An Inquiry of Changes in Environmental Governance by Community-driven Process

Urban environmental depletion has been a critical problem among industrialized-transformed societies, especially at the local level where administrative authorities’ capacity lags behind changes. Derived from governance concept, the idea of civil society inclusion is highlighted. Focusing on an agglomerated case study, Bang Plee Community in Thailand, this research investigates on a non-state sector, 201-Community organization, as an agent for changes to improve urban environments on solid waste collection. Two roles are contested: as an agent for neighborhood internal change and as an intermediary toward governance changes in state-civil society interaction. By employing longitudinal analysis via a project intervention as research experiment, the outcomes of both roles are detected portrayed in three spheres: state, state-civil society interaction, and civil society sphere. It discovers in the research regarding agglomerated context that as an internal changes for environmental betterment, 201-Community organization operation brings on waste reduction at the minimal level. Community-based organization as an agent for changes – despite capacity input it still limited in efficiency and effectiveness – can mobilize fruitfully only at the individual and network level of civil society sectors, while fails managing at the organizational level. The positive outcomes result by economic waste incentive associated with a limited-bonded group rather than the rise of awareness at large. As an intermediary agent for shared governance, the community-based organization cannot bring on mutual dialogue with state as much as cannot change the state’s operation arena of solid waste management. The findings confine the shared governance concept that it does not applicable in agglomerated locality as an effective outcome, both in terms of being instrumental toward civil society inclusion and being provocative of internal change. Shared environmental governance as summarized in this research can last merely a community development action. It distances significantly from civil society inclusion and empowerment. However, the research proposes that community-based environmental management and shared governance toward civil society inclusion in urban environmental improvement are still an expectable option and reachable if their factors and conditions of key success and failure are intersected with a particular context. Further studies demand more precise on scale, scope, and theses factors of environmental management operation operated by civil society sectors.

Sustainable urban criteria in the urban periphery of Guadalajara

The study of the growth of large cities, in the urban periphery or the peri-urban areas specifically, it relates to environmental degradation due to urbanization, if it is estimated that since 2008 more than half of the world population living in urban areas, this sector is affected as it presents overcrowding, segregation and deterioration of physical conditions, which will impact on the social aspects within localities. This great urban growth has usually developed with the lack of environmental planning.So it is necessary to include urban development, guidelines towards environmental conservation and rehabilitation of the territory. The future of cities will depend largely on the actions taken now. As urban development inevitably requires planning urban settlements through sustainable development so as to provide alternative technologies, based on the reality of Latin American countries.In the peripheral area of the Metropolitan Zone of Guadalajara, is taken as a case study of the town of La Venta del Astillero, which by its nature allows access and functionality to develop a set of criteria and indicators to urban sustainability, which can take as a model for other communities in the urban periphery.

Community involvement in urban design: help or hindrance?

This paper examines the realities of community involvement in urban design in the context of a study of the West Itchen Neighbourhood of Southampton, a diverse inner city area accommodating some 7,000 households and 18,000 people. The findings are based on a literature review of community involvement in urban design and case study research into three government supported regeneration projects all located within the study area: a Neighbourhood Renewal Area - designated in 1994; an Estate Action Scheme - implemented between 1993 and 1996; and a Single Regeneration Budget programme - following a successful bid in 1995. The research was undertaken by Helen Gregory in 1997/8 as the basis of a dissertation, supervised by Alan Rowley, submitted for the award of an MPhil in Environmental Planning and Development from The University of Reading.

Sprawling and Urban transportation system: Impacts in the city of Londrina, Parana, Brazil

After nearly 80 years since the construction of its core, represented today by the city's central area, Londrina, located in the state of Parana, has the appearance of a new city but its features and trends of planning policies depict the bad examples of Brazilian cities. With a booming urban growth, from north to south of the county, the urban interstices represented by big voids in the middle of the city created speculation and the concept of an ideal city slowly disappeared. With a metropolitan appearance and, at the same time, with small town aspects, Londrina stands out as an automobile-oriented city, a fact that has impacted the livelihood of the population, generating environmental impacts for all social classes. This paper discusses how the form of occupation in Londrina, characterized by the sprawl phenomenon and its relation to car preference as a mode of transportation has generated urban environmental impacts. It was concluded that the choice of using cars in Londrina, as well in other medium-sized Brazilian cities studied by the comparative method, has increased and has generated bottlenecks in traffic. As a consequence, there is a constant expropriation of properties for widening roads and at the same time, the presence of various densities and urban voids that form an uneven urban space and an obstacle to efficient urban planning. © 2012 WIT Press.

Environmental fragility evaluation and guidelines for environmental zoning: a study case on Ibiuna (the Southeastern Brazilian region)

Environmental fragility models are important decision tools for policy makers as they help quantify environmental sensitivity and understand the relationship between human activities and environmental quality. The objective of this study was to evaluate three different environmental fragility models within the Brazilian rainforest region and to use the results to develop environmental zone classes. Two rural river basins located in Ibiuna, Sao Paulo state, Brazil, were studied. Input variables, including slope class, relief dissection rate, soil class, lithology, land cover, and climate data, were used to compute environmental fragility classes using three standard models. The model outputs were evaluated on their ability to accurately predict the most sensitive and least sensitive areas. The best models for each region were used to derive environmental zoning maps, including restoration priorities, best regions for agriculture, and areas with high needs for soil management. These maps will help support land use strategies for environmental restoration. This study provides insight into territorial ordering and management of environmental services with a regional perspective.

Background levels of urban land contamination

The research work reported in this thesis is concerned with the development and application of an urban scale sampling methodology for measuring and assessing background levels of heavy metal soil contamination in large and varied urban areas. The policy context of the work is broadly the environmental health problems posed by contaminated land and their implications for urban development planning. Within this wider policy context, the emphasis in the research has been placed on issues, related to the determination and application of 'guidelines' for assessing the significance of contaminated land for environmental planning. In concentrating on background levels of land contamination, the research responds to the need for additional techniques which address both the problems of measuring soil contamination at the urban scale and which are also capable of providing detailed information for use in the assessment of contaminated sites. Therefore, a key component of the work has been the development of a land-use based sampling framework for generating spatially comprehensive data on heavy metals in soil. The utility of the information output of the sampling method is demonstrated in two alternative ways. Firstly, it has been used to map the existing pattern of typical levels of heavy metals in urban soils. Secondly, it can be used to generate both generalised data in the form of 'reference levels' from which the overall significance of .background contamination may be assessed and detailed data, termed 'normal limit levels' for use in the assessment of site specific investigation data. The fieldwork was conducted in the West Midlands Metropolitan County and surface soil has been sampled and analysed for a measure of plant-available' and 'total' lead cadmium, copper and zinc. The research contrasts with much of the previous work on contaminated land which has generally concentrated on either the detailed investigation of individual sites suspected of being contaminated or the appraisal of land contamination resulting from specific point sources.

Climate change adaptation planning under uncertainty in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam: a case study on institutional vulnerability, adaptive capacity and climate change governance

Climate change is expected to have wide-ranging impacts on urban areas and creates additional challenges for sustainable development. Urban areas are inextricably linked with climate change, as they are major contributors to it, while also being particularly vulnerable to its impacts. Climate change presents a new challenge to urban areas, not only because of the expected rises in temperature and sea-level, but also the current context of failure to fully address the institutional barriers preventing action to prepare for climate change, or feedbacks between urban systems and agents. Despite the importance of climate change, there are few cities in developing countries that are attempting to address these issues systematically as part of their governance and planning processes. While there is a growing literature on the risks and vulnerabilities related to climate change, as yet there is limited research on the development of institutional responses, the dissemination of relevant knowledge and evaluation of tools for practical planning responses by decision makers at the city level. This thesis questions the dominant assumptions about the capacity of institutions and potential of adaptive planning. It argues that achieving a balance between climate change impacts and local government decision-making capacity is a vital for successful adaptation to the impacts of climate change. Urban spatial planning and wider environmental planning not only play a major role in reducing/mitigating risks but also have a key role in adapting to uncertainty in over future risk. The research focuses on a single province - the biggest city in Vietnam - Ho Chi Minh City - as the principal case study to explore this argument, by examining the linkages between urban planning systems, the structures of governance, and climate change adaptation planning. In conclusion it proposes a specific framework to offer insights into some of the more practical considerations, and the approach emphasises the importance of vertical and horizontal coordination in governance and urban planning.

Environmental conditions and rodent infestation in Campo Limpo district, Sao Paulo municipality, Brazil

Rodents are involved in the transmission to human beings of several diseases, including liptospirosis, which shows high lethality rates in Sao Paulo municipality. Despite this, few studies have assessed the relationship existing between urban environmental conditions and building rodent infestation. With the purpose of clarifying this relationship, an analysis has been conducted in order to quantify the influence of environmental factors upon rodent infestation on a low-income district. Diagnosis of the environmental situation has been performed to evaluate the frequency according to which harborage, food and access sources occur, and a survey on infestation rates in 2175 dwellings in the area studied. The logistic regression analysis showed that among the environmental variables, the one that showed the closest association with rodent infestation was access; followed by harborage, and food. It was concluded that poor socioeconomic and environmental conditions in the area propitiate the occurrence of high rodent infestation rates

Indicators and evaluation tools for the assessment of urban sustainability

This paper attempts to provide an explanation of why reductionistic approaches are not adequate to tackle the urban sustainability issue in a consistent way. Concepts such as urban environmental carrying capacity and ecological footprint are discussed. Multicriteria evaluation is proposed as a general multidimensional framework for the assessment of urban sustainability. This paper deals with the following main topics: 1) definition of the concept of urban sustainability 2) discussion of relevant sustainability indicators 3) multicriteria evaluation as a framework for the assessment of urban sustainability 4) an illustrative example.

Automatic Mapping and Classification of Spatial Environmental Data

The paper deals with the development and application of the generic methodology for automatic processing (mapping and classification) of environmental data. General Regression Neural Network (GRNN) is considered in detail and is proposed as an efficient tool to solve the problem of spatial data mapping (regression). The Probabilistic Neural Network (PNN) is considered as an automatic tool for spatial classifications. The automatic tuning of isotropic and anisotropic GRNN/PNN models using cross-validation procedure is presented. Results are compared with the k-Nearest-Neighbours (k-NN) interpolation algorithm using independent validation data set. Real case studies are based on decision-oriented mapping and classification of radioactively contaminated territories.

USE OF SCALED SEMIVARIOGRAMS IN THE PLANNING SAMPLE OF SOIL PHYSICAL PROPERTIES IN SOUTHERN AMAZONAS, BRAZIL

There is a great lack of information from soil surveys in the southern part of the State of Amazonas, Brazil. The use of tools such as geostatistics may improve environmental planning, use and management. In this study, we aimed to use scaled semivariograms in sample design of soil physical properties of some environments in Amazonas. We selected five areas located in the south of the state of Amazonas, Brazil, with varied soil uses, such as forest, archaeological dark earth (ADE), pasture, sugarcane cropping, and agroforestry. Regular mesh grids were set up in these areas with 64 sample points spaced at 10 m from each other. At these points, we determined the particle size composition, soil resistance to penetration, moisture, soil bulk density and particle density, macroporosity, microporosity, total porosity, and aggregate stability in water at a depth of 0.00-0.20 m. Descriptive and geostatistical analyses were performed. The sample density requirements were lower in the pasture area but higher in the forest. We concluded that managed-environments had differences in their soil physical properties compared to the natural forest; notably, the soil in the ADE environment is physically improved in relation to the others. The physical properties evaluated showed a structure of spatial dependence with a slight variability of the forest compared to the others. The use of the range parameter of the semivariogram analysis proved to be effective in determining an ideal sample density.

Las posibilidades de la evaluación estratégica ambiental integrada: elementos para la reflexión sobre la sostenibilidad urbana en Colombia

En este artículo se presenta una reflexión sobre la forma en que se ha incorporado la noción de sostenibilidad ambiental en el ordenamiento físico urbano en Colombia, una aproximación parcial que ha privilegiado algunos componentes físicos de la estructura ecológica, sin considerar suficientemente las implicaciones de aspectos tales como el suelo urbano, las actuaciones de los servicios públicos, las racionalidades de consumo y el metabolismo de la ciudad, los cuales tienen una mayor incidencia sobre la sostenibilidad urbana. El seguimiento a esta tendencia de incorporar herramientas de planeación ambiental estratégica sirve, en primera instancia, para llevar a cabo una reflexión crítica sobre el ordenamiento físico en nuestro medio, la planeación para el desarrollo urbano sostenible, los modelos de ciudad y la participación ciudadana El artículo se divide en tres partes. En la primera se presentan consideraciones sobre sostenibilidad urbana como el marco de la evaluación estratégica ambiental. En la segunda parte se presenta la Evaluación Estratégica Ambiental (EAE) en la formulación de políticas, programas, planes y proyectos. Finalmente, se hacen algunas consideraciones sobre la necesidad de incorporar la EAE en las agendas de formulación y concertación ambiental de temas estratégicos, políticas y planeamiento urbano en Colombia.---The potential for integrated strategic environmental assessment: food for thought on urban sustainability in ColombiaThis article presents a reflection on how the notion of environmental sustainability in the physical urban system was incorporated in Colombia, a partial approach that has privileged some physical components of the ecological structure, without sufficiently considering the implications of such aspects as urban land, the actions of public services, consumer rationalities and metabolism of the city, which have a greater impact on urban sustainability. Monitoring this trend of incorporating strategic environmental planning tools, served in the first instance to undertake a critical reflection on the physical arrangement in our environment, planning for sustainable urban development, and models of city and citizen participation. The article is divided into three parts. The first presents considerations on urban sustainability as the framework of strategic environmental assessment. In the second part presents the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) in the formulation of policies, programs, plans and projects. Finally, some considerations are made about the need to incorporate the SEA into the agendas of environmental design and coordination of strategic issues, policies and urban planning in Colombia. Key words: Strategic Environmental Assessment (EEA), Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), public policies, environmental assessment, urban sustainability, urban management.---As possibilidades da avaliação estratégica ambiental integrada: Elementos para a reflexão sobre a sustentabilidade urbana na ColômbiaNeste artigo se apresenta uma reflexão sobre a forma em que se tem incorporado a noção de sustentabilidade ambiental no ordenamento físico urbano na Colômbia, uma aproximação parcial que tem privilegiado alguns componentes físicos da estrutura ecológica sem considerar suficientemente as implicações de aspectos tais como o solo urbano, as atuações dos serviços públicos, as racionalidades de consumo e o metabolismo da cidade, os quais têm uma maior incidência sobre a sustentabilidade urbana. O seguimento a esta tendência de incorporar ferramentas de planejamento ambiental estratégica serve, em primeira instância, para levar a cabo uma reflexão crítica sobre o ordenamento físico em nosso meio, o planejamento para o desenvolvimento urbano sustentável, os modelos de cidade e a participação cidadã. O artigo se divide em três partes. Na primeira se apresentam considerações sobre sustentabilidade urbana como o marco da avaliação estratégica ambiental. Na segunda parte se apresenta a Avaliação Estratégica Ambiental (Evaluación Estratégica Ambiental - EAE) na formulação de políticas, programas, planos e projetos. Finalmente, se fazem algumas considerações sobre a necessidade de incorporar a EAE nas agendas de formulação e concerto ambiental de temas estratégicos, políticas y planejamento urbano na Colômbia.Palavras chave: Avaliação Ambiental Estratégica (EAE), Avaliação de Impacto Ambiental (EIA), política pública urbana, sustentabilidade urbana, gestão urbana, gestão ambiental.

Cuando creces, yo crezco contigo”: La configuración de áreas de protección ambiental y de subjetividades en el Humedal de Córdoba y la vereda El Verjón Bajo

La configuración de lugares como áreas de protección ambiental puede ser vista como un proceso técnico y objetivo, en el que se crean políticas públicas que definen prácticas adecuadas e inadecuadas en el lugar. Pero esta configuración es un proceso histórico y negociado. Este se construye en contante diálogo entre diferentes actores que se preocupan por definir qué es la naturaleza y el cuidado ambiental, y las percepciones que individuos que habitan en o cerca a estos lugares construyen en su diario vivir. Es así como la configuración socioambiental de lugares como áreas de protección ocurre por transformaciones en la forma de percibir un lugar, la relaciones con este y sobre todo, prácticas y relaciones que se traducen en formas de negociar nociones de naturaleza y cuidado ambiental. Esta negociación tiene grandes implicaciones en los individuos, particularmente en su subjetividad. Es decir, en hechos como la forma de nombrarlo, caminarlo, observar las especies, iniciar proyectos de agricultura orgánica, cambiar prácticas productivas, el cerramiento de zonas para proteger las fuentes de agua o zonas de vegetación. También sobre su subjetividad, la manera como se sienten frente al lugar, como juzgan sus acciones y las de otros y cómo construyen objetivos personales con respecto a la idea de cuidado ambiental.

Research priorities in observing and modeling urban weather and climate

In 2007, the world reached the unprecedented milestone of half of its people living in cities, and that proportion is projected to be 60% in 2030. The combined effect of global climate change and rapid urban growth, accompanied by economic and industrial development, will likely make city residents more vulnerable to a number of urban environmental problems, including extreme weather and climate conditions, sea-level rise, poor public health and air quality, atmospheric transport of accidental or intentional releases of toxic material, and limited water resources. One fundamental aspect of predicting the future risks and defining mitigation strategies is to understand the weather and regional climate affected by cities. For this reason, dozens of researchers from many disciplines and nations attended the Urban Weather and Climate Workshop.1 Twenty-five students from Chinese universities and institutes also took part. The presentations by the workshop's participants span a wide range of topics, from the interaction between the urban climate and energy consumption in climate-change environments to the impact of urban areas on storms and local circulations, and from the impact of urbanization on the hydrological cycle to air quality and weather prediction.

Environmental conditions and rodent infestation in Campo Limpo district, Sao Paulo municipality, Brazil

Rodents are involved in the transmission to human beings of several diseases, including liptospirosis, which shows high lethality rates in Sao Paulo municipality. Despite this, few studies have assessed the relationship existing between urban environmental conditions and building rodent infestation. With the purpose of clarifying this relationship, an analysis has been conducted in order to quantify the influence of environmental factors upon rodent infestation on a low-income district. Diagnosis of the environmental situation has been performed to evaluate the frequency according to which harborage, food and access sources occur, and a survey on infestation rates in 2175 dwellings in the area studied. The logistic regression analysis showed that among the environmental variables, the one that showed the closest association with rodent infestation was access; followed by harborage, and food. It was concluded that poor socioeconomic and environmental conditions in the area propitiate the occurrence of high rodent infestation rates.