<p>The break-up of the Soviet Union handed down the Russian Federation a number of Soviet environmental legacies ranging from contaminated areas to the old bureaucratic procedures and outdated practices. In the post-Soviet years of transition to a free-market economy Russia began to face increasingly acute tension between environmental security and economic development, and the state’s ability to effectively pursue environmental policies deteriorated. Current environmental policy-makers are faced with a multitude of challenges that range from complicated environmental systems to the inconsistent legislative framework and resource deficiencies. Although researchers have paid some attention to these problems, environmental decision-making remains a poorly illuminated area and constitutes a theoretically challenging problem. This paper addresses the regional environmental decision-making process in the Russian Federation. Using the Pskov region on the border with Byelorussia and the two future EU members Estonia and Latvia as a case study, this paper seeks to supply a better understanding of how environmental decisions are made on the regional and local levels with a special focus on constraints affecting environmental policy-making. The study attempts to explain the environmental decision-making process in light of the two competing theories of decision- making, incrementalism and the bureaucratic politics model. It is primarily based on interviews made in the Pskov region in the autumn of 2002.</p>

The break-up of the Soviet Union handed down the Russian Federation a number of Soviet environmental legacies ranging from contaminated areas to the old bureaucratic procedures and outdated practices. In the post-Soviet years of transition to a free-market economy Russia began to face increasingly acute tension between environmental security and economic development, and the state’s ability to effectively pursue environmental policies deteriorated. Current environmental policy-makers are faced with a multitude of challenges that range from complicated environmental systems to the inconsistent legislative framework and resource deficiencies. Although researchers have paid some attention to these problems, environmental decision-making remains a poorly illuminated area and constitutes a theoretically challenging problem. This paper addresses the regional environmental decision-making process in the Russian Federation. Using the Pskov region on the border with Byelorussia and the two future EU members Estonia and Latvia as a case study, this paper seeks to supply a better understanding of how environmental decisions are made on the regional and local levels with a special focus on constraints affecting environmental policy-making. The study attempts to explain the environmental decision-making process in light of the two competing theories of decision- making, incrementalism and the bureaucratic politics model. It is primarily based on interviews made in the Pskov region in the autumn of 2002.

No description available.

The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, and Agenda 21 called for improved environmental information for decision making. In response to this demand for information, State of the Environment (SoE) Reporting has since become the globally accepted means of reporting on environmental issues, and of measuring progress towards sustainable development in the countries which have adopted the principles contained in Agenda 21. However, although a wealth of knowledge has been developed in terms of conducting and preparing SoERs there is still very limited research on the actual effects SoE Reporting has had on decision making. The purpose of this mini-dissertation was to investigate the effectiveness of SoE Reporting within Category A, B and C Municipalities in the Gauteng Province. The research results suggest that notwithstanding the extensive time and resources spent on conducting SoERs, the overall effect has been limited within the selected Gauteng Municipalities. / Thesis (M. Environmental Management)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009.

The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, and Agenda 21 called for improved environmental information for decision making. In response to this demand for information, State of the Environment (SoE) Reporting has since become the globally accepted means of reporting on environmental issues, and of measuring progress towards sustainable development in the countries which have adopted the principles contained in Agenda 21. However, although a wealth of knowledge has been developed in terms of conducting and preparing SoERs there is still very limited research on the actual effects SoE Reporting has had on decision making. The purpose of this mini-dissertation was to investigate the effectiveness of SoE Reporting within Category A, B and C Municipalities in the Gauteng Province. The research results suggest that notwithstanding the extensive time and resources spent on conducting SoERs, the overall effect has been limited within the selected Gauteng Municipalities. / Thesis (M. Environmental Management)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009.

This dissertation examines the ways in which three Aboriginal communities in the Sahtu Region of the Northwest Territories are participating in decisions and activities related to non-renewable resource extraction on Sahtu lands. In particular, I examine local involvement in the assessment and regulation of a 1,220 km natural gas pipeline and related infrastructure, collectively termed the Mackenzie Gas Project, currently proposed for the Mackenzie Valley. Overall, this work addresses the conditions under which Sahtu Dene and Mtis participation in resource decision-making takes place; it identifies and offers a critique of some of the assumptions inherent in regulatory, environmental assessment, and consultative processes currently in place in the Sahtu region, and argues that while there has been significant progress in establishing avenues for Sahtu Dene and Mtis participation in resource decision-making, non-local epistemological underpinnings of governance, regulatory, and environmental assessment institutions and practices can hinder local participation in resource decision-making and may serve to reinforce existing power relationships between proponents, Aboriginal communities, and the Canadian state. The findings of this research suggest that there are several barriers to Sahtu Dene and Mtis participation in resource decision-making, including: 1) how environmental impacts are assessed and the associated determination of their significance in environmental assessment and management regimes; 2) the naturalization of techno-rational knowledge paradigms and legalistic discourse in environmental assessment and regulatory processes; 3) incongruent communicative practices and norms of appropriate human and human/other than-human relationships between local Dene and Mtis participants and those of large development corporations and governments; 4) divergent perceptions of the landscape; and 5) changing governance structures resulting from the Sahtu Dene and Mtis Comprehensive Land Claim. This research contributes to a growing assessment of current participatory and resource co-management processes in the Canadian north, and addresses the call for research reflecting local experiences of various participatory processes in resource management, including the often messy and contradictory positions taken by members of a diverse community.

Public participation in the procedures under the Building Act Abstract This work deals with the participation of environmental NGOs in environmental decision-making with emphasis on the procedures under the Building Act. The purpose is to evaluate the level of public participation in the Czech Republic and assess whether it meets the international obligations. The protection of the environment relies on the activity of public authorities. However, the public participation also plays an important role in this matter. The public participation is a valuable tool of a democratic society, as it may help to protect the environment. The institute of public participation takes many different forms. The rights and duties related to the public participation may vary depending on its particular form. Natural and legal persons are both able to take part in decision-making of public authorities. Nevertheless, these two subjects have different position and may set up different claims in the administrative procedures. The institute of public participation is not regulated unanimously. The regulation varies upon different acts and areas of participation. The regulation of public participation exists at several levels - the international law, the law of the European Union, the national constitutional law and the Czech...

System models have been used to improve water management and environmental decision making. In spite of the many existing mathematical models and tools that attempt to improve environmental decision making, few efforts have been made to identify how scarce resources (e.g., water, budget) can be more efficiently allocated to improve the environmental and ecological performance of different ecosystems (e.g., wetland habitat). This dissertation presents a set of management tools to improve the environmental and ecological performance. These tools are described in three studies. First, a simple optimization model is developed to help regulators and watershed managers determine cost-effective best management practices (BMPs) to reduce phosphorus load at the Echo Reservoir Watershed, Utah. The model minimizes the costs of BMP implementation to achieve a specified phosphorus load reduction target. Second, a novel approach is developed to quantify wetland habitat performance. This performance metric is embedded in a new optimization model to recommend water allocations and invasive vegetation control in wetlands. Model recommendations are subject to constraints such as water availability, spatial connectivity of wetland, hydraulic infrastructure capacities, vegetation growth and responses to management, plus financial and time resources available to allocate water and invasive vegetation control. Third, an agent-based model is developed to simulate the spread of the invasive Phragmites australis (common reed), one of the most successful invasive plant species in wetlands. Results of the agent-based model are embedded into an optimization model (developed in the second study) to recommend invasive vegetation control actions. The second and third studies were applied at the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, which is the largest wetland complex on the Great Salt Lake, Utah. These three studies provide a set of decision-support tools that recommend: (1) BMPs to reduce phosphorus loading in a watershed, (2) management strategies to improve wetland bird habitat, and (3) control strategies to minimize invasive Phragmites spread. Together, these models provide important insights and recommendations for managers to make informed decisions to manage excess nutrients in water bodies as well as to improve wetland management.

No description available.

1 Abstract The theme of the thesis is public participation in environmental decision-making. Its main aim is to analyse its current legal regulation in the Czech Republic and its deficiencies. The Czech Republic as a party to the Aarhus Convention and a member of the EU is obliged to ensure that the Czech legal regulation complies with the regulation of public participation contained in the Aarhus convention and the EU law. Therefore a small part of this thesis is devoted to analyse those regulation. Main focus, however, lies with the Czech regulation. The thesis examines the most important acts containing the regulation of public participation and draws attention to its deficiencies as well as to the relevant case law. While analysing the specific acts and their deficiencies the thesis focuses on two questions. Firstly, whether all the persons who should be granted the possibility to participate in environmental decision-making under the Aarhus Convention are given this possibility under the Czech law. And secondly, whether the given possibility is truly effective. Finally, the thesis deals with the possibility to redress the inadequate legal regulation by amending the current legislation or by changes in the judicial interpretation.