Participatory online environmental education at the Open University UK

The role of education in helping our societies put sustainability into practice is crucial. The motivation, awareness and empowerment, necessary for citizens to understand the concept and take part in its operationalisation, ought to emerge from environmental education, since we might encounter some difficulty when trying to teach, or impose these notions in a theoretical way. In developing environmental courses, we therefore ought to progressively replace pedagogical approaches based on (relatively 'authoritarian') transfers of information with more interactive and collaborative learning processes: citizens' participation can start with the creation of communities of learners. This paper describes the construction of two web courses: a first level teaching module on environmental systems and a third level interdisciplinary environmental course, both developed at the Open University, specialised in distance and open learning. The themes of the course include participatory processes in decision-making, the perception and representation of environmental systems, alternative leadership, biodiversity, climate change and integrated water management, environmental action and governance. The concepts focused on include sustainability, complexity, uncertainty, globalisation and 'systemic problem solving'. In both courses, the overall pedagogical process is based on the notion of environmental governance. This means that the web has been chosen as a learning platform, because - it provides various types of up to date information as well as archives, - it allows various types of users to communicate between different countries, and also - it encourages collaborative and interactive learning. This paper describes the experience of the author in creating web environmental courses at the Open University. Components of the courses such as interactive activities are discussed, as well as the pedagogical focus progressively shifted towards more participatory processes of learning

From traditional to modern water management systems; reflection on the evolution of a ‘water ethic’ in semi-arid Morocco

The chapter focuses on water because of the crucial importance of that resource in a semiarid country and because the ways in which it has been managed throughout centuries illustrate the changes in socio-political structures in the society. The focus on water in a semi arid country is symbolic of how precious natural resources are in the development of economies and societies. Morocco provides a fascinating terrain to explore ingenuous traditional water management structures and processes both in urban and in rural environments

Innovative approaches to water security:ICTs as platforms for systemic online negotiation

This paper presents the initial outcomes of the research project ‘Innovative approaches to water security using ICTs for systemic online negotiations’ carried out between the department of Systems at the OU, UNESCO PC-CP program and UNESCO-IHE Institute of water education. It explores how water conflicts could be managed - by being prevented through integrated water management and - through better communication amongst water stakeholders and more systemic analysis of water problems at stake

Sustainability indicators

Imagine a situation where, after debating for years on what makes you happy, you finally decide that it is about time you start put these ideas into practice and effectively make yourself happy(ier). If you are really determined, you will be keen to stop convincing yourself that you are happy if you are not: you will want to check whether you are really making progress towards achieving your goals. You will have identified different components of your happiness and will assess some of them, progressing cautiously, step by step. You will also be aware of the links between these components, links that determine your overall state of happiness. In the situation described above, now replace the term 'happiness' by that of 'sustainability' - like concepts such as justice, truth, or happiness indeed, it is a desirable objective, albeit difficult to capture in a concise, shared, definition

Alternative policy indicators

It is now often argued that society is steering with the wrong compass. Most decision-making processes are based on Gross Domestic Product (GDP), favouring economic options that generate its increase. GDP has long since been used as an indicator of economic performance, progress, and even welfare. Moreover, it is on the basis of GDP that countries are internationally 'ranked'

Recycling

The environmental problems generated by our consumer societies require immediate measures that respect the principles of long term sustainability. However, in response to the rising amount of wastes (on average, per capita arising municipal wastes increased by 26 between 1970 and the late 1980s in the OECD) various (mostly end-of-pipe) waste management strategies have been advocated, while a real questioning of what constitutes 'wastes' is still desperately needed

Systemic educational approaches to environmental issues: the contribution of ecological art

System thinkers and practitioners are trying to help society understand better the interconnectedness between issues that we previously tended to explore in isolation. Because of this, they have an important role to play in dealing with environmental issues. Indeed, the need to tackle those in holistic ways is now recognised and systems approaches are now complementing academic approaches such as ecological economics (Neumayer E (ed) (2003) Online encyclopaedia of ecological economics. International Society for Ecological Economics; Faber M, Manstetten R, Proops J (1996) Ecological economics. Concepts and methods. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham), which analyse ecological-human interactions. This paper explores how new forms of 'environmental education' could constitute particularly relevant vehicles for systems thinking and practice by building on messages and practices initiated in ecological art. Ecological art, it argues, has provided, for centuries, a practical form of holistic, interdisciplinary, problem-solving environmental management model–a particularly insightful illustration of how 'systems thinking and practice' can be used to deal with environmental problems. The paper suggests that art-based pedagogic forms could help put sustainability into practice by providing an educational tool that respects the systemicity of environmental issues and by encouraging systemic learning processes that are based on improved communication, sharing of perspectives, and stakeholders' empowerment through participation and experience

Systemic evaluation methodology: the emergence of social learning from environmental ICT prototypes

This paper investigates why and how systems approaches can help in evaluating the design of new Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) as social learning platforms. It focuses on the prototypes created by the research project Virtualis , whose objective is to promote social learning on environmental concepts and practices amongst a variety of stakeholders. The paper presents the principles of systems thinking and practice that did help in formulating such evaluation processes. It illustrates both how a peer systemic evaluation process within the research team and a participatory evaluation process (involving potential future users of the ICTs) were carried out

An illustrative application of the CRITINC framework to the UK

This paper sets out an illustrative application to the UK of a new framework for identifying critical natural capital (CNC). This involves classifying the characteristics of natural capital and the environmental functions to which it gives rise, and then defining standards of environmental sustainability for these functions. The framework then relates these functions to the economic system, through the input/output tables, in order to identify the pressures on the functions and hence the extent to which the functions are not being maintained at a sustainable level. The framework is worked though in some detail for water, with less detailed application of it to air, land and habitats. The methodology can be used to identify areas of environmental unsustainability and the processes to which this unsustainability is due, so that policies to move towards sustainability may be more easily identified

The impact of reduction in the benzene limit value in gasoline on airborne benzene, toluene and xylenes levels

Background benzene, toluene, xylenes (BTX) average concentrations have been measured over the urban agglomeration of Toulouse, France, during both springtime and summer periods of 1999 and 2001. The benzene average amount over the two Toulouse campaigns in 1999 is equal to 2.2 Ag/m³, very close to the French air quality standard and well under the average value of 5 Ag/m³ recommended by European Economic Community countries, recognising that those regulations are given for a whole year. BTX pollution over Toulouse has, in particular, been produced by motor vehicle exhaust gases. For the study conducted during the same periods of 2001, benzene concentrations were within the French quality value in the whole area. This is because the benzene limit value contained in gasoline went from 5% to 1% since 2000 January 1. It will be important to measure benzene over annual periods in order to know its exact values over such a period and to observe its potential seasonal variations