Journal of Environmental Assessment Policy and Management

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What determines the environmental regulatory regime of a country or region? This paper addresses the question in detail, using the US and its widely varying environmental policies as the case study. What factors lead some US states to pass strict environmental regulations, while others are content with the baseline standards required at the national level? This work outlines the state environmental choice as a trade-off between the desires of consumers (who want better environmental quality) and of producers (who want less restrictive environmental standards). A rational state legislator maximises her chances of being re-elected by balancing these two competing forces when setting environmental policy.

I test this model by directly analysing the state decision to adopt more restrictive sulfur dioxide regulations than those required by the federal government under the Environmental Protection Agency's "National Ambient Air Quality Standards" program. The statistical results suggest that legislators weigh the relative influence of consumer and producer groups when setting sulfur dioxide standards, in addition to accounting for meteorological influences that affect the cost of compliance with stricter environmental regulations. Limited evidence is also provided to support an inverted-U shaped relationship between income levels and environmental regulations.

Environmental planning and policy analysis, design and implementation are complicated by the fact that environmental problems are almost always part of a complex sociotechnical system, the behaviour of which is not intuitive. The complexity of the problem necessitates a technical and scientific analysis process, which by its nature excludes the majority of the stakeholders in the given problem. To overcome these challenges, this research proposes the engagement of stakeholders from very early on in the process using computer-assisted visualisation and representation of complex sociotechnical systems. Specifically it proposed the use of system dynamics simulation in illustrating the complex interactions of the different sociotechnical system elements. Using computer simulation of the system, stakeholders can then decide on the best strategies to address the issue on a more objective basis. Ubiquitous computing enables the assessment of a vast number of strategies in a relatively short time.

The Saudi government has made some efforts in incorporating the principles of sustainable development into the planning process by establishing a framework for considering environmental consequences of development activities. The framework is guided by the General Environmental Code. The Ministerial Committee on the Environment (MCE) coordinates the environmental assessment of plans, policies and programmes prior to approval. However, the framework tends to focus on plans and programmes at the national level with little or no explicit provision for ensuring the assessment of municipal plans, policies and programmes. This paper evaluates the integration of environmental assessment into the municipal planning process and the plan documents. The findings indicate that the implementation of environmental assessment at the municipal planning level is minimal. Inadequate institutional framework and lack of effective environment assessment legislation are the main barriers to the implementation. Overall, the assessment shows that there is the need to improve sustainability planning practice in the Kingdom.

This paper argues that in order for strategic environmental assessment (SEA) to be effectively applied in transport policy, plan and programme making, the existence of certain context elements is essential. However, currently, these are only partly in place. Elements revolve around formal requirements and clear provisions for SEA, the existence of transparent and consistent value frames, the consideration of traditional decision making approaches, systematic tiering, a willingness to cooperate, an acknowledgement of uncertainties and appropriate funding, time as well as support. Focusing on transport case studies from the Netherlands, Finland, Germany and the U.K., the paper provides some empirical evidence for the importance of these context elements.

Environmental management systems (EMS) require performance evaluation of significant environmental aspects. Much has been published on how to achieve environmental performance evaluation but little information is available on applications in practice. The Swedish National Rail Administration, Banverket, initiated the implementation of EMS in 1998, at about the same time as many other rail administrations. In this paper an overview of the application of EMS at rail administrations in selected countries is presented and systems for environmental performance evaluation within the EMS used by Banverket are analysed. The use of EMS by rail administrations was found to vary from the absence of environmental management to fully implemented EMS, mainly ISO 14001. At Banverket, EMS is widely used but the environmental performance evaluation could be improved by introducing indicators and merging all types of environmental monitoring, currently reported separately, into a common system.

The insufficient operationalisation of the sustainable development (SD)concept hinders development of widely recognised standards for assessment of SD progress. This paper reports on development and testing of a conceptual framework for assessment of progress towards achieving sustainable development (APASD) of (primarily) countries in transition from central planning to market economy. The framework departs from the core principles of sustainable development and develops them into a set of operational criteria, which in turn are developed into sets of performance indicators. Benchmarking is applied for indicators, and an approach to aggregation of assessment results is described. Application of the framework allows identification of sustainable and unsustainable development patterns, as well as policy failures that lead to unsustainable development. The assessment is concluded with recommendations for policy reforms that address policy failures and unsustainable development patterns. The overview of the results obtained in testing the APASD framework in Estonia is presented to illustrate its application.

The literature on environmental regime effectiveness has shown a predilection for behaviour modification studies, whereby effectiveness is associated with a change in the behaviour of relevant actors. There has not been a systematic endeavour to link the implementation of international environmental agreements (IEAs) with improvement in environmental conditions. This article shifts away from the paradigm of behavioural analysis and focuses instead on linking IEA effectiveness with positive environmental changes in treaty-based environmental effectiveness indicators. Thirty-four treaty texts have been analysed to determine potential environmental indicators, and treaty secretariats have been contacted to collect time-series data on the selected indicators. Based on data gathered, trend lines are established for the environmental indicators to depict changes in related global environmental conditions. The results of this exercise show that viewing IEA effectiveness from the environmental modification perspective is promising, though there are serious data limitations still to be overcome.

Dealing with environmental problems, "participation" has emerged as a central theme. There has, for some time, been a growing recognition within the government and society at large that the future of Turkish environmental protection depends on more effective participation of multiple stakeholders. Along with growing appreciation of the potential benefits has come more systematic understanding of the factors that currently inhibit wider and more effective use of participatory techniques in Turkey. Over the last decade, there has been a succession of studies pointing to the conclusion that current environmental practices, entrenched institutional arrangements and attitudes, and poorly adapted laws are major constraints on participatory approaches. With specific reference to the legal framework, there is a growing consensus that Turkish legislation falls short in comparison to those in most developed countries and acts as a constraint on participation because of its command and control approach, in which most decisions are made by the state and the principal role of law is to ensure compliance and penalise non-compliance with those decisions. The law does not fully reflect current social, economic and environmental realities. The purpose of this study is to focus on the strengths and weaknesses of Turkey's environmental law per se, by highlighting some international lessons and practices that might be useful to Turkey as it considers what future steps to take in improving the legal framework for participation. The 1998 case in which the environmentally damaging activities of the Eurogod Mining Company at Bergama, Western Turkey, were stopped following a petition by local people to the Appeals Court is cited as an example. This case study reflects the people's participation in environmental issues and supports the main argument of this article, from which recommendations are made for improving the legal outline for participation.