Thesis. 1979. M.C.P.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Bibliography: leaves 116-126. / M.C.P.

This study is a content analysis examining coverage of the use/preservation debate in the National Park Service's internal magazine (Courier) and in the magazine (National Parks) of the National Parks and Conservation Association (an environmental lobbying group). The premise of this study is that under a Democratic, as opposed to a Republican, President, the Courier's coverage of the debate will have a similar level of pro-preservation/anti-use spin as the National Parks.A chi-square analysis of coded data derived from selected articles from the January to October 1979 and 1987 issues of the magazines demonstrated that although both magazines were predominantly neutral, National Parks had a significantly greater amount of propreservation/anti-use spin in both 1979 and 1987. The researcher suggested that the Courier's consistently neutral coverage was a condition of the NPS's role as compromiser in the use/preservation debate. / Department of Journalism

Urban areas experience the loss of natural stream channels through conversion to artificial conveyances. This process tends to target headwater and other low order streams. The purpose of this study is to determine the patterns of stream loss in Denton, Texas, and explore the regulatory structure that manages these streams. Historic and current maps and stream data are used to map Denton's streams and categorize them according to their vertical connectivity as: 1) "intact", streams that are open to the atmosphere and connect to groundwater; 2) "concrete", channelized streams open to the atmosphere but cut off from groundwater; and 3) "buried", streams disconnected from the atmosphere and groundwater. A review of federal, state, and local regulatory codes and interviews with local government officials and other stakeholders elucidates stream management in Denton. Results from these analyses reveal high rates of stream loss in the urban center with low rates overall. The federal Clean Water Act and the local Environmentally Sensitive Areas code serve as the primary protective measures for natural streams. These regulations discourage stream impacts through expensive and complex permitting requirements. However the policies allow minor impacts which may cause cumulative effects. This study aims to inform future policy-making decisions and contribute to the knowledge of the environmental regulation of streams.

Recent evidence of widespread environmental degradation and global changes resulting from human activities have revived a debate about the sustainability of the progress of human welfare that began at least 200 years ago. In this renewed debate, the seriousness and causes of environmental degradation are subject to widely divergent interpretations. There are many conceivable sustainable futures; the most important differences among them are not technical but political and ideological. The practice of environmental planning is concerned with a wide variety of contexts and situations at the human-environment interface. Because land use is at the root of many of the problems of environmental degradation (e.g., habitat destruction, air pollution, water pollution), land use planning is an appropriate focus for consideration of the role of environmental planning in sustainable development. Planning as a profession, with its inherent future orientation and focus on public values, is well situated to deal with the kinds of problems raised in the discourse regarding sustainability. Examination of mainstream land use planning practices, however, reveals a reactive, reformist incrementalism that responds to environmental degradation caused by growth, but that addresses neither its causes nor its dynamics. Mainstream land use planning approaches have attempted to resolve conflicts between development and environment through spatial solutions at various scales. The need to plan for ecological sustainability is difficult to reconcile with the democratic ideal of local self-determination. Many alternative approaches to land use planning for sustainable development focus on design solutions. The requirements of sustainability are not merely technical, however. There are both emancipatory possibilities and their opposite in sustainability. Implementing sustainability offers planners a number of choices. They can act as mediators, demystifyers of technical information, exposers of hidden ideological assumptions, and advocates. They can strengthen existing authority, or work towards an enlightened self-determination at the local level. / Ph. D.

Public interest groups, environmental nonprofit organizations (ENPOs) among them, play a large role in the formulation and implementation of public policy. Much of their legitimacy comes from their claim that they represent their members' interests. This thesis examines ENPO communication forms to ascertain whether and how ENPOs seek their members' opinions, and if so, whether or not those opinions influence the ENPOs' issue-focus selection process, which is the issues on which the ENPO's financial and human resources will be expended. The research addresses these questions at two related levels of representation: internal to the organization (e. g., how do ENPOs seek their members' opinions) and inter - organizational (e.g., what role do ENPOs play in the political arena). On the level of internal democracy, elitist theory and Seymour Martin Lipset's "factors that encourage organizational democracy" provide a base for interpreting the results. At the inter-organizational level both pluralist and elitist theories of democratic governance provide the base for interpretation of the results. Finally, speculation is made about ENPO membership as "symbolic" political participation The results suggest that support for both pluralist and elitist interpretation of both internal and inter-organizational democracy may be appropriate. All ENPOs use a variety of communication forms to inform their members, and all ENPO survey respondents stated that they are open to membership suggestions. The findings also suggest that another appropriate interpretation of ENPO membership may be that membership is a symbolic purchase of political participation. / Master of Urban Affairs

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The major purpose of this study is to analyze hazardous waste enforcement by the states as mandated by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 (RCRA). States' historical enforcement records from 1980 to 1990 are analyzed to determine the pattern of variations in enforcement. This study differs from previous studies on hazardous waste regulation in that it employs longitudinal data from 1980 to 1990 to analyze states' enforcement effort.