This dissertation is from the Joint Program Degree from the College of William & Mary and University of Virginia and awarded by the University of Virginia. The effects of petroleum hydrocarbons on salt marsh grasses and gastropods were examined under three different circumstances. In the first study reported, a small pocket marsh was repeatedly dosed with small amounts of a No. 2 fuel oil. The second study investigated the effects of a large accidental spill of No. 6 fuel oil. The third study involved single doses of a fresh and a weathered crude oil on artificially enclosed segments of marsh.

Concern about externalities associated with pesticide use in developing countries has motivated the development of integrated pest management (IPM) programs in these areas. In the Philippines, the IPM Collaborative Research Support Program (IPM CRSP) was established to specifically address the widespread misuse of pesticides in the rice-vegetable systems of Nueva Ecija, one of the major rice and onion producing regions in the country. IPM CRSP initiatives include research on the optimal use of pesticides, complementary weed control strategies, and alternative cultural and biological controls. If successful, the program should generate benefits that can be measured in economic terms. These benefits include improvements in water quality, food safety, pesticide applicator safety, and long run sustainability of pest management systems. This study was designed to measure the health and environmental benefits of the IPM CRSP in the Philippines. A survey questionnaire was administered to 176 onion farmers in five villages in Nueva Ecija to identify farm and farmer characteristics, pesticide usage, pest management practices, perceptions about pesticide hazards, awareness of IPM strategies, and willingness to adopt specific technologies being developed under the IPM CRSP. In addition, a contingent valuation survey was used to elicit farmers' willingness-to-pay to avoid risks posed by pesticides to different environmental categories. A comprehensive economic measure of the benefits of IPM CRSP was derived by 1) assessing the hazards associated with pesticide usage, 2) providing an ex ante measure of program impacts on pesticide usage, 3) predicting IPM adoption rates, and 4) estimating society's willingness-to-pay to avoid the health and environmental risks from pesticides under Philippine conditions. A measure of the amount of risks avoided as a result of IPM CRSP adoption was combined with farmers' willingness to pay bids for risk avoidance to derive a monetary value of the program benefits. The estimated economic benefits of the IPM CRSP to farmer residents in 5 villages in Nueva Ecija amount to 230,912.00 pesos for one onion season. / Ph. D.

The purpose of this study is to assist planners and scientists in assessing the economic implications of the USAID-funded Integrated Pest Management-Collaborative Research Support Program (IPM CRSP) research activities. The study presents a framework and a set of procedures for documenting, evaluating and communicating aggregate economic impacts of IPM technologies within targeted areas and across agro-ecological regions. Performing an economic impact assessment involves consideration of many factors, from the adoption patterns of IPM technologies to the level of benefits and costs producers and consumers can reap from their adoption. Adopting the framework and procedures outlined in this study will help ensure that economic benefits of IPM CRSP activities are consistently and comprehensively evaluated and documented. The assessment process involves identifying and defining alternative pest management strategies, data and information collection, and analytical procedures. Two case studies are carried out to demonstrate the functionality and practical nature of the framework. Partial budgeting and ex-ante economic surplus analysis are employed to estimate the aggregate benefits of IPM CRSP strategies in Bangladesh and Uganda. In Bangladesh, an altered schedule of hand weeding in cabbage production and Neem leaf powder as an insecticide for eggplants were selected for assessment. In Uganda, the maize variety Longe-1 and seed dressing with Endosulfan for management of bean fly and root rot on beans, are evaluated. Also, a Geographic Information System (GIS) is used to project the transferability of IPM CRSP strategies beyond the primary sites. Data on production, consumption, prices, price elasticities for demand and supply, and experiment costs are gathered and refined to derive aggregate benefits for each country. Expert questionnaires were developed to determine adoption rates, and to elicit information about yield and cost changes due to the adoption of these technologies. Agro-ecological and socio-economic data were collected to facilitate the spatial framework and examine adoption rate patterns. The GIS analysis gives insight into the spatial dimension of economic analysis and complements the effort of the IPM CRSP to globalize its activities. The research findings show that the IPM practices investigated gave a substantial amount of benefits discounted over thirty years to both consumers and producers. This study has shown that IPM CRSP-induced pest management practices in Bangladesh and Uganda are viable and more profitable production practices than existing farmer practices. Efforts to promote the adoption of these technologies will likely result in more efficient production and greater economic rewards for the farmers, consumers, and in turn for the country as a whole. Finally, the study presents recommendations for further research relating to gender and cross-border trade issues to strengthen the functionality of the framework. / Master of Science

New agricultural technologies can improve productivity to meet the increased demand for food that places pressure on agricultural production systems in developing countries. Because technological innovation is one of major factors shaping agriculture in both developing and developed countries, it is important to identify factors that help or that hinder the adoption process. Adoption analysis can assist policy makers in making informed decisions about dissemination of technologies that are under consideration. It is also important to estimate the impact of a technology. This dissertation contains three essays that estimate factors affecting integrated pest management (IPM) adoption and the impact of IPM on sweet gourd farming in Bangladesh. The first essay estimates factors that affect the timing of IPM adoption in Bangladesh. It employs duration models, fully parametric and semiparametric, and (i) compares results from different estimation methods to provide the best model for the data, and (ii) identifies factors that affect the length of time before Bangladeshi farmers adopt an agricultural technology. The paper provides two conclusions: 1) even though the non-parametric estimate of the hazard function indicated a non-monotone model such as log-normal or log-logistic, no differences are found in the sign and significance of the estimated coefficients between the non-monotone and monotone models. 2) economic factors do not directly influence the adoption decision but rather factors related to information diffusion and farmer's non-economic characteristics such as age and education. Particularly, farmer's age and education, membership in an association, training, distance of the farmer's house from local and town markets, and farmer's perception about the use of IPM affect the length of time to adoption. Farm size is the only variable closely related to economic factors that is found to be significant and it decreases the length of time to adoption. The second paper measures Bangladeshi farmers' attitudes toward risk and ambiguity using experimental data. In different sessions, the experiment allows farmers to make decisions alone and communicate with peers in groups of 3 and 6 to see how social exchanges among peers affect attitudes toward uncertainty. Combining the measured attributes to household survey data, the paper investigates the factors affecting those attributes as well as the role of risk aversion and ambiguity aversion in technology choice by farmers who: face uncertainty alone, in a group of 3, or in a group of 6. It finds that Bangladeshi farmers in the sample are mostly risk and ambiguity averse. Their risk and ambiguity aversion, moreover, differ when they face the uncertain prospects alone from when they can communicate with other peer farmers before making decisions. In addition, farmer's demographic characteristics affect both risk and ambiguity aversion. Finally, findings suggest that the roles of risk and ambiguity aversion in technology adoption depend on which measure of uncertainty behavior is incorporated in the adoption model. While risk aversion increases the likelihood of technology adoption when farmers face uncertainty alone, only ambiguity aversion matters and it reduces the likelihood of technology adoption when farmers face uncertainty in groups of three. Neither risk aversion nor ambiguity aversion matter when farmers face uncertainty in groups of six. The third paper presents an impact assessment of integrated pest management on sweet gourd in Bangladesh. It employs an instrumental variable and marginal treatment effects approach to estimate the impact of IPM on yield and cost of sweet gourd in Bangladesh. The estimation methods consider both homogeneous and heterogeneous treatment effects. The paper finds that IPM adoption has a 7% - 34% yield advantage over traditional pest management practices. Results regarding the effect of IPM adoption on cost are mixed. IPM adoption alters production costs from -1.2% cost to +42%, depending on the estimation method employed. However, most of the cost changes are not statistically significant. Therefore, while we confidently argue that the IPM adoption provides a yield advantage over non-adoption, we do not find a robust effect regarding a cost advantage of adoption. / Ph. D.

The United States Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management (BLM) National Operations Center obtained American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 funding to conduct an ethnographic overview of select proposed solar energy zones (SEZs) to augment the research that had been conducted for the Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for Solar Development in Six Southwestern States (Draft Solar PEIS). The objective of this project was to solicit tribal identification of traditional cultural properties and sacred landscapes, religious and traditional use sites, significant ethnobotanical resources, other sensitive or significant resources (including visual), and tribal perspectives on the direct and indirect effects of solar energy development through oral interviews and on-site visits to proposed SEZs in Arizona, California, Nevada, and Utah. SWCA Environmental Consultants (SWCA) was selected to perform this work, assisted by the University of Arizona’s Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology (BARA). As the project progressed, the list of participating tribes was modified to accommodate changing tribal needs and requests. When the tribe that had requested to participate in an ethnographic study for three of the California SEZs (Imperial East, Iron Mountain, and Riverside East) was unable to participate, the scope of the project was modified. In the Draft Solar PEIS, the high cost of conducting Class I archaeological records searches for the four California SEZs had precluded that research; the current project was modified from ethnographic interviews to a Class I records search for all four California SEZs (Imperial East, Iron Mountain, Pisgah, and Riverside East) by SWCA. BARA conducted ethnographic studies for Amargosa Valley, Delamar Valley, Dry Lake, East Mormon Mountain, Gold Point, and Millers in Nevada (inclement weather prevented visits to Dry Lake Valley North), and for Escalante Valley, Milford Flats South, and Wah Wah Valley in Utah.

There is no doubt that the assessment of social impacts is as important, in some cases even more important, than the assessment of biophysical and economic impacts of development projects. Nonetheless, social impact assessment (SIA) has remained an "orphan" in the broader environmental impact assessment (EIA) context, both internationally and in South Africa, and is often neglected or treated as a less important aspect of an EIA. It was the aim of this study to measure perceptions of relative neglect of SIA in South Africa against the theory and practice of SIA as reflected in the literature. The basic hypothesis was that, whereas the theory and practice of SIA has reached a sophisticated level in the developed world, the practice of SIA in South Africa is not yet on a sound footing and that it does not receive the professional attention it deserves in a country beset by enormous social challenges. Thus the research problem was whether SIA is practiced at a satisfactory level of proficiency in South Africa. Social aspects of impact assessment in the North West Province of South Africa were investigated, with the aim to identify shortcomings and their possible causes and to make recommendations for improvement. The article format was used, and the main section of the study comprises two articles. The first article, a theoretical perspective based on a literature study, is a critical evaluation of SIA as part of the EIA process in South Africa against the background of international guidelines and best practices. The article includes sections on the historical background of the development of SIA in South Africa, the legal status and requirements of SIA in the country, and a critical evaluation of SIA regulation in South Africa. It was found that the persistent problems of SIA practice, experienced in other parts of the world, are also evident in South Africa. Apart from institutional, financial and professional constraints, there are also serious problems associated with approach and methods. The second article is an evaluation of and recommendations for the improvement of the practice of SIA in the North West Province. An empirical study of 26 EIAs, performed in the province between 1999 and 2002, was done. It was established that in terms of social baseline data, the identification of significant social impacts, specialist studies, public participation, recommended mitigation measures, and the attention paid to social impacts in records of decision (RODS) SIA practice in the North West Province is far from satisfactory. Apathy towards social impacts is associated with a general lack of SIA expertise. The following recommendations are made in the study to improve the level of SIA practice: a system of mandatory registration of SIA practitioners should be introduced; specialized SIA training programmes for SIA practitioners and officials should be developed and accredited; SIA specialists should be used to assess significant social impacts identified in EIAs; a policy framework and code of ethics for SIA practice should be developed; methodological guidelines for SIA should be supplied in or as a supplement to the new EIA guidelines; and the public participation process should be redesigned. / Thesis (M. Environmental Science)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006.

There is no doubt that the assessment of social impacts is as important, in some cases even more important, than the assessment of biophysical and economic impacts of development projects. Nonetheless, social impact assessment (SIA) has remained an "orphan" in the broader environmental impact assessment (EIA) context, both internationally and in South Africa, and is often neglected or treated as a less important aspect of an EIA. It was the aim of this study to measure perceptions of relative neglect of SIA in South Africa against the theory and practice of SIA as reflected in the literature. The basic hypothesis was that, whereas the theory and practice of SIA has reached a sophisticated level in the developed world, the practice of SIA in South Africa is not yet on a sound footing and that it does not receive the professional attention it deserves in a country beset by enormous social challenges. Thus the research problem was whether SIA is practiced at a satisfactory level of proficiency in South Africa. Social aspects of impact assessment in the North West Province of South Africa were investigated, with the aim to identify shortcomings and their possible causes and to make recommendations for improvement. The article format was used, and the main section of the study comprises two articles. The first article, a theoretical perspective based on a literature study, is a critical evaluation of SIA as part of the EIA process in South Africa against the background of international guidelines and best practices. The article includes sections on the historical background of the development of SIA in South Africa, the legal status and requirements of SIA in the country, and a critical evaluation of SIA regulation in South Africa. It was found that the persistent problems of SIA practice, experienced in other parts of the world, are also evident in South Africa. Apart from institutional, financial and professional constraints, there are also serious problems associated with approach and methods. The second article is an evaluation of and recommendations for the improvement of the practice of SIA in the North West Province. An empirical study of 26 EIAs, performed in the province between 1999 and 2002, was done. It was established that in terms of social baseline data, the identification of significant social impacts, specialist studies, public participation, recommended mitigation measures, and the attention paid to social impacts in records of decision (RODS) SIA practice in the North West Province is far from satisfactory. Apathy towards social impacts is associated with a general lack of SIA expertise. The following recommendations are made in the study to improve the level of SIA practice: a system of mandatory registration of SIA practitioners should be introduced; specialized SIA training programmes for SIA practitioners and officials should be developed and accredited; SIA specialists should be used to assess significant social impacts identified in EIAs; a policy framework and code of ethics for SIA practice should be developed; methodological guidelines for SIA should be supplied in or as a supplement to the new EIA guidelines; and the public participation process should be redesigned. / Thesis (M. Environmental Science)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006.

京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(地球環境学) / 甲第24061号 / 地環博第224号 / 新制||地環||43(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院地球環境学舎地球環境学専攻 / (主査)教授 宇佐美 誠, 准教授 吉野 章, 教授 諸富 徹 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Global Environmental Studies / Kyoto University / DFAM

Large-scale mining modifies the existing physical environment and has multiple long-term impacts on landscape but also on communities, and their cultural values. In Finland, social impact assessment has become a customary practice in assessing and estimating mining impacts that cause changes to the well-being of individual people and their livelihoods. However, the assessment is often lacking notions of social dimensions of the environment, neglecting discussing aspects such as localities and subjective well-being. Recent studies have highlighted the importance of considering the cultural benefits of the environment to human well-being in environmental decision-making. The purpose of this study is to explore and illustrate how cultural ecosystem services could contribute to the current practice in social impact assessments in Finnish mining projects by highlighting the relation between local people and environment through the valuation of cultural services. The study used a conceptual framework approach of cultural ecosystem services and conducted eight qualitative semi-structured interviews in two villages in Finnish Fell Lapland. The aim was to explore how the local people themselves describe their non-material benefits from the environment. Six out of the eight interviews were conducted walking with the participants. The interviews were recorded and later transcribed for analysis against the conceptual cultural ecosystem services framework. The results show how the well-being of local people was strongly linked to cultural benefits such as sense of place, enabled by meaningful activities in places that were often happening in mundane everyday places. The study implies the importance of considering cultural ecosystem services such as sense of place in the current social impact assessment practice as they help unveiling connections between people, the natural environment and subjective well-being.

There is a growing recognition in the built environment for the significance of benchmarking. It is recognized as a key driver for measuring success criteria in the built environment sector. In spite of the huge application of this technique to the sector and other sectors, very little is known of it in affordable housing sub-sector and where it has been used, components of housing quality were not holistically considered. This study considers this identified deficiency in developing a benchmark for assessing affordable housing quality impact factors. As part of this study, samples of 4 affordable Housing projects were examined. Two each were originally selected from under 5 categories of ‘operational quality standards’ within United Kingdom. Samples of 10 projects were extracted from a total of 80 identified UK affordable housing projects. Investigative study was conducted on these projects showing varying impact factors and constituent parameters responsible for their quality. Identified impact criteria found on these projects were mapped against a unifying set standard and weighted with ‘relative importance index’. Adopting quality function deployment (QFD) technique, a quality matrix was developed from these quality standards groupings with their impact factors. An affordable housing quality benchmark and a relative toolkit evolved from resultant quality matrix of project case studies and questionnaire served on practitioners’ performance. Whereas the toolkit was empirically tested for reliability and construct validity, the benchmark was subjected to refinement with the use of project case study.