Ideal integrated national environmental management system for South Africa : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Development Studies at Massey University

The South African environmental management system has been characterised by fragmentation and the lack of effective legislation. The number of statutes concerned with conservation issues is an associated problem. The implementation of the Environmental Conservation Act 1989 has been viewed as inefficient because of the lack of enforcement and control of environmental management issues. The Act has not provided opportunities for public participation, particularly from black communities, in decision-making about environmental matters. The South African environmental management system has not recognised and integrated indigenous peoples resource management systems into the country's legal framework. This is illustrated by the impacts of conservation programmes which have resulted in black communities being uprooted from their lands for the establishment of national parks and tourism facilities, without compensation to traditional owners. Research has identified the need for a revision of environmental impact assessment (EIA) practices in South Africa. There is also an associated need to integrate environmental impact assessment (EIA) into the planning process to achieve sustainability. Studies carried out in South Africa have identified the lack of effective regulations for enforcing the provisions with regard to the status of the coastal zone. The criticisms of the White Paper delivered by participants at the Conference held at Megawatt Park, Sandton, 10 June, 1993, highlight the need for a comprehensive environmental management system to ensure the sustainable management of natural and physical resources. An ideal system would improve the quality of life in the South African community, while maintaining the integrity of the natural resource base. Even though the criticisms have been valid, they fall short of suggesting ideas for the formulation of a new integrated environmental management system for South Africa. Research carried out in South Africa has also identified the inadequacies of the proposed Integrated Environmental Management procedure referred to in the White Paper. This procedure has been perceived as inadequate to achieve the universal principles of sustainable development. This project evaluates the White Paper, the submissions criticising the White Paper and the proposed Integrated Environmental Management system in South Africa. A matrix is used as a method to examine both the New Zealand Resource Management Act 1991 and the South African environmental management provisions against the recommended national actions in the IUCN/UNEP/WWF (1991) and Agenda 21. Research from a number of disciplines concerned with integrated environmental management, are used to recommend changes to the South African environmental management system. Criteria derived from the IUCN/UNEP/WWF (1991) strategy and Agenda 21 are used in the thesis to evaluate the White Paper, submissions criticising the White Paper, and the proposed Integrated Environmental Management system. Finally, An ideal National Integrated Environmental Management System for South Africa is proposed

Noise expresses exponential growth under regime switching

Consider a given system under regime switching whose solution grows at most polynomially, and suppose that the system is subject to environmental noise in some regimes. Can the regime switching and the environmental noise work together to make the system change signicantly? The answer is yes. In this paper, we will show that the regime switching and the environmental noise will make the original system whose solution grows at most polynomially become a new system whose solution will grow exponentially. In other words, we reveal that the regime switching and the environmental noise will exppress the exponential growth

Employing dynamic fuzzy membership functions to assess environmental performance in the supplier selection process

The proposed system illustrates that logic fuzzy can be used to aid management in assessing a supplier's environmental performance in the supplier selection process. A user-centred hierarchical system employing scalable fuzzy membership functions implement human priorities in the supplier selection process, with particular focus on a supplier's environmental performance. Traditionally, when evaluating supplier performance, companies have considered criteria such as price, quality, flexibility, etc. These criteria are of varying importance to individual companies pertaining to their own specific objectives. However, with environmental pressures increasing, many companies have begun to give more attention to environmental issues and, in particular, to their suppliers’ environmental performance. The framework presented here was developed to introduce efficiently environmental criteria into the existing supplier selection process and to reflect on its relevant importance to individual companies. The system presented attempts to simulate the human preference given to particular supplier selection criteria with particular focus on environmental issues when considering supplier selection. The system considers environmental data from multiple aspects of a suppliers business, and based on the relevant impact this will have on a Buying Organization, a decision is reached on the suitability of the supplier. This enables a particular supplier's strengths and weaknesses to be considered as well as considering their significance and relevance to the Buying OrganizationPeer reviewe

The Lost Generation: Environmental Regulatory Reform in the Era of Congressional Abdication

Congress constructed the entirety of the modern federal environmental regulatory system between 1970 and 1990. However, due to ever increasing political polarization and gridlock, Congress has abdicated its responsibility as the primary national environmental policymaker over the past 25 years. Since 1990, no major environmental legislation has been enacted, leading to a growing sense that the federal system has become stagnated and obsolescent. Since the mid-1990s, concerns over the effectiveness, inefficiencies, and under-inclusiveness of the federal system have led to a robust reform movement seeking to build the next generation of environmental regulation. Because of Congress\u27s inability to enact environmental legislation, however, such reform efforts have largely centered on numerous, primarily voluntary executive branch reinvention initiatives at EPA. Congress\u27s failure to support these efforts, through legislation or otherwise, has severely undermined the ability of these efforts to achieve meaningful success, leading to a lost generation of environmental regulatory reform. This Article surveys the most widely promoted and analyzed of the next generation environmental regulatory reform proposals and calls on Congress to accept reform advocates\u27 challenge to improve and modernize a severely outdated regulatory system

Towards a method for the economic evaluation of environmental indicators in UK Integrated Arable Farming Systems

Integrated Arable Farming Systems (IAFS), which involve a reduction in the use of off-farm inputs, are attracting considerable research interest in the UK. The objectives of these systems experiments are to compare their financial performance with that from conventional or current farming practices. To date, this comparison has taken little account of any environmental benefits (or disbenefits) of the two systems. The objective of this paper is to review the assessment methodologies available for the analysis of environmental impacts. To illustrate the results of this exercise, the methodology and environmental indicators chosen are then applied to data from one of the LINK - Integrated Farming Systems experimental sites. Data from the Pathhead site in Southern Scotland are used to evaluate the use of invertebrates and nitrate loss as environmental indicators within IAFS. The results suggest that between 1992 and 1995 the biomass of earthworms fell by 28 kg per hectare on the integrated rotation and rose by 31 kg per hectare on the conventional system. This led to environmental costs ranging between £2.24 and £13.44 per hectare for the integrated system and gains of between £2.48 and £14.88 for the conventional system. In terms of nitrate, the integrated system had an estimated loss of £72.21 per hectare in comparison to £149.40 per hectare on the conventional system. Conclusions are drawn about the advantages and disadvantages of this type of analytical framework. Keywords: Farming systems; IAFS; Environmental valuation; Economics; Earthworms; Nitrates; Soil faun

Environmental fog/rain visual display system for aircraft simulators

An environmental fog/rain visual display system for aircraft simulators is described. The electronic elements of the system include a real time digital computer, a caligraphic color display which simulates landing lights of selective intensity, and a color television camera for producing a moving color display of the airport runway as depicted on a model terrain board. The mechanical simulation elements of the system include an environmental chamber which can produce natural fog, nonhomogeneous fog, rain and fog combined, or rain only. A pilot looking through the aircraft wind screen will look through the fog and/or rain generated in the environmental chamber onto a viewing screen with the simulated color image of the airport runway thereon, and observe a very real simulation of actual conditions of a runway as it would appear through actual fog and/or rain

Environmental assessment overview

The assessment program has as its objectives: to identify the environmental issues associated with the SPS Reference System; to prepare a preliminary assessment based on existing data; to suggest mitigating strategies and provide environmental data and guidance to other components of the program as required; and to plan long-range research to reduce the uncertainty in the preliminary assessment. The key environmental issues associated with the satellite power system are discussed and include human health and safety, ecosystems, climate, and interaction with electromagnetic systems