Environmental impact assessment (EIA) was introduced to inform decision-makers of the potential environmental effects of the decision before them. It has been adopted worldwide and functions as one of the primary instruments for taking account of environmental consequences in project approval decision-making. To date, there has been very little systematic investigation that explores whether the decision-makers for whom the EIA information is produced actually use it, although there are indications that EIA information is not always effective in influencing decisions. This thesis examines how, and indeed if, environmental effects information influences the decision-making processes for which it is produced, and which factors determine the use of this information. Three main areas of concern are identified and investigated: the responses of individual decision-makers to environmental effects information; the characteristics of the effects information that influence these responses; and the processes by which the effects information is dealt with. At the core of the methodology employed for this research is the development of an exploratory model of EIA-based decision-making. This model builds on the insights into decision processes from a variety of disciplines, including psychology and planning. To test the utility of the model, it is evaluated against the New Zealand system of resource consent approval decision-making under the Resource Management Act, by means of case studies. Through interviews, direct observation, and analysis of written documents the decision processes in these cases are analysed. These techniques have been augmented by psychosocial methods that allow further probing into the decision processes that takes place in a decision-maker�s head. The research results show that the effort that is spent on the preparation of EIA reports and the improvement of EIA processes is not wasted. The EIA information clearly influences the decision processes for which it is intended but it is not influencing decisions optimally. EIA information often competes with information on environmental effects from other sources that is of higher quality, more credible, or better tailored to the decision-makers� information needs. A number of ways in which the use of EIA information could be enhanced is explored in this thesis. Foremost, the improvement of the effectiveness of EIA requires a wider adoption of a decision-making perspective on EIA, and a broader recognition of the information needs of the different decision processes for which EIA is prepared.

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Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has been successfully used as an environmental assessment tool for the development of ecologically sustainable products. The application of LCA in the early design stage has been constrained by the requirement of large amounts of data and time for carrying out the assessment. In addition, the complexity of LCA causes further difficulties for product developers. In order to integrate the environmental assessment into the process of product development, this research proposes an integrated decision model for sustainable product development and a simplified LCA approach for the application in the early stage of product design. The main advantage of the proposed model is that it incorporates the environmental aspects of product development into the existing product development framework. It enables designers to strike a balance between the product???s environmental performance and other traditional design objectives. The simplified LCA approach is based on the concept and application of Environmental Impact Drivers. Material-based environmental impacts and Energy-based environmental impacts are used to predict the total environmental impact of a product. Two sets of impact drivers were developed accordingly. The Material-based Impact Drivers were identified by classifying materials into 16 groups according to the nature of the materials and their environmental performance. Energy-based Impact Drivers were developed for various energy sources in major industrial regions. Product LCA cases were used to verify the proposed methods. The results computed by the application of the impact drivers were compared with the results of full LCA studies. It is concluded that with the proposed approach, the product???s environmental performance can be assessed in a very short time and with very basic data input requirements and acceptable accuracy.

In much of Australia and the United States, the almost universal right to have a house on rural allotments has resulted in rural living settlement in areas intended, by land use planning policy, to be used for agriculture. Such ‘unplanned’ rural living has a range of potential adverse impacts, including, among other things, loss of agricultural production, land use conflicts with agriculture, land value constraints on farm restructuring, and changes to the rural landscape character. Given the strongly held community perception of a house as a development right, this research was motivated by the need to understand the effects of that right, in order to assess the potential value of any change in policy. An integral consideration was the influence of the size of allotments with any such right. The research was also driven by an interest in explaining the pattern of unplanned rural living settlement, i.e. why are particular allotments converted and others not? Largely in the absence of previous studies of unplanned rural living as a distinct phenomenon, there was scope for this thesis to make a contribution to knowledge in these respects. The research involved three stages of empirical analysis. Firstly, a Queensland-wide survey of land use conversion from sugarcane production supported the choice of the Bundaberg region as the study area. Contingency table analyses were then conducted into the current land use and other attributes of land in the study area that, in 1980, was used for sugarcane. Those analyses identified distinguishing attributes of the different land use sub-sets of allotments, and informed the selection of observation units for the third stage. The third stage provided the principal basis for fulfilling the research objectives. It focused on logit models of the choice, at the time of sale, between using a particular allotment for unplanned rural living or sugarcane production. Those analyses provided an indication of the role of individual land attributes while controlling for the effects of other attributes. It was found there had been limited conversion of suitable, productive sugarcane land to unplanned rural living. Compared to those allotments that remained in sugarcane production, allotments converted to rural living were, on average, much smaller, of less value, had lower agricultural production potential, and were situated in more undulating and forested landscapes further from Bundaberg. These clear distinctions between rural living and sugarcane allotments contributed to logit models with high explanatory power. The expected productive income of allotments had overwhelming weight and was highly statistically significant in explaining the land use choice between unplanned rural living and sugarcane. This is a notable finding, because some other studies have not shown such a strong relationship between land use and measures such as soil productivity. There was a degree of natural coincidence between more undulating and forested landscapes and lower productive potential. Notably, landscape attributes appeared to be of secondary importance in determining land use. The presence of a house at the time of sale was not a statistically significant explanatory factor for land use. This finding, together with that of limited conversion of suitable, productive land to unplanned rural living, meant there was a lack of evidence to support a change to the right to have a house on rural allotments. The findings did indicate that the allotment area required to avoid conversion to unplanned rural living was different to the area required for agricultural viability. In the circumstances of this study area and period, 20 ha would have been an acceptable minimum to retain suitable cropping land in productive use. This is compared to the 60 ha suggested as necessary for farm viability. However, the potential for changed economic conditions to reduce the productive value of agricultural land, and increase demand for rural living, makes it appropriate to be cautious about permitted allotment sizes. A detailed conceptual framework informed the selection of observation units and variables for the third stage of analyses. The framework helped to confirm allotment sales as the observation units, and provided the rationale for excluding the difficult to measure influences of a landowner’s attachment to the land, and inertia, as explanatory variables. The high explanatory power of the logit models provides support for the approach, which may be useful in future studies.

In much of Australia and the United States, the almost universal right to have a house on rural allotments has resulted in rural living settlement in areas intended, by land use planning policy, to be used for agriculture. Such ‘unplanned’ rural living has a range of potential adverse impacts, including, among other things, loss of agricultural production, land use conflicts with agriculture, land value constraints on farm restructuring, and changes to the rural landscape character. Given the strongly held community perception of a house as a development right, this research was motivated by the need to understand the effects of that right, in order to assess the potential value of any change in policy. An integral consideration was the influence of the size of allotments with any such right. The research was also driven by an interest in explaining the pattern of unplanned rural living settlement, i.e. why are particular allotments converted and others not? Largely in the absence of previous studies of unplanned rural living as a distinct phenomenon, there was scope for this thesis to make a contribution to knowledge in these respects. The research involved three stages of empirical analysis. Firstly, a Queensland-wide survey of land use conversion from sugarcane production supported the choice of the Bundaberg region as the study area. Contingency table analyses were then conducted into the current land use and other attributes of land in the study area that, in 1980, was used for sugarcane. Those analyses identified distinguishing attributes of the different land use sub-sets of allotments, and informed the selection of observation units for the third stage. The third stage provided the principal basis for fulfilling the research objectives. It focused on logit models of the choice, at the time of sale, between using a particular allotment for unplanned rural living or sugarcane production. Those analyses provided an indication of the role of individual land attributes while controlling for the effects of other attributes. It was found there had been limited conversion of suitable, productive sugarcane land to unplanned rural living. Compared to those allotments that remained in sugarcane production, allotments converted to rural living were, on average, much smaller, of less value, had lower agricultural production potential, and were situated in more undulating and forested landscapes further from Bundaberg. These clear distinctions between rural living and sugarcane allotments contributed to logit models with high explanatory power. The expected productive income of allotments had overwhelming weight and was highly statistically significant in explaining the land use choice between unplanned rural living and sugarcane. This is a notable finding, because some other studies have not shown such a strong relationship between land use and measures such as soil productivity. There was a degree of natural coincidence between more undulating and forested landscapes and lower productive potential. Notably, landscape attributes appeared to be of secondary importance in determining land use. The presence of a house at the time of sale was not a statistically significant explanatory factor for land use. This finding, together with that of limited conversion of suitable, productive land to unplanned rural living, meant there was a lack of evidence to support a change to the right to have a house on rural allotments. The findings did indicate that the allotment area required to avoid conversion to unplanned rural living was different to the area required for agricultural viability. In the circumstances of this study area and period, 20 ha would have been an acceptable minimum to retain suitable cropping land in productive use. This is compared to the 60 ha suggested as necessary for farm viability. However, the potential for changed economic conditions to reduce the productive value of agricultural land, and increase demand for rural living, makes it appropriate to be cautious about permitted allotment sizes. A detailed conceptual framework informed the selection of observation units and variables for the third stage of analyses. The framework helped to confirm allotment sales as the observation units, and provided the rationale for excluding the difficult to measure influences of a landowner’s attachment to the land, and inertia, as explanatory variables. The high explanatory power of the logit models provides support for the approach, which may be useful in future studies.

In much of Australia and the United States, the almost universal right to have a house on rural allotments has resulted in rural living settlement in areas intended, by land use planning policy, to be used for agriculture. Such ‘unplanned’ rural living has a range of potential adverse impacts, including, among other things, loss of agricultural production, land use conflicts with agriculture, land value constraints on farm restructuring, and changes to the rural landscape character. Given the strongly held community perception of a house as a development right, this research was motivated by the need to understand the effects of that right, in order to assess the potential value of any change in policy. An integral consideration was the influence of the size of allotments with any such right. The research was also driven by an interest in explaining the pattern of unplanned rural living settlement, i.e. why are particular allotments converted and others not? Largely in the absence of previous studies of unplanned rural living as a distinct phenomenon, there was scope for this thesis to make a contribution to knowledge in these respects. The research involved three stages of empirical analysis. Firstly, a Queensland-wide survey of land use conversion from sugarcane production supported the choice of the Bundaberg region as the study area. Contingency table analyses were then conducted into the current land use and other attributes of land in the study area that, in 1980, was used for sugarcane. Those analyses identified distinguishing attributes of the different land use sub-sets of allotments, and informed the selection of observation units for the third stage. The third stage provided the principal basis for fulfilling the research objectives. It focused on logit models of the choice, at the time of sale, between using a particular allotment for unplanned rural living or sugarcane production. Those analyses provided an indication of the role of individual land attributes while controlling for the effects of other attributes. It was found there had been limited conversion of suitable, productive sugarcane land to unplanned rural living. Compared to those allotments that remained in sugarcane production, allotments converted to rural living were, on average, much smaller, of less value, had lower agricultural production potential, and were situated in more undulating and forested landscapes further from Bundaberg. These clear distinctions between rural living and sugarcane allotments contributed to logit models with high explanatory power. The expected productive income of allotments had overwhelming weight and was highly statistically significant in explaining the land use choice between unplanned rural living and sugarcane. This is a notable finding, because some other studies have not shown such a strong relationship between land use and measures such as soil productivity. There was a degree of natural coincidence between more undulating and forested landscapes and lower productive potential. Notably, landscape attributes appeared to be of secondary importance in determining land use. The presence of a house at the time of sale was not a statistically significant explanatory factor for land use. This finding, together with that of limited conversion of suitable, productive land to unplanned rural living, meant there was a lack of evidence to support a change to the right to have a house on rural allotments. The findings did indicate that the allotment area required to avoid conversion to unplanned rural living was different to the area required for agricultural viability. In the circumstances of this study area and period, 20 ha would have been an acceptable minimum to retain suitable cropping land in productive use. This is compared to the 60 ha suggested as necessary for farm viability. However, the potential for changed economic conditions to reduce the productive value of agricultural land, and increase demand for rural living, makes it appropriate to be cautious about permitted allotment sizes. A detailed conceptual framework informed the selection of observation units and variables for the third stage of analyses. The framework helped to confirm allotment sales as the observation units, and provided the rationale for excluding the difficult to measure influences of a landowner’s attachment to the land, and inertia, as explanatory variables. The high explanatory power of the logit models provides support for the approach, which may be useful in future studies.

Timber harvesting results in patches of regenerating forest that are substantially different from surrounding unharvested stands, and provides an opportunity to investigate the effect of habitat change on forest fauna. In this thesis I used timber harvesting as an experimental treatment to investigate the effect of a changed resource base on the home range and resource selection of the swamp wallaby, Wallabia bicolor. I recorded habitat attributes at unharvested control, recently harvested (<12 months old), 5 year old and 10 year old sites. Initially, harvesting removed almost all above-ground plant biomass, although the nitrogen and water content of grass on recently harvested sites was relatively high. Five years after harvesting, sites were dominated by densely regenerating 1-3 m tall Eucalyptus seedlings. Relative to unharvested sites, there was substantial lateral cover and values of a forage quality index were high. In contrast, 10 year old sites supported dense, closed stands of 3-6 m tall eucalypt regeneration, had a moderate amount of lateral cover and had low values of the forage quality index. (For complete abstract open document)

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Sea-bed benthic-invertebrate assemblages of species within and proximal to an existing mussel farm off Taniwhanui Point, eastern Waiheke Island, are reported. Substratum type, whether predominantly mud, gravels or an admixture of the two, mud/gravels, is shown to influence infaunal species assemblage composition; the bivalve Theora lubrica, ostracods, amphipods and polychaetes characterise muddy substrata; polychaetes, particularly spionids and syllids, ostracods, amphipods, bivalves and ophiuroids characterise mud/gravel substrata; and diverse assemblages of polychaetes, bivalves, pagurid crabs, gastropods, ostracods, ophiuroids and nemertean worms characterise gravel substrata. Significant differences in sea-bed assemblages are reported along one transect inside and outside the farm over the three seasons during which surveys were conducted, summer, autumn, winter of 2008. Along the northern side of the mussel farm those sediments beneath the farm are characterised by greater abundances of polychaetes and crustaceans (Malacostraca), whereas sediments outside the farm are characterised by greater abundances of bivalves and ostracods. Sediments both inside and outside the north-eastern border of the farm during summer are characterised by similar abundances of polychaetes, bivalves and ostracods. Similarly, those sediments within and outside the farm along its southern border during summer are characterised by abundances of polychaetes, bivalves, crustaceans (Malacostraca) and gastropods. Measures of relative abundance, rarity and species richness are applied to sea-bed assemblages off eastern Waiheke Island to enable an appraisal of the spatial distribution of each within and outside the farm, and throughout the eastern Waiheke Island region. One of these measures, relative abundance, is then compared with other, albeit limited abundance data from previous soft-sediment surveys conducted throughout Hauraki Gulf. The most species rich and abundant sites off eastern Waiheke Island occur in gravelly substrata between Waiheke Island and Pakatoa Island, and between Rotoroa and Ponui Islands, in addition to beneath the southern portion of the existing mussel farm. Gravel-based substrata are recognised to be the most species rich and densely populated with invertebrates for this sediment type in Hauraki Gulf. Similarly, the muddy substrata off eastern Waiheke Island region appear to host more individuals and species than any other reported muddy substratum in Hauraki Gulf. The existing mussel farm is shown to significantly affect sea-bed communities, but in a manner that has not been previously reported in New Zealand. Species richness and abundance are greater beneath the farm, as are the proportions of very rare and uncommon taxa to more common and ubiquitous taxa. Sediments beneath the farm are not characterised by elevated abundances and richness of opportunistic species; and no obvious difference in sediment grain size is apparent along a transect extending from 20 m inside the farm to at least 110 m outside it. The biological footprint of the farm is limited, appearing to extend no further than 20 metres from the northern physical boundary of the farm; the gross sedimentary characteristics (grain size) do not differ significantly within and outside the farm. Within and immediately outside the farm species richness and abundance tend to increase during colder seasons; beneath the farm, species richness (d), abundance (N), Shannon index (H’) and Simpson index (1-λ’) were higher during May (autumn) and August (winter) than during February (summer); diversity values outside the farm were similar during summer and autumn, but species richness (d), evenness (J’), Shannon index (H’) and Simpson index (1-λ’) were all greater during winter. No opportunistic taxa are considered to be appropriate indicators of organically enriched environments, at least enrichment that can be intuitively linked to any direct effect of the existing mussel farm. One species, the heart urchin Echinocardium cordatum, only rarely occurs inside the physical farm boundary, so its relative abundance renders it an appropriate indicator species of mussel-farm impacts.