[pt] O fenômeno da urbanização traz consigo o problema de mobilidade urbana nos grandes centros. A necessidade de vencer médias distâncias em um curto espaço de tempo resultou em um aumento na frota mundial de helicópteros. De acordo com os dados coletados na Agência Nacional de Aviação Civil (ANAC, 2019), a frota brasileira de helicópteros, com registro ativo, aumentou substancialmente nos últimos 40 anos, gerando grandes impactos na implantação de helipontos em áreas urbanas já consolidadas. Um desses impactos diz respeito à poluição sonora e consequentemente os efeitos decorrentes do ruído nas comunidades vizinhas aos locais de pouso e decolagem dessas aeronaves. O objetivo desta pesquisa consiste em discutir como compatibilizar os ruídos gerados com a implantação de helipontos em áreas urbanas já consolidadas por meio de modelagem de projeto baseada em marco teórico legal contemporâneo. A metodologia tem início com a revisão de literatura do planejamento urbano e ambiental, com vistas a acrescentar subsídios teóricos aos debates sobre a legislação que orienta e disciplina o licenciamento de helipontos em grandes metrópoles, análise dos pedidos de licenciamento ambiental e urbanístico, tendo como estudo de caso o licenciamento urbano e ambiental de helipontos no município do Rio de Janeiro e as evoluções tecnológicas para mitigação do ruído. / [en] The use of helicopter aircraft has increased dramatically in recent decades. Following countries like Japan, Australia, United Kingdom, France, Canada and the United States, Brazil has the seventh worldwide helicopter fleet. The city of São Paulo in 2005 was considered in the international ranking, as the second city in number of helicopters in operation (Alves, 2018). The survey of the number of helicopters in 2013 indicated 2076 registered helicopters, with 70 percent of the fleet concentrated in the states of São Paulo (723), Rio de Janeiro (467) and Minas Gerais (246). The Brazilian helicopter fleet has 1398 aircrafts with active registration in May 2018 (reference year: 2017), which corresponds to 14.79 percent of the total of this type of aircraft, which adds up to 9,452 helicopters. Of the total fleet of registered aircraft, the state of São Paulo has 33 percent of the fleet, followed by Rio de Janeiro with 20 percent and Minas Gerais with 11 percent. (ANAC, 2017) Despite the slight drop in the number of aircraft registered since 2016, the trend line continues to increase.Brazil has a large territorial area, occupying the fifth place in the world in countries in this category. Since 1927 the air transport sector has evolved with the economy. The 1994 economic stabilization plan leveraged the sector with significant growth in Brazilian tourism, generating an increase in employment and income, mainly after being chosen to host important sporting events on a global scale, such as the World Cup in 2014 and the 2016 Olympic Games, which significantly boosted the Brazilian air transport sector (Santos, 2015). All this increase in the aeronautical sector brought positive impacts to the economy, mainly in the area of tourism. However, it had a negative impact with regard to noise pollution in the communities surrounding these areas. Following the same path, the implementation of helipads has caused many disturbances to the neighborhood. Noise pollution from overflights, landings and takeoffs, in addition to the risk of accidents, brought up the issue of urban and environmental licensing of helipads. Noise pollution is anthropic pollution and is directly related to urbanization processes, which have been exacerbated with industrialization. In addition, it has a specificity, noise leaves no residue, environmental damage concerns the harm that causes health. It is noted that the concern with urban noise has been increasing in the same proportion as industrial development and population concentration. Consolidated urban areas find it difficult to reconcile activities and enterprises that have high noise levels with the permanence of the population around these areas. The emergence of new environmental technologies for noise reduction, especially in the airport sector and more specifically for helipads inserted in urban areas, as the case in the city of Rio de Janeiro, has mitigated the discomfort in the surrounding communities in the implementation of these projects, which encouraged research in this sector.

[pt] Esta pesquisa de mestrado teve por objetivo desenvolver uma alternativa tecnológica de baixo custo que seja capaz de realizar medições acústicas visando suprir demandas do setor acadêmico e industrial. A preocupação em reduzir custos constituiu-se na motivação do trabalho na expectativa de que o sonômetro desenvolvido seja capaz de viabilizar projetos essencialmente de cunho social, comumente descartados pelos altos custos hoje associados a medições confiáveis e à dependência de componentes eletrônicos não disponíveis no mercado nacional. Como fundamento, o instrumento de medição proposto, projetado para fornecer a exibição remota e permitir medições precisas de formas de onda capturadas de uma fonte de microfone por meio de um servidor de áudio Jack, opera em sistema Linux embarcado. Faz uso da análise espectral para permitir a visualização da forma de onda acústica no domínio do tempo, considerando funcionalidades dedicadas consideradas essenciais para fornecer resultados de medições confiáveis, quer dos níveis de pressão sonora, quer de diferentes descritores acústicos. O sonômetro foi validado com base em resultados de uma intercomparação de medições realizadas em laboratório e no campo, tomando como referência resultados confiáveis gerados por um sonômetro comercial (CESVA SC420), calibrado por um laboratório acreditado para medições acústicas junto à Rede Brasileira de Calibração (RBC/Inmetro). / [en] This master s research aimed to develop a low-cost technological alternative capable of carrying out acoustic measurements to meet the demands of the academic and industrial sectors. The concern with reducing costs was the motivation for the work in the expectation that the sound level meter developed would also enable essentially social projects, commonly discarded due to the high costs currently associated with reliable measurements and the dependence on electronic components not available on the national market. As a foundation, the proposed measurement instrument operates on an embedded Linux system and is designed to provide a remote display and enable accurate measurements of waveforms captured from a microphone source via a Jack audio server. It uses spectral analysis to allow visualization of the acoustic waveform in the time domain, considering dedicated functionalities essential to provide reliable measurement results, whether of sound pressure levels or different acoustic descriptors. The sonometer was validated based on results from an intercomparison of laboratory and field measurements, taking as a reference reliable results generated by a commercial sound level meter (CESVA SC420) calibrated by a laboratory accredited for acoustic measurements by the Brazilian Calibration Network (RBC/Inmetro).

The research focused on the assessment of the effectiveness of the methods used in the implementation of environmental legislation in the Mutasa district of Zimbabwe. Successful implementation of environmental legislation and any other legislation is determined by various factors. Some of the factors include environmental education, environmental awareness programmes, consistency in implementing environmental legislation, coordination of all stakeholders, willingness of communities to co-operate and the political will by political office bearers. This research revealed that the methods used to implement environmental legislation in the Mutasa district of Zimbabwe are ineffective. Poverty is the main reason for activities leading to environmental degradation. Communities in the Mutasa district of Zimbabwe are ignorant of environmental legislation which govern their activities. Environmental education and environmental awareness programmes are rarely carried out. The political office bearers in the Mutasa district lack the political will to ensure that environmental legislation are enforced. / Public Administration / MPA (Public Administration)

O objetivo principal deste estudo foi o desenvolvimento e validação de metodologia de análise de multiresíduos para quantificação de resíduos de pesticidas em manga. Foram analisados 32 pesticidas, sendo dos seguintes grupos: 9 Organofosforados, 17 Organoclorados e 6 triazois sendo que neste mesmo método foi analisado novamente o Organofosforado fention. Os organofosforados foram analisados em cromatógrafo a gás (CG) acoplado ao detector fotométrico de chamas e os organoclorados foram analisados em cromatógrafo a gás (CG) acoplado ao detector de captura de elétrons (ECD). Os triazois foram analisados em cromatógrafo a gás acoplado a espectrômetro de massa (CG/MS). A curva de linearidade para todos os padrões analíticos, foi realizada em triplicata e com 6 diferentes concentrações. As fortificações das amostras foram realizadas em dois níveis de concentração, no limite do método e 10 vezes o limite do método, sendo que a concentração do limite de quantificação do método (LOQ) foi realizada com sete repetições (N= 7) e a concentração de 10 vezes o LOQ foi realizada com N= 5, usando-se mangas tratadas no sistema orgânico (livres de pesticidas). Os métodos desenvolvidos e validados neste estudo apresentaram-se: a) Linear na faixa de: 0,1 - 4,0 µg/mL para o triclorfon e malation; 0,05 – 2,0 µg/mL para os demais organofosforados; 0,05 – 1,6 µg/mL para os organoclorados; 0,1 – 1,0 µg/mL para o paclobutrazol; 0,25 - 2,5 µg/mL para o fention e bromuconazol; 0,5 – 5,0 µg/mL para o tetraconazol e tebuconazol e 1,0 – 10 µg/mL para o procloraz e difenoconazol respectivamente, uma vez que o coeficiente de determinação foi maior que 0,99 para todos os ativos. b) Específicos, pois o nível de contaminação e/ou interferente na análise do branco dos reagentes e da amostra testemunha, foram inferiores a 30% do limite de quantificação. c) Exato, Preciso e Repetitivo, pois todos os ativos apresentaram recuperação dentro do intervalo de aceitabilidade de 70 a 120%, com coeficiente de variação porcentual (CV%) inferior a 15% em relação à média global de todos os níveis de fortificação. Foram também analisados os mesmos pesticidas em 15 amostras de mangas compradas nos supermercados de Piracicaba, procedentes do Nordeste do Brasil. Em nenhuma das amostras foram encontrados resíduos acima do limite estabelecido por lei ou acima do limite de quantificação deste método, no caso dos pesticidas não autorizados. / The principal objective of this study was the development and validation of a multiresidue analytical methodology for the quantification of pesticide residues in mangos. Quantitative analyses were made for 32 pesticides, from the following classes: organophosphorus (9), organochlorine (17) and triazole (6). The results from the method include the first analysis for the organophosphorus pesticide fenthion. The organophosphorus pesticides were analyzed by a gas chromatograph (GC) coupled to a flame photometric detector, while the organochlorine pesticides were analyzed using a gas chromatograph (GC) coupled to an electron capture detector (ECD). The triazoles were analyzed with a gas chromatograph coupled to a mass spectrometer (GC/MS). For each of the analytes, calibration curves were constructed in triplicate using solutions with six different concentrations, prepared from the analytical standards. Recovery experiments were performed at two levels of fortification, the limit of quantification of the method (LOQ) and 10 times this limit. Seven repetitions (N = 7) were performed at the limit of quantification, and five (N = 5) at the 10 times higher level of fortification. Mangos raised by organic farming methods (free from pesticides) were used for the recovery experiments. The methods developed and validated in this study have the following characteristics: a) linear range: 0.1 – 4.0 µg/mL for trichlorfon and malathion; 0.05 – 2.0 µg/mL for the other organophosphorus pesticides; 0.05 – 1.6 µg/mL for the organochloro pesticides; 0.1 – 1.0 µg/mL for paclobutrazol; 0.25 – 2.5 µg/mL for fenthion and bromuconazole; 0.5 – 5.0 µg/mL for tetraconazole and tebuconazole; and 1.0 – 10.0 µg/mL for prochloraz and difenoconazole, in each case the coefficient of determination was greater than 0.99. b) Specific: thus the level of contamination and/or intereference in analysis from the reagent blank and the control sample amounted to less than 30% of the limit of quantification. c) Exact, Precise and Repeatable, for each of the analytes the recovery was found to be within the acceptable interval of 70 to 120%, and with a coefficient of variation, expressed as a percentage, of less than 15% in relation to the global average of the results obtained at the two levels of fortification. Analyses were made for the same pesticides in 15 samples of mangos bought from supermarkets in Piracicaba, which were raised in the Northeast of Brazil. None of these samples contained residue concentrations above the limit established by law or, in the case of non-authorized pesticides, above the limit of the quantification of the current methodology.

A evolução da proteção jurídica aos recursos hídricos e do Bioma Mata Atlântica divide-se em três fases distintas, ao longo do período compreendido entre o descobrimento do Brasil, em 1500, até os dias atuais, com um histórico evolutivo na conservação desse bioma em razão da recuperação e proteção dos recursos hídricos. Embora a aplicabilidade das políticas de meio ambiente, proteção de mananciais e mudanças climáticas tenham com seus próprios marcos regulatórios se desenvolvido a contento, ainda há espaço para se aprimorarem novas formas de gestão em busca da preservação da floresta para produção de água por meio de mecanismos de incentivos ambientais, como se pretende demonstrar neste estudo de caso do Pagamento por Serviços Ambientais ao produtor de água da cidade de Guaratinguetá, Estado de São Paulo (Brasil). Consolidar a integração das políticas de PSA com as demais políticas de mudanças climáticas, florestais, recursos hídricos e agrárias mantendo-se o foco no desenvolvimento sustentável, demonstra que a visão da gestão por bacias hidrográficas torna-se cada vez mais estratégica para enfrentar condições climáticas severas em relação à escassez de água em meio rural e urbano, frente aos seus usos múltiplos. Nesse contexto, conquistar a participação da sociedade, promovendo-se sua aproximação aos programas públicos conservacionistas, mantidos com o apoio da iniciativa privada e de agentes técnicos de sustentabilidade, com o apoio do terceiro setor, conquistaram significativas melhorias da qualidade e disponibilidade de água em zona rural, e no reequilíbrio das forças econômicas e sociais em busca de uma produção rural mais sustentável. Embora a consecução do objetivo do desenvolvimento sustentável propostos nessas políticas públicas ambientais que incentivam o produtor-recebedor necessite ainda aperfeiçoamento, foi observada durante a implementação da política que a preservação e recuperação desses recursos naturais, em aliança às ações de saneamento rural e saúde ambiental, em compasso a mobilização popular, surtiram efeitos práticos e permitiram que usuários da política pública local (PSA-hídrico) enfrentassem com maior resiliência a crise hídrica durante a estiagem severa ocorrida no período seco dos anos de 2014 e 2015. / The evolution of legal protection to water resources and the Atlantic forest biome is divided into three distinct phases during the period between the discovery of Brazil in 1500, until the present day, with a history of evolution in this biome conservation due to the recovery and protection of water resources. Although the applicability of environmental policies, watershed protection and climate change have with their own regulatory framework well developed, there\'s still room to improve new forms of management in pursuit of preserving the forest for water production, under environmental incentive mechanisms policies of the payment for environmental services for the water producers of Guaratinguetá city, State of São Paulo (Brazil). To consolidate the integration of this policy with climate change, forestry, water resources and agricultural policies, with a focus on sustainable development, demonstrates the vision of watershed management becomes increasingly strategic to deal with severe weather conditions and multiple uses of soil and water. With the participation of society, and approach of public institutions and private sector to build a conservation program for water and forest won significant improvements of quality and availability of water in the countryside properties, allowing a readjustment of the economic and social forces in search of a more sustainable rural production. Although the achievement of the sustainable development proposed in these environmental public policies needs improvement, during its implementation were observed that the preservation and recovery of these natural resources had practical effects, allowing users in rural areas to break through the drought, faced with resilience during water crisis that hit the State of São Paulo in 2014 and 2015.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-04T18:22:04Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Consuelo Aparecida Goncalves Gallego.pdf: 19346561 bytes, checksum: 55d012daa2b0e1a522a4326e5af85538 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-02-13 / This proposes to develop a critical analysis about the process of occupation of environmentally fragile areas, pointing out contradictions between reality and the legislation that involve alarming precariousness. Searchs discuss the function of the law like as a induction in the territorial occupation, and the conduction urban planning. Wants to understand why the disordered occupation occurs intensely on the fringes of legality in areas with legal restrictions on their occupation. These areas with specific legal restrictions are often occupied by informal settlements, with different patterns of income and, ultimately, by virtue of legal restrictions remain on the fringe of the city's legal benefits, deepening the process of environmental degradation, social and urban development. Takes as a case study the city of Suzano/SP, which has part of its territory that is inserted into the protection area of the watershed (73%), Tiet? River's environmental protection area (7%), and other environmental constraints. / O presente trabalho desenvolve uma an?lise cr?tica sobre o processo de ocupa??o dos espa?os ambientalmente fr?geis, apontando contradi??es existentes entre a realidade e a legisla??o que acarretam em n?veis de precariedades alarmantes. Busca-se debater o papel da legisla??o na forma de indu??o da ocupa??o do territ?rio, e na condu??o do planejamento urbano. A pesquisa realizada colabora na compreens?o das raz?es que levam ? ocupa??o desordenada ocorrer intensamente ? margem da legalidade em ?reas com restri??es legais para sua ocupa??o. Estas ?reas com restri??es legais espec?ficas s?o frequentemente ocupadas por assentamentos informais, com diferentes padr?es de renda e, acabam, por for?a de restri??es legais permanecendo ? margem dos benef?cios da cidade legal, agravando o processo de degrada??o ambiental, urban?stica e social. Toma como estudo de caso o munic?pio de Suzano/ SP, que possui parte de seu territ?rio inserido em ?rea de prote??o aos mananciais (73%), ?rea de preserva??o ambiental do rio Tiet? (7%), al?m de outras restri??es ambientais.

Com o agravamento dos problemas ocasionados pelos resíduos, a busca de soluções e orientações se torna cada vez mais evidente. As empresas, enquanto geradoras de resíduos industriais, são obrigadas por Lei a efetuar um correto gerenciamento dos seus resíduos. Conhecer a legislação ambiental aplicável é, por conseguinte, crucial para qualquer organização. O tema que se pretende desenvolver é a Gestão Integrada de Resíduos Industriais: análise comparativa entre o Estado de São Paulo e Portugal. Este trabalho tem como objetivo geral realizar um estudo comparativo entre o Estado de São Paulo, representativo do Brasil, e Portugal, no que tange a gestão integrada de resíduos industriais, tendo como base os diplomas legais que regulam esta matéria em ambos os países, bem como dar uma visão global e sintética do funcionamento da gestão integrada de resíduos industriais em São Paulo e em Portugal. A metodologia a ser usada terá em conta a análise das políticas públicas voltadas para a gestão integrada de resíduos industriais e será realizada com base em pesquisas bibliográficas e revisão documental. O levantamento de dados e das principais exigências legais terá como forma dominante o uso de bancos de dados legais via internet, a consulta de trabalhos e estudos realizados sobre esta matéria, e revistas de informação técnica e científica. / With the worsening problems caused by waste, finding solutions and guidance becomes increasingly evident. The companies, while generating industrial waste, are required by law to make a correct management of their waste. Meet applicable environmental legislation is therefore crucial for any organization. The topic to be developed is the Integrated Management of Industrial Waste: comparative analysis of the state of São Paulo and Portugal. This work has as main objective to carry out a comparative study between the State of São Paulo, representative of Brazil and Portugal, regarding the integrated management of industrial waste, based on the legislation governing the matter in both countries, as well as give insight global and synthetic functioning of integrated management of industrial waste in São Paulo and in Portugal. The methodology to be used will take account of the analysis focused on the integrated management of industrial waste and will be based on literature searches and document review public policies. The survey data and the main legal requirements will use as the dominant form of legal data banks via internet, consulting work and studies on the subject, and magazines of technical and scientific information.

Este trabalho avaliou se os instrumentos legais do licenciamento ambiental da extração de areia contribuem para a recuperação das Áreas de Preservação Permanente (APP), além disso, investigou as condições e os recursos dos órgãos envolvidos e o grau de informação dos proprietários. A área de estudo foi a Bacia Hidrográfica do Rio Corumbataí, localizada no Estado de São Paulo. A estratégia de estudo se baseou: a) na análise dos processos de licenciamento ambiental e mineral dos 36 empreendimentos existentes na bacia; b) na análise de campo dos plantios em APP de 21 portos de extração de areia de leito de rio; c) em entrevistas com 15 empreendedores e 15 funcionários dos cinco principais órgãos envolvidos. Foi verificado que a maioria dos órgãos envolvidos apresentam alguma dificuldade na atribuição de suas funções dentro do licenciamento, o que reside principalmente da carência de recurso humano, além da carência de recursos financeiros e materiais e de condições de preparo dos técnicos envolvidos. As irregularidades ambientais e legais dos portos de areia são função de uma soma de fatores, entre eles, a falta de informação e negligência dos empreendedores e a lentidão e os elevados custos do licenciamento ambiental e mineral. A avaliação final mostrou que 52% dos plantios podem ser classificados como ruins, 38% como regulares e somente 10% puderam ser considerados como bom e ótimo. Na maioria das vezes, as técnicas de reflorestamento utilizadas não atenderam aos critérios mínimos para o restabelecimento da estrutura e da função de uma floresta. Foi evidenciado ainda uma situação preocupante de perda de biodiversidade, uma vez que a maioria dos plantios e projetos de reflorestamento possui baixa diversidade em espécies e uma tendência à homogeneidade florística quando comparado com áreas naturais. Chama a atenção o insucesso dos plantios efetivados. Grande parte deles apresentou alta mortalidade, baixa densidade, baixa cobertura do solo por sombreamento da copa, fisionomia florestal sem estrutura vertical bem definida, serapilheira ausente ou escassa e regeneração ausente ou de baixas quantidade e qualidade. Os projetos de recuperação por reflorestamento não são satisfatoriamente cumpridos pelos empreendedores e a maioria mostrou uma listagem florística idêntica a de outros projetos. Além disso, se fossem implementados, na sua maioria, não garantiriam a manutenção da biodiversidade natural das matas ciliares. De acordo com os resultados, pode-se inferir que os atuais instrumentos legais do licenciamento ambiental dos portos de areia não estão contribuindo para a recuperação das APP da Bacia do Rio Corumbataí. Entretanto, o licenciamento ambiental da atividade parece estar contribuindo com a conservação das matas naturais ainda existentes na bacia, em função da atual política ambiental de não desmatamento de novas matas em APP. / The purposes of this work were to evaluate whether the environmental licensing legislation for sand mining contributes to the recovery of the riparian vegetation of the Permanent Preservation Areas (river buffer zones), as well as the conditions and resources availability of the involved agencies, and the land owners’ information level. The study area was the Corumbatai River basin, located in the State of São Paulo. The study strategy involved: a) the analysis of the environmental licensing procedures of the 36 existing mining sites in the river basin; b) field analysis of the seedlings growth in the revegetated areas in the 21 sand mining sites; c) interviews with 15 entrepreneurs and 15 officers of the five main agencies involved. It was observed that most agencies have problems with their own attributions in the licensing process, mainly owing to human resource deficiencies, lack of financial and material resources, and poor conditions for the adequate technical capacitating of the responsible officers. The environmental and legal irregularities of the sand mining sites are due to several factors, such as entrepreneurs’ misinformation and negligence, slowness and high costs involved in the environmental and mineral licensing. A final evaluation showed that 52% of the revegetation areas could be classified as bad, 38% as regular, and only 10% could be considered good or excellent. Generally, the revegetation techniques used did not meet the minimal criteria for reestablishing the riparian forest structure and function. A worrying situation regarding biodiversity loss was also evidenced, since most of the revegetation projects presented low species diversity and a tendency to floristic homogeneity, as compared to what is observed in natural areas. Most of the revegetated areas showed high mortality rate, low density, little soil cover due to canopy shading, poorly defined vertical structure, absense or inadequate litter and absence or low regeneration quantity and quality. Revegetation projects are not succesfully accomplished by the entrepreneurs and most of them showed an identical floristic list of species to those found in previous projects. Moreover, if such projects were implemented, they would probably not guarantee the maintenance of the natural biodiversity of riparian forests. According to the results, it can be inferred that the current environmental licensing legislation of sand mining sites are not contributing to the recovery of the riparian vegetation in the Corumbatai River basin. However, the environmental licensing of the sand mining activity may seem to be contributing to the conservation of the remaining natural forests in the basin, due to the current environmental policy that prohibities the cutting of riparian forests.

Reverse Logistics and Environmental Considerations in Equipment Leasing and Asset Management Manu Sharma 151 Pages Directed by Dr. Jane C. Ammons Today many business enterprises employ capital assets in the form of electronic equipment (e.g., personal computers, workstations and peripherals) in large quantities. As a result of rapid technological progress, these products have a very short life cycle, typically not much more than three or four years. Unfortunately, the disposal of electronic equipment (which contains hazardous materials) presents an environmental problem. In the face of rapid equipment changes, current tax laws and disposal challenges, leasing or procurement contracts with take-back considerations are attractive. For a large electronic equipment leasing company, optimal management of assets supported by good logistics decisions is crucial and may provide a significant competitive advantage. The leasing company tries to maximize operating profits through key decisions associated with the length of leases, efficient utilization of logistics facilities for material flow to and from customer sites, and equipment reuse, refurbishment and disposal actions. In this research, a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model is developed to facilitate better decisions from the perspective of an electronic equipment leasing company. The model reduces to a linear program (LP) under certain cost assumptions. All computational results are based on the LP version of the model. A case study with representative industry data validates the approach and demonstrates the utility of the model in answering key research questions. Next, important problem uncertainties are identified and prioritized. The effects of these key uncertainties on optimal lease length and product flow decisions are examined in detail via an extended case study. It is also shown how the leasing company can make near-robust leasing decisions in the face of these uncertainties. The computational research results also have implications for policy formulation on electronic waste. The important insights include an understanding of the potential impacts and expected effectiveness of alternative environmental legislation in different geographic areas, and the imposition of negative externalities on other policy realms as a result of this non-uniform approach. Therefore, this research contributes new models and understanding to the intersection of the fields of reverse logistics and equipment replacement, and provides valuable insights to both business asset managers and environmental policy makers.

The purpose of this study is to revise the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry's (DWAF's) current Integrated Environmental Management (IEM) procedure and to develop an Environmental Management Framework (EMF), so as to ensure that the environment is considered in a structured, formal manner at each decision-making stage of the projects development business process. The proposed EMF provides process diagrams that align the IBM principles, the environmental assessment and management tools, and the engineering business process with the project life cycle approach for DWAF's water sector functional areas. Key decision-making points are introduced to the business process to ensure that all the specific requirements have been met before continuing to the next engineering stage of the business life cycle. Auditing nodes were identified within the life cycle approach and complement the decision-making points and strengthen the evaluation of environmental compliance and performance. These process diagrams is designed to prompt development planners and implementers to consider the environment at all stages of the business life cycle and practice sound environmental management. The EMF is based on international best practice and follows the Deming model philosophy as well as principles and elements of an environmental management system. The EMF must be an integral part in the way the department conduct its business and not seen as an ad hoc function and the duties of the environmental officer. To conclude, the EMF is the building block and interim management plan for an appropriate environmental management system in the future and the first step towards business excellence for the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry. / Thesis (M.Sc. (Geography and Environmental Studies))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2005.