Editing scientific reports to misrepresent data; stopping research intended to support policy decisions; and making important policy and legal decisions by individuals with financial and personal relationships and conflicts-of-interest without relying upon scientific input, seem to happen more frequently these days. As environmental professionals, individuals question our integrity because they do not like the conclusions reached in the analyses. The integrity (i.e., ethics) of professionals may be questioned when the studies are financed by those with an interest in the outcome.
Editing scientific reports to misrepresent data; stopping research intended to support policy decisions; and making important policy and legal decisions by individuals with financial and personal r...
After 21 years, the National Association of Environmental Professionals (NAEP) will be suspending the publication of the Environmental Practice. The Environmental Practice provided a unique journal...
Beginning in the 1990s, anthropologists, archeologists, and allied social scientists recognized the value of scientifically studying landscape as the, “ … spatial manifestation of the relations bet...
The purpose of Executive Order (EO) 13807 "Establishing Discipline and Accountability in the Environmental Review and Permitting Process for Infrastructure" is to support the timely processing of federal environmental reviews and agency authorization decisions for proposed major infrastructure projects. In addition to outlining the goal of completing all environmental reviews in an average of two years, EO 13807 stipulates that all federal authorization decisions, including issuing permits, shall be completed within 90 days of the issuance of a ROD. If environmental reviews and authorizations under other federal laws are not effectively coordinated, meeting the requirements outlined in EO 13807 will be difficult, if not impossible. This review examines how to effectively coordinate planning and permitting under the National Environmental Policy Act and three other federal laws, compliance with which is commonly needed for major infrastructure projects - the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act, and the National Historic Preservation Act.
How natural and cultural resources are defined and valued has implications for their conservation and assessment. Although legal regulations for cultural resources such as the National Historic Preservation Act or the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act offer clear guidelines for evaluating entities that fall under their jurisdiction, cultural resources cover far more than these official definitions encompass. Cultural models of cultural resources may vary across individuals from different management agencies, geographic regions, or cultural backgrounds. This in turn affects how they value and perceive cultural resources, both in their work and daily life. Anthropological methods including ethnography, cultural domain analysis, participatory action research, and crowdsourcing can offer critical insights into how different stakeholders or actors classify and perceive cultural resources. By recognizing the variability and dynamism in cultural resource definitions and values, it is possible to develop more holistic and inclusive assessment criteria for management and conservation. Developing emic understandings of cultural resources is particularly important in contexts with diverse populations, nested management institutions, and competing land-use priorities. This paper highlights methodologies for incorporating anthropological methods into integrated landscape conservation design and offers recommendations for how these methods can be applied.
Visual resources are a critical, but often overlooked type of cultural resource. Additionally, visual resources are often dealt with only at the site scale and not as part of a larger landscape or region. Building on a long history of photographic studies for landscape visual assessment, this work examines crowdsourced photography from social media sources to identify visual resources and areas of scenic interest at larger scales. A pilot study in Pennsylvania and subsequent exploration in the National Capital Region show how publicly shared photography can aid the identification and prioritization of conservation areas by garnering information from residents and visitors, alike. Analyses of these data also show trends for the types of visual resources and landscapes that are most valued. Subsequently, other forms of data, such as impact projections can be compared to the photographic data to identify where future conflicts may occur. Crowdsourced data is useful for identifying areas of visual and cultural resources. Natural or natural-appearing landscapes are valued more above other types. Data availability and compatibility are important for regional-scale conservation.
Early ecosystem health report cards focused on assessing the health of natural ecosystems, producing a "snapshot" of ecosystem health at one point in time. Ecosystem health report cards are used to guide efforts that improve ecosystem health through natural resources management and stakeholder engagement. Common themes among Report Cards include water quality and quantity and habitat. These indicators are not strictly environmental concerns, though. They also impact, and are impacted by, human communities. For example, water quantity bridges natural and human resources: a minimum amount of water is needed to maintain ecosystem health, and humans rely on water for industries, for example agriculture. People impact the ecosystems in which they live, and it is important to assess their impacts on ecosystems, as well as assessing how an ecosystem functions to support these communities. This requires consideration of both indicators that bridge the natural and human world, and some that are considered strictly human-focused. These include infrastructure, employment, and nutrition/food availability. When combined with assessments of natural resources, the evaluation of human focused indicators and indicators that bridge the natural and human world provide a more complex and accurate view of system health. Using three case studies, this paper explores the importance of integrating economic, cultural, and social indicators into traditional ecosystem health report cards, the challenges such integration poses, and potential solutions.
While there are standardized methods for incorporating natural resources into planning and design, cultural resources are treated as an afterthought or are considered only after unexpected discoveries or policies require procedural review. Bringing cultural resources to the front end of planning will have positive effects not only on the preservation of those resources, but on planning and design processes. However, to work toward this shift in practice it is necessary to evaluate the types of data useful for planning professionals, which in most cases are evaluative spatial data commonly contained in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) databases. In the United States, statewide cultural resource GIS databases are required in State Historic Preservation Offices (SHPO). While universal, these databases vary in the terminologies used and the types of data recorded, necessitating a move toward standardization and broadened utility. Detailed evaluations of statewide cultural resource GIS databases provide insight into what needs standardization and how to move toward that goal. By moving toward standardization it is possible to bring cultural resources to the front end of the planning and design process. In turn, this will increase cultural resource preservation levels while decreasing the costs of project implementation by reducing the need to revisit project designs after they are put in place.
A significant amount of coastal marsh restoration work has been implemented in estuarine coastal areas in an effort to reclaim previously degraded aquatic habitats. Design approaches vary according to numerous cost and site specific parameters. This study attempts to assess the biologic function of two common approaches to restoration site design, terracing and beneficial use islands, located within an estuarine embayment in lower Galveston Bay, Texas across a five-year timeframe. Study results indicate that there are significant differences among restoration sites by design when compared to each other and to a natural reference within the same embayment. These results suggest that advancements in restoration design have important implications for coastal habitat function and resiliency. In light of climate change, relative sea level rise, ever-present funding constraints, and the ecologic and economic importance of estuarine marsh habitat, this data will be useful for restoration managers considering applicable techniques for future projects in dynamic coastal environments.
Author John Perkins takes us on a big history look at energy and the environment and concludes that we must make a new energy transition. This transition is made urgent by the scientific consensus ...
The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) has since 1970 functioned as an innovative, interdisciplinary planning tool for actions of the federal government. However, elements of NEPA have also entered state and local environmental planning regulations and processes over the years. The concept of interdisciplinary evaluation of alternatives established under NEPA for federal actions has thereby influenced planning of many non-federal development actions under state and local regulatory jurisdiction as well. The following paper discusses how aspects of the NEPA process may be found in two state-level environmental planning statutes established by the State of Maryland: the Maryland Forest Conservation Act and the Chesapeake Bay Critical Area Act. The former applies to development projects throughout most of Maryland, and the latter applies to development projects in lands close to Maryland's portion of the Chesapeake Bay. If environmental planning of the type promoted by NEPA is to be successful on a macro level, then those planning objectives must be extended to non-government as well as government projects. State environmental planning statutes such as Maryland's accomplish that purpose. Furthermore, as federal politicians continue to emphasize federalism and devolution of regulatory requirements to states and localities, state environmental planning requirements such as Maryland's may play an even increased role in environmental protection in the future.
Individual bureaucrats are ultimately tasked with solving complex problems and are expected to do so cost-effectively. The purpose of this paper is to examine an infrequent perspective of administrative rulemaking - training. Simply put, our goal is to examine original interview data with federal rulewriters in two agencies - the Environmental Protection Agency and the Bureau of Land Management to understand how bureaucrats are trained to carry out rules. This exploratory study suggests the importance of training for the next generation of rulewriters. In particular, we demonstrate existing informal training can be effective, but more mechanisms (e.g. formal training and mentoring) is necessary.
The 1930s was a time of strife, uncertainty, and movement in the United States. As a result of the Great Depression and Dust Bowl, impromptu communities - both lasting and fleeting - seemingly appeared overnight in much of the country's western and southwestern regions. Increased demand for housing forced the government to fund migratory camps for the destitute. Although some settlements were ephemeral and abandoned after this age of displacement, others continue to retain their integrity and convey their significance today. These camps stand as testaments to the thousands of migrants who sought refuge in their shelters and communities during an epoch of increased individualism. Using two Farm Security Administration (FSA) camps as case studies, this paper examines the history of the Dust Bowl migration, the proliferation of migratory camps, and the nuances of their potential eligibility. Arvin Federal Migratory Labor Camp retains integrity, conveys its significance, and has been listed in the National Register of Historic Places and California Register of Historical Resources. Contrastingly, Shafter Federal Migratory Camp has been dramatically altered over the last eight decades. The only remnants of this camp are the concrete foundations alluding to a double-hexagonal plan. The different conditions of these camps evidence the need for preservation stewardship.
A modeling study examined the effect of leakage rate and liner seam orientation on configurations of contaminant detection wells in groundwater. Monitoring networks took into account the unknown location of a future release, and a higher risk of leakage at liner seams, for different combinations of leakage rate and seam orientation. Derived networks comprised two arrays of wells, one relatively close and the other farther away from the landfill, capable of detecting all releases before associated contaminant plumes reached a property boundary. A smaller (more efficient) monitoring network was found for seams oriented more parallel to groundwater flow. Based on outcomes of this study, landfill designers should consider: (1) benefits of seams oriented parallel to groundwater flow, weighed against possible drawbacks of more seams or greater total seam length; and (2) small holes and leakage rates in conventional liner systems producing narrow contaminant plumes, warranting closely-spaced monitoring wells.
California is facing a severe housing shortage and needs to substantially increase housing production above current production levels to dampen soaring prices. Legislators have considered legal and policy changes to support increased production, including a range of incremental to sweeping changes to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) regarding its application to housing projects. There has been limited empirical analysis of how CEQA affects housing production. This study, which seeks to build empirical data, presents results from a survey of California municipalities about the choices made to conduct CEQA environmental review for housing projects proposed between 2015 to 2017, including the use of several types of streamlining and exemptions. The survey, sent to all 541 of California's cities and counties, yielded 46 responses (9% response rate). These participating jurisdictions accounted for 54% of all multi-family residential (5+ units) building permits issued between 2010 and 2017. Survey responses indicated the Streamlining/Exemptions category was the predominant category of environmental review followed by Mitigated Negative Declarations. Only 6% of projects were reviewed by Environmental Impact Reports. Respondents selected CEQA relatively infrequently among factors constraining new supply, with high development costs, neighborhood opposition, lack of sites, and lack of affordable housing funding as more common constraints to expanding supply.
Integrating science of natural and cultural resources for landscape-scale conservation design and planning is an important effort for solving complex socioecological problems. Despite recognition that culture and nature are not distinct categories, this division remains influential in North American conservation policies, practices, and management. The North American Landscape Conservation Cooperatives (LCCs) aimed to develop long-term landscape-scale conservation priorities integrating both natural and cultural resources through multi-stakeholder, regional partnerships. During 2017-2018, we conducted ethnographic fieldwork and key informant interviews with Appalachian LCC (AppLCC) partners. Here we examine the general strategies, goals, and values of the AppLCC to understand how cultural and natural resources were incorporated into partnership activities. We find that both conceptual and practical barriers exist for integrating cultural and natural resource information and values for landscape-scale conservation planning. Future large-landscape conservation partnerships looking to integrate conservation strategies would benefit from increasing the diversity of institutional representation and examining how cultural and natural resource projects are relatively prioritized. In addition, greater reflection on the ideology of conservation, theory of cultural resource management, and the value of cultural resources may improve conservation outcomes. By expanding the definition of cultural resources, greater connections with natural resource management priorities and strategies can be identified and leveraged to advance integrated conservation. These challenges and potential pathways to integrated conservation are examined through the lens of the AppLCC.
