The Kaiparowits Coal Development and Transportation study resulted from an agreement made by the Secretary of the Interior and Governor Scott Matheson of Utah for a cooperative study by the Department of the Interior and the State of Utah to review the issues raised by potential mining and transportation of coal from the Kaiparowits Plateau. The product of this study was a regional planning document. Information developed provided a foundation to help the state and Federal land managers address important policy questions. The study helped the Department of the Interior, state, and local agencies, and the general public understand basic issues such as whether designation of rail or slurry transportation corridors would conflict with National Park or other Federal land management policies. The study stimulated participating agencies to perform their own analyses of these questions. The study did not look at issues related to mine -mouth use of Kaiparowits coal or economic feasibility of Kaiparowits coal development. Any such questions were addressed in site - specific environmental impact statements resulting from mine development or transportation rights -of -way applications to BLM, the Office of Surface Mining (OSM), and other agencies. Federal and state land managers used this report to make a preliminary assessment of the acceptability of impacts and identify mitigation measures or management steps that could be considered. It should be noted that the issue of need for coal development on the Kaiparowits Plateau was not addressed as a part of this study. Present and future demands for coal, potential coal markets, and alternative coal sources in the western United States were not included in the scope of this study as it was defined by the Department of the Interior. The study also provided new environmental analyses (including trade -offs and residual impacts) specifically directed at coal transportation via various planning corridor alternatives.

The application of environmental assessment methods for buildings has increased significantly over the last few years. Approximately five years ago Riksbyggen decided to apply Miljöbyggnad Silver to the new construction of all their apartment buildings. Internally within the organisation, however, criticism that the system causes large design and construction costs has been lifted. The aim of this study was to investigate the magnitude of the design and construction expenses related to Miljöbyggnad and to find what improvements could be implemented to reduce costs and enforce the efficiency of the process. The second part of the study included a feasibility study regarding implementing Life Cycle Assessment, LCA, in the construction process. The purpose of including LCA would be to construct buildings with a reduced climate impact. There are convincing indications that LCA will become an increasingly important tool in the construction industry in the future.   The project leaders working with Miljöbyggnad at Riksbyggen completed a questionnaire considering the expenses Miljöbyggnad Silver causes beyond Boverket’s Building Regulations,as well as determining the attitude regarding a possible implementation of Life Cycle Assessment. The results were subsequently discussed more qualitatively during follow-up meetings and additionally with other professionals in the industry.   The project leaders' perception of the prevailing expenses associated with Miljöbyggnad Silver beyond the Boverket’s Building Regulations varied greatly, which was consistent with previous international studies. The total cost of the use of Miljöbyggnad was stated in the large range of 400.000 to 3.800.000 SEK, but when the most divergent estimates were excluded, a more limited range of 400.000 to 650.000 SEK was given. The project leaders estimated that the certification increased the project's total cost to an extent of 0.13 to 8%, but when excluding the most divergent estimates the interval was reduced to 0.13 to 2%. The project managers’ merged results emphasized that the most cost-bearing indicators were, with the most costly first, solar heat load, daylight, thermal climate summer, absence of hazardous substances and documentation of materials.   The project leaders’ knowledge regarding LCA was limited. The main reason for their reluctance to implementation seemed to be the additional work and expense it could entail. In principle, all project leaders were of the opinion that LCA should be integrated in an early project stage prior to the procurement of a contractor. / Tillämpningen av miljöcertifieringar för byggnader har de senaste åren ökat kraftigt i omfattning. Riksbyggen tillämpar sedan några år tillbaka Miljöbyggnad ambitionsnivå Silver för all nyproduktion av flerbostadshus. Internt inom organisationen har dock kritik framhållits avseende att systemet föranleder stora ökningar av investeringskostnaderna. Eftersom få studier beträffande eventuella merkostnader av miljöcertifieringssystem genomförts har det för Riksbyggen varit svårt att svara på kritiken. Syftet med studien var följaktligen att utreda investeringskostnadernas omfattning samt vilka förbättringsåtgärder som skulle kunna vidtas för att reducera kostnaderna och parallellt stärka certifieringens ändamålsenlighet. Den andra delen av studien inbegriper en förstudie avseende en eventuell implementation av livscykelanalys, LCA, för byggprocessen. Mycket tyder på att LCA kommer att användas allt mer inom byggindustrin framöver för att uppföra byggnader med en reducerad klimatpåverkan.   Riksbyggens projektledare besvarade en enkätundersökning avseende de kostnader Miljöbyggnad Silver tillfogar utöver Boverkets byggregler, BBR, samt en undersökning avseende deras inställning till en eventuell implementation av livscykelanalyser. Enkätundersökningen kompletterades med uppföljningsmöten under vilka enkätresultaten diskuterades mer kvalitativt samt genom möten med andra professionellt yrkesverksamma.   Projektledarnas perception av kostnaderna förenade med Miljöbyggnad Silver utöver BBR varierade kraftigt, vilket dock överensstämde med tidigare internationellt genomförda studier. Totalkostnaderna för certifieringen befann sig i ett intervall av 400–3800 tusen kronor, tkr, men då de mest avvikande uppskattningarna exkluderades begränsades kostnadsintervallet till 400–650 tkr. Projektledarna uppskattade att certifieringen innebar ett kostnadspåslag på projektets totalkostnad av 0,13 till 8 %, men då extremerna exkluderades begränsades intervallet till 0,13–2 %. Projektledarnas sammanslagna resultat indikerade att de mest kostnadsdrivande indikatorerna var, med den mest kostnadsdrivande först; solvärmelast, dagsljusfaktor, termiskt klimat sommar, utfasning av farliga ämnen samt dokumentation av byggvaror. Projektledarnas kunskapsbild avseende LCA var relativt begränsad och de främsta betänkligheterna beträffande en implementering tycks vara den eventuella arbetsbelastning det skulle kunna medföra samt de kostnader det skulle driva. Den viktigaste frågan beträffande en LCA-implementering är hur Riksbyggen på bästa sätt integrerar livscykelperspektivet i verksamheten. Majoriteten av projektledarna var av åsikten att LCA vid en implementering bör integreras i ett tidigt projektstadium framför vid upphandling av entreprenör.

In a mineral development scenario, Aboriginal groups rely heavily on Environmental Assessment (EA) and Impact and Benefit Agreements (IBAs) to address their interests and concerns. While EA and IBAs are separate processes – EA is legislated and informed by the Crown, and IBAs operate in the realm of private contract law – together, the two are ostensibly part of a parallel process that connect the Aboriginal group(s), Government and the mining proponent. Indisputably, IBAs support a more inclusive development based on consultation, partnership and participation. IBAs and EA have the potential to enhance Aboriginal involvement in mineral development and positively influence the design and planning of the mine. This thesis examines the Tahltan Nation’s involvement and participation in the Galore Creek Project in British Columbia, and demonstrates the challenges and opportunities that arose during the EA and IBA process. It uses key informant interviews to gain multiple perspectives – from the proponent, Tahltan, and Government, to understand how the Tahltan utilized the EA and IBA to participate in the mineral development.

The environmental assessment system Miljöbyggnad is a Swedish system initiated by Bygga-Bo-Dialogen to assess buildings with regards to three main areas; “Energy”, “Indoor climate” and “Materials”. A building can obtain three different classifications depending on how well it manages to meet the demands. GOLD is the highest classification and is followed by SILVER and BRONZE. The majority of the measures needed to comply with the demands are done during the design phase. During the production phase a considerable amount of work is required to make sure to document the built in products and make sure they do not contain any dangerous substances. The thesis is based on the experiences retrieved by working with Miljöbyggnad in Skanska’s project Sickla Udde skola which is aiming for the highest classification GOLD. Interviews have been conducted with employees of Skanska working with the system in order to take part of their experiences. The thesis identifies difficulties linked to working with the main area “Materials” during the production phase. It also describes the available product data bases used to simplify the work with the system. Furthermore the thesis gives suggestions on how to work with Miljöbyggnad during the production phase.

This research advances Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) design and methodology for wetland assessment and policy development within an urban planning context. The thesis is a ‘manuscript-style’ and consists of three manuscripts, which collectively contribute to the overarching research purpose. The first manuscript presents and demonstrates a spatial framework for the application of SEA in the context of land use change analysis for urban wetland environment. The study aims to meet the needs for a proactive framework to assess and protect wetland areas more efficiently, and advance urban planning and development design. The proposed framework, adopting Geographic Information System and Remote Sensing approaches, presents a temporal evaluation of wetland change and sustainability assessment based on landscape indicator analysis. The results show that despite the recent extremely wet period in the Canadian prairie region, land use change contributed to increasing threats to wetland sustainability in the developing urban environment of the city of Saskatoon from 1985 to 2011. The second manuscript presents a scenario-based approach to SEA for wetland trends analysis and land use and land cover (LUC) modeling. Alternative future LUC was simulated using remote sensing data and city planning documentation using a Markov chain technique. Two alternatives were developed for LUC change and threats to urban wetland sustainability: a zero alternative that simulated trends in urban development and wetland conservation under a business as usual scenario, in the absence of prescribed planning and zoning actions; and an alternative focused on implementation of current urban development plans, which simulated future LUC to account for prescribed wetland conservation strategies. Results show no improvement in future wetland conditions under Saskatoon’s planned growth and wetland conservation scenario versus the business as usual scenario. Results also indicate that a blanket wetland conservation strategy for the city may not be sufficient to overcome the historic trend of urban wetland loss; and that spatially distributed conservation rates, based on individual wetland water catchment LUC differences, may be more effective in terms of wetland conservation. The results also demonstrate the challenges to applied SEA in a rapidly changing urban context, where data are often sparse and inconsistent across the urban region, and provides potential solutions through LUC classification and prediction tools to help overcome data limitations to support land use planning decisions for wetland conservation. The third manuscript presents an analytical approach to SEA, bridging strategic level assessment with operational planning and implementation. An expert-based strategic assessment framework was developed and applied to assess the potential implications of alternative wetland conservation policy targets on urban planning goals, and to identify a preferred conservation policy target. Site-specific algorithms, based on wetland area and wetland sustainability, were used to prioritize wetlands for conservation to meet policy targets within urban planning units. Results indicate a preferred wetland conservation policy target beyond which higher targets provided no additional benefit to urban development goals. The use of different implementation strategies, based on wetland area versus wetland sustainability, provides operational guidance and choice for planners to meet policy objectives within neighborhood planning units, but those choices have implications for local land use and wetland sustainability. Overall, the research contributes to the following aspects of SEA design and methodology: i) scoping processes to define the spatial and temporal context for SEA; ii) baseline assessment for analysis of environmental conditions and changes across space and/or over time; iii) methods to support the identification and evaluation of potential impacts of strategic alternatives; and iv) structured and systematic, quantitative assessment and decision-support tools for SEA that bridge strategic-level assessment with operational planning and implementation.

The purpose of this research was to determine the potential capacity for improved participation through community-based approaches to small hydroelectric development in the Indian Himalayas. The objectives of the research were: (1) to establish the current roles of the civic, public and private sectors in small hydro development; (2) to examine the potential for learning through participation during the development of small hydro projects; (3) to determine the potential for using community-based environmental assessment in future projects; (4) to investigate the benefits of community-driven small hydro development, and (5) to determine the implications of the findings for environmental policy and decision-making. Data were gathered using Participatory Rural Appraisal methods including semi-structured interviews, transect walks, and landscape analysis. There were five case study projects (Niti, Bampa, Jumma, Malari and Bamini/Badrinath), each in the Indo-Tibetan border region of the Indian Himalayas. The plants are all run of river, and range in capacity from 25 kW to 1.2 MW. Four of the villages had no electricity prior to the development of the small-hydro plants, while one had a prior connection to the state electrical grid (Bamini/Badrinath). The villages are inhabited by Bhotia tribespeople, and are occupied only during the summer growing season. The residents travel to lower altitude villages for the winter months. The most successful project examined, in the village of Malari, was one where community development and energy needs were considered simultaneously, and where the local community was highly involved in planning, construction and operation. The less successful projects were those where community involvement and development, sound planning, and detailed geographic information about the site were lacking in their development and operation; such as was observed in the village of Jumma, where the plant never began operations because it was damaged by an avalanche prior to its inauguration. PLEASE NOTE: As of January 2007 the State of Uttaranchal was renamed Uttarakhand. The change is not reflected in this thesis.

The purpose of this research was to determine the potential capacity for improved participation through community-based approaches to small hydroelectric development in the Indian Himalayas. The objectives of the research were: (1) to establish the current roles of the civic, public and private sectors in small hydro development; (2) to examine the potential for learning through participation during the development of small hydro projects; (3) to determine the potential for using community-based environmental assessment in future projects; (4) to investigate the benefits of community-driven small hydro development, and (5) to determine the implications of the findings for environmental policy and decision-making. Data were gathered using Participatory Rural Appraisal methods including semi-structured interviews, transect walks, and landscape analysis. There were five case study projects (Niti, Bampa, Jumma, Malari and Bamini/Badrinath), each in the Indo-Tibetan border region of the Indian Himalayas. The plants are all run of river, and range in capacity from 25 kW to 1.2 MW. Four of the villages had no electricity prior to the development of the small-hydro plants, while one had a prior connection to the state electrical grid (Bamini/Badrinath). The villages are inhabited by Bhotia tribespeople, and are occupied only during the summer growing season. The residents travel to lower altitude villages for the winter months. The most successful project examined, in the village of Malari, was one where community development and energy needs were considered simultaneously, and where the local community was highly involved in planning, construction and operation. The less successful projects were those where community involvement and development, sound planning, and detailed geographic information about the site were lacking in their development and operation; such as was observed in the village of Jumma, where the plant never began operations because it was damaged by an avalanche prior to its inauguration. PLEASE NOTE: As of January 2007 the State of Uttaranchal was renamed Uttarakhand. The change is not reflected in this thesis.

The legal doctrine, ‘Duty to Consult’, was set through a number of landmark court cases between 1997 and 2004. It is this duty that has helped First Nations receive official stakeholder status in the negotiation of land and resource use issues in British Columbia (BC), Canada. Later, policy initiatives, a best practices handbook, and procedure development shaped through the actual practice of consultation, contributed to the formation of an ‘in practice’ reality of this duty. When making an application to undertake a resource extraction or utilization project, industry proponents must go through BC’s Environmental Assessment (EA) process. This process is one example of where the ‘Duty to Consult’ has been applied in the form of a required consultation with First Nations affected by a proposed project. Despite the formation of law and policy meant to guide this area of practice and produce successful consultation activities, it is left unclear from law and policy alone what actual strategies are used by industry proponents to meet the requirements of consultation during an EA. However, as successful consultation is the goal, understanding the strategies alone is insufficient for creating a clear picture of the important considerations of this process. For this reason, the research sought to understand what overarching approach, aside from legal parameters and policy frameworks, guide the practice of consultation with First Nations in private sector resource industry projects. Identifying and examining the difficulties of consultation from the perspective of industry helped explain what the overall approach must be when undertaking this type of consultation and why this approach is of such importance. In the last few years EA has gained greater attention in BC. Due to this, reviewing the legal context and documents that officially shape the practice of consultation within the EA process is timely, relevant and provides a basis for further research. The research involved interviews with industry proponents and staff at the Environmental Assessment Office (EAO). These served to develop an understanding of the individual experience of those working in the field. In developing a fuller picture of the subtleties of the consultation process, the interviews are supplemented with an analysis of the social and political context that influences consultation. The analysis revealed that more effective consultations prioritize relationship-building as their primary approach and are responsive to the varying local conditions, as each community engaged with is unique. The findings present challenges perceived on the industry side that may help provide better understanding of the influences on the EA process and approach used by industry proponents. Although there are subtle differences between the issues identified by both the EAO and the industry proponents interviewed, overall the similarities were significant. All of those interviewed identified relationship-building between all stakeholders as a key approach to the process and to the long-term success of the projects being proposed. Given the historical context of the relationship between all stakeholders, the conclusion of the research is that, although building trusting relationships will be difficult given the history of relations, it is also the starting point for building greater understanding and repairing trust within this particular sector. / Graduate / 0617 / 0615 / mtamina@uvic.ca

This study attempts to emphasize on the need for Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) implementations for Turkey, particularly for strategic level planning activities. 1/25.000 scaled Territorial Plans are subject to be strategic level plans in Turkey since there are no regional plans developed in Turkey. Although these plans should carry the role of strategic decisions for the sector development of regions, they do not provide sufficient output for development for many reasons today. The aim of this thesis is to evaluate the role of Strategic Environmental Assessment in integrating environment into strategic decision making -particularly for 1/25.000 territories plans- and propose a prototype SEA approach for Turkey. An integrated structure of SEA and planning activities might provide healthier implementations for Territory plans and SEA might be used as an enhancement toll for our current planning system with its transparent, participatory, coordinating and auditing nature.

The built environment contributes extensively to the overall environmental impact of society. An increasing number of tools have been developed worldwide for comprehensive environmental assessment and rating of buildings in order to make the building sector more sustainable. These tools are expected to drive and facilitate future environmental improvements and market transformation in the sector. This thesis explores different methodological aspects in tool development using experiences from two large Swedish projects, the EcoEffect and ByggaBo tools, which were developed with a high level of stakeholder participation in order to be of practical use in the building sector.   The methodological aspects explored and discussed here include an approach for systematic selection of assessment aspects (energy use, indoor air quality, etc.) in tools (Paper 3), and a systematic procedure for selecting practical indicators using theoretical (e.g. validity/environmental relevance) and practical (e.g. costs) criteria (Papers 2 and 3). An approach for simple communication of complex results is presented with examples from 26 multi-family buildings (Paper 4). This approach allows a building’s ‘environmental efficiency’ to be presented in one diagram, without weighting the two distinct assessment areas energy use and indoor environmental quality. Paper 5 discusses the contextual issue of internal use of environmental indicators in property management organisations through reviews of environmental performance evaluation and organisation theory literature and comparisons with actual case studies. The EcoEffect (Paper 1) and the ByggaBo tools are also compared and summarised.   The case studies of real buildings and experiences from the EcoEffect and ByggaBo projects allowed data collection, calculation procedures and different practical applications of such tools to be evaluated. Poor data availability sometimes limits assessments, and improved internal routines and database developments in the building sector would allow more reliable environmental assessments.   Reviews of numerous indicators in Paper 3 (and 2) and literature revealed that environmental relevance was not a key aspect when current environmental performance indicators and building rating tools were constructed. This thesis suggests that environmental relevance and systematic procedures be prioritised in order to provide robust and trustworthy tools for environmental assessment of buildings.  Recommendations, some of which are generally applicable to other environmental assessments, include selection of environmentally relevant indicators, systematic procedures for handling theoretical and practical considerations in tool development, aggregation and weighting methods, use of a life cycle perspective and inclusion of performance-based rather than feature-based indicators. Since it is likely that the information these tools provide will increasingly be used by authorities, building users, economic incentive providers such as banks, etc., the methodological developments suggested here to strengthen tool rigour are important for future tool development processes. / Utvecklingen av verktyg för miljöbedömning av byggnader är ett område som expanderat kraftigt sedan 1990-talets början. Den ökande medvetenheten om den byggda miljöns omfattande bidrag till samhällets miljöpåverkan i stort har spelat stor roll för denna utveckling. Verktygen förväntas ha en betydelsefull roll i att driva på och underlätta miljöförbättringar och omdaning av marknaden i bygg- och fastighetssektorn. Denna avhandling utforskar olika metodaspekter för verktygsutveckling och bygger på erfarenheterna från två stora svenska metodutvecklingsprojekt för miljöbedömning av byggnader, EcoEffect och ByggaBo:s miljöklassning av byggnader. Båda dessa verktyg togs fram i samarbete med ett stort antal representanter från bygg- och fastighetssektorn, då verktygen syftade till praktisk användning.   Ett antal metodaspekter utforskas och diskuteras i avhandlingen. I artikel 3 föreslås och testas ett angreppssätt för systematiskt urval av miljöaspekter som ska bedömas av ett verktyg och dessutom föreslås här och i artikel 2 ett systematiskt tillvägagångssätt för att välja indikatorer för praktiskt användning utifrån både teoretiska (t ex. validitet) och praktiska (t ex. kostnad) kriterier. Ett angreppssätt för att underlätta kommunikation av komplexa miljöbedömningsresultat presenteras genom exempel från 26 flerfamiljshus i artikel 4. Detta angreppssätt möjliggör att redovisa en byggnads ‘miljöeffektivitet’ i ett diagram utan att behöva vikta de två disparata miljöaspekterna energianvändning och innemiljö. Artikel 5 tar upp användning av miljöindikatorer för internt arbete i fastighetsförvaltande organisationer genom litteraturöversikter inom områdena utvärdering av miljöprestanda och organisationsteori samt genom jämförelser med praktiska fallstudier. Verktygen EcoEffect (artikel 1) och nuvarande version av ByggaBo:s miljöklassningssystem sammanfattas också och jämförs i avhandlingen.   Genom ett antal fallstudier av verkliga byggnader och erfarenheterna från EcoEffect- och ByggaBo-projekten utvärderas frågor som insamling av indata, beräkningsmetoder och olika praktiska tillämpningar i avhandlingen. Dålig tillgång på indata begränsar ibland möjligheterna att göra miljöbedömningar. Förbättrade interna rutiner samt utveckling av nya typer av databaser inom bygg- och fastighetssektorn kommer med största sannolikhet att underlätta miljöbedömningar i framtiden.   Granskning av ett stort antal miljöindikatorer i artikel 3 (och 2) och litteratur på området visade att när miljöindikatorer och miljöklassningsmetoder tagits fram, har miljörelevansen hos dessa sällan haft högsta prioritet. Ett övergripande mål för denna avhandling har därför varit att bidra med rekommendationer som kan stärka miljörelevansen och trovärdigheten hos liknande indikatorer och verktyg. Några av de angreppssätt som föreslås är tillämpliga mer generellt också för andra typer av miljöbedömningar; t ex. hur miljörelevanta miljöindikatorer kan väljas, hur både teoretiska och praktiska överväganden kan hanteras på ett systematiskt sätt vid liknande verktygsutveckling, angreppssätt för viktning och aggregering av resultat samt användning av ett livscykelperspektiv. Vid miljöbedömning av byggnader bör också funktionsbaserade indikatorer i första hand väljas snarare än sådana som baseras på specifika tekniska utföranden. En trolig utveckling är att nya typer av användare i större utsträckning kommer att efterfråga den information som miljöbedömningsverktyg för byggnader kan tillhandahålla. Det kan handla om t ex. myndigheter, husköpare och ekonomiska incitamentsgivare såsom banker. Av denna anledning är de frågor som rör metodutveckling och tas upp i avhandlingen, klart betydelsefulla för att stärka noggrannhet, robusthet och trovärdighet i framtida utveckling av miljöbedömningsverktyg för byggnader. / QC 20100601 / Miljöklassning av byggnader / EcoEffect - miljövärdering av byggnader / Miljöstyrning med miljöindikatorer i fastighetsförvaltning