attempt to reach the preferred solution promptly. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This master thesis has been conducted for Hanza Holding AB which is a global company with production facilities grouped into local clusters in proximity to its clients. The company has experienced an increased demand from companies seeking to relocate their production back to their home countries to be closer to their end markets. Hanza’s experience of reversed offshoring, referred as backshoring in the literature, triggered the present investigation.  Offshoring is a widespread business practice among companies in developed countries that have moved production to countries with weaker environmental and social regulations to reduce operational cost. However, it has been achieved at a high environmental, social and operational cost. Backshoring is an emergent trend that has mainly been driven for improving companies’ operational performance. Despite the negative social and environmental consequences that offshoring has had at host countries, neither environmental or social aspects have been considered as the most important drivers when taking backshoring decisions.  In Sweden, companies have been active in offshoring and backshoring. China has been one of the top 3 host regions where manufacturing was moved to and from. Sweden is one of the European countries where manufacturing, especially within the automotive industry, is still of importance for the country’s economy. The country is also considered a forerunner with ambitious environmental policies. These facts made it interesting to investigate if improved sustainability in the supply chain of Swedish offshoring companies could be a backshoring driver if all pillars of sustainability are considered in the decision-making process. Consequently, the present investigation aimed to explore if Sweden provides the conditions to improve the supply chain sustainability of companies in the Swedish automotive industry if offshored manufacturing of steel parts is brought back from China to Sweden. Furthermore, based on the results of the present investigation, the second aim was to provide Hanza with recommendations for how the company could contribute to improved supply chain sustainability.  To achieve the purpose of the study, the Environmental Decision Making framework proposed by Sexton et al. (1999) was applied. The two options to be considered were analyzed by performing a partial life cycle assessment and by applying an own developed method to assess the decision criteria. Later on, the results were analyzed to recommend Hanza measures to improve supply chain sustainability.  The results showed that Sweden has all conditions needed to improve the supply chain sustainability if manufacturing was backshored from China to Sweden. Environmental sustainability could be the most important driver followed by social and economic sustainability. Furthermore, Hanza’s manufacturing cluster strategy could be concluded to improve environmental sustainability in the supply chain by reducing emissions from transport. However, the company could implement several measures to take its contribution to a higher level. / Detta examensarbete har genomförts för Hanza Holding AB som är ett globalt företag med produktionsanläggningar grupperade i lokala kluster i närheten av sina kunder. Företaget har upplevt en ökad efterfrågan från företag som vill flytta tillbaka sin produktion till sina hemländer för att komma närmare sina slutmarknader. Hanzas erfarenhet av omvänd offshoring, även kallad backshoring i litteraturen, var utgångspunkten för detta arbete. Offshoring är en utbredd affärspraxis bland företag i utvecklade länder som harflyttat produktionen till länder med svagare miljömässig och sociallagstiftning för att minska sina kostnader. Detta har dock uppnåtts till en hög miljömässig, social och operativ kostnad. Backshoring är en framväxande trend som främst har drivits på för att förbättra företags operationella prestation. Trots de negativa sociala och miljömässiga konsekvenser som offshoring har haft i värdländerna,har varken miljö eller sociala aspekter ansetts vara de viktigaste drivkrafterna vid beslut om backshoring. I Sverige har företag varit verksamma både inom offshoring och backshoring. Kina har varit en av de tre främsta regionerna där tillverkningen har flyttats till och från. Sverige är ett av de europeiska länder där tillverkning,särskilt inom fordonsindustrin, fortfarande anses vara av betydelse för landets ekonomi. Landet anses också vara en föregångare med ambitiös miljöpolitik. Dessa fakta gjorde det intressant att undersöka om förbättrad hållbarhet i leverantörskedjan skulle kunna vara en drivkraft för företag om alla tre hållbarhets pelare beaktas i beslutsprocessen. Av denna anledning var målet med denna studie att undersöka om det finns förutsättningar i Sverige för att förbättra hållbarheten i leveranskedjan hos företag inom den svenska fordonsindustrin om tillverkning av stål artiklar flyttades från Kina till Sverige. Det andra syftet var att ge Hanza rekommendationer för hur företaget skulle kunna bidra till en förbättrad hållbarhet i leverantörskedjan. Huvudmetoden för att uppnå syftet med studien var ett tillvägagångssätt för att ta miljöbeslut framtaget av Sexton et al. (1999). De två alternativ som skulle övervägas analyserades genom att utföra en partiell livscykelanalys och genom att tillämpa en egenutvecklad metod för att bedöma beslutskriterierna. Senare analyserades resultaten för att ge Hanza rekommendationer för att förbättra hållbarheten i försörjningskedjans. Resultaten visade att Sverige har alla förutsättningar som behövs för att förbättra hållbarheten i leveranskedjan om tillverkningen flyttas tillbaka till Sverige från Kina. Miljömässig hållbarhet kan vara den viktigaste drivkraften följt av social och ekonomisk hållbarhet. Därutöver, drogs slutsatsen att Hanzas lokala klusterstrategi skulle kunna förbättra miljömässig hållbarhet i leveranskedjan genom att minska utsläppen från transporter. Företaget skulle dock kunna genomföra flera åtgärder för att ta sitt bidrag till en högre nivå.

: This thesis aims to analyze the case-law of the Court of Justice of the European Union in the field of legal protection of access to environmental decision making, with prejudice to the EIA process, consequently to ascertain the compliance of the legal order of the Czech Republic with the law of the European Union in the area of study and therefore assess the possibilities of the future developments in this matter. To do so, this thesis firstly describes the basic properties of access to environmental decision making and its legal basis both in the international law and the law of the European Union. Secondly, the pertinent statutes of the Czech Republic are analyzed in this regard on the basis of the Case C-368/09, Comission v. Czech Republic and then conclusion is reached that even after the amendment of Act No. 100/2001 Coll., on the ascertaining of effects on the environment, Czech Republic does not comply with the requirement to correctly transpose the European Union law. The analysis proceeds with next step to ascertain whether Czech Republic complies at least with the requirement to implement the European Union law accordingly. This goal is accomplished by analyzing the caselaw of the Court of Justice dealing with legal problems pertaining to the legal orders of Federal Republic of Germany...

This thesis used case study research methods to examine the role played by Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and the methods they use to increase public participation in environmental matters. It does this by investigating the process leading up to and following a Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) decision, that of MiningWatch Canada v. Canada (Fisheries and Oceans) (2010 SCC 2). Specifically, the strategies and methods used by NGOs in this study and their impact on public participation during and in the aftermath of the decision are examined. The primary research question is: what is the impact of NGOs on participatory politics as seen in the SCC decision, MiningWatch Canada v. Canada? Other research questions examined are: what role have NGOs had in increasing participation in environmental decision-making, and: how do NGOs increase public participation in environmental decision-making? Three main groups of strategies are used by the NGOs: “Legal”, “Challenge or Inform Government”, and “Creating an Emotional Response in an Audience.” Strategies common to all NGOs in this study were: “Increase Knowledge” by “Networking,” “Working with Communities at a Grass Roots Level” and “Publications and Reports”. The argument this thesis presents is that democracy is a dynamic process and various strategies can be used to influence participation in environmental decision-making. Specifically, groups of citizens can form in response to an issue, raise public awareness and encourage legislation and policy changes in the search for social progress; in this case, increase public participation in matters involving the environment. / Graduate / 0398 / 0617 / 0630 / kirstye99@gmail.com

This research project focuses on decision-making about large hydropower dams, particularly the process and outcomes of impact assessment, involving state, corporations, and local Indigenous communities. The objective of the study is to investigate whether state-led impact assessment, as one tool of regulatory decision-making, can be a way to address environmental justice concerns for Indigenous peoples affected by natural resource infrastructure. The core of this research is a case study comparison between the Belo Monte dam (Brazil) and Site C dam (Canada) to examine the effectiveness of environmental impact assessment (EIA) and decision-making. I analyse these processes’ ability to address the inequities caused by disparate adverse effects of dams on Indigenous peoples. Despite evidence of the impacts of large dams on Indigenous peoples, there is limited literature on their experiences with large hydropower projects and their decision-making processes, and mechanisms that would account for Indigenous peoples’ experiences. This research aims to fill in that gap in the literature by exposing the limitations of impact assessment and proposing recommendations for environmental decision-making to address Indigenous peoples’ concerns and experiences. I start with a review of the development of the environmental justice (EJ) literature as the research’s analytical framework. Environmental justice focuses on diagnosing the inequities caused to localized communities under the argument of a necessary ‘smaller evil,’ so that the larger society may benefit from natural resources development. However, the research participants’ experiences pointed to the need to revise the EJ framework towards a more integral approach to environmental decision-making, recognising the fundamental relationship between land and human beings. This research project concludes that EJ for Indigenous peoples helps reinstate decision-making purposes – evaluating the impacts, proposing alternatives to projects, promoting transparency and accountability, and considering the possibility of rejecting projects – when done within a genuine government-to-government collaborative framework between state and Indigenous governments. / Graduate

The purpose of this study was to make a contribution towards decision–making in complex environmental problems, especially where data is limited and associated with a high degree of uncertainty. As a young scientist, I understood the value of science as a measuring and quantification tool and used to intuitively believe that science was exact and could provide undisputable answers. It was in 1997, during the Safety Assessments done at the Vaalputs National Radioactive Waste Repository that my belief system was challenged. This occurred after there were numerous scientific studies done on the site that was started since the early 1980’s, yet with no conclusion as to how safe the site is in terms of radioactive waste disposal. The Safety Assessment process was developed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to transform the scientific investigations and data into decision–making information for the purposes of radioactive waste management. It was also during the Vaalputs investigations when I learned the value of lateral thinking. There were numerous scientists with doctorate and master’s degrees that worked on the site of which I was one. One of the important requirements was to measure evaporation at the local weather station close to the repository. It was specifically important to measure evaporation as a controlling parameter in the unsaturated zone models. Evaporation was measured with an Apan that is filled with water so that the losses can be measured. Vaalputs is a very dry place and water is scarce. The local weather station site was fenced off, but there was a problem in that the aardvark dug below the fence and drank the water in the A–pan, so that no measurements were possible. The solution from the scientists was to put the fence deeper into the ground. The aardvark did not find it hard to dig even deeper. The next solution was to put a second fence around the weather station and again the aardvark dug below it to drink the water. It was then that Mr Robbie Schoeman, a technician became aware of the problem and put a drinking water container outside the weather station fence for the aardvark and – the problem was solved at a fraction of the cost of the previous complex solutions. I get in contact with the same thinking patterns that intuitively expect that the act of scientific investigations will provide decision–making information or even solve the problem. If the investigation provides more questions than answers, the quest is for more and more data on more detailed scales. There is a difference between problem characterization and solution viidentification. Problem characterization requires scientific and critical thinking, which is an important component but that has to be incorporated with the solution identification process of creative thinking towards decision–making. I am a scientist by heart, but it was necessary to realise that apart from research, practical science must feed into a higher process, such as decision–making to be able to make a practical difference. The process of compilation of this thesis meant a lot to me as I initially thought of doing a PhD and then it changed me, especially in the way I think. This was a life changing process, which is good. As Jesus said in Mathew 3:2 And saying, Repent (think differently; change your mind, regretting your sins and changing your conduct), for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Geography and Environmental Studies))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.