Devolving Superfund to Main Street: Avenues for Local Community Involvement

The federal Superfund program, which cleans up properties contaminated with hazardous substances, has received relatively little attention in the planning literature. Yet, with ongoing Congressional efforts to tie site cleanups to expected land uses, high interest in promoting redevelopment of contaminated properties, and broader legislative and regulatory reform efforts to boost decentralized decision making, planners and other local stakeholders are increasingly becoming important players in Superfund and other federal environmental programs. In this article, I examine the experiences of three Superfund sites in the context of a devolutionary sharing of federal responsibilities with local-level stakeholders. My objectives are to highlight the local dynamics of cleanup and redevelopment and to demonstrate the importance of enforcement, incentives, and information in shaping these dynamics in Superfund and other environmental programs that rely increasingly on community involvement and intergovernmental cooperation. I conclude with a discussion of implications for the planning community.     

Contaminated Land: Implications for Water Pollution

The water environment is often neglected in the assessment of the impact of contaminated land and its redevelopment. The lack of effective legislative controls over derelict contaminated land areas and the poor appreciation of water pollution by developers and planning authorities in the undertaking and controlling of site redevelopment has severely hindered effective clean-up and protection of groundwater and surface waters.
The formation of the National Rivers Authority, the publication of the House of Commons Environment Committee's report and the implementation of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 have given the subject a new impetus. The preparation of registers by local authorities, which identify contaminated land areas, could be enhanced by the National River Authority's assessment of key sites. It is hoped to initiate clean-up by cooperation, but the testing of legislative powers has been encouraged by the Government, if only to reveal their inadequacies.     

自然资源综合调查支撑“双评价”的探索实践——以承德市国家生态文明示范区为例

围绕自然资源综合调查如何科学有效支撑资源环境承载能力和国土空间开发适宜性评价,文章以河北承德市为研究区,在自然资源综合调查数据分析基础上,总结承德市资源环境禀赋特征,开展基于自然资源综合调查的生态保护重要性、农业生产适宜性及承载规模、城镇建设适宜性及承载规模评价技术路线制定,研究不同自然资源环境条件与地质背景调查分别支撑各单项评价中的哪些要素,得出各类评价结果,分析现状问题和风险,识别潜力空间,为自然资源综合调查支撑市级尺度“双评价”提供了经验借鉴。     

Using isopleth mapping to evaluate landslide activity in relation to agricultural practices

In comparison to urban or suburban areas, agricultural lands generally have a lower landslide risk. This does not necessarily reflect a lower degree of landslide hazard. The lower risk is more often due to the sparser population and lower property values of rural areas. Population and property values influence methods applicable to assessing landslide hazard in rural areas. The cost of data and size of areas over which assessments must be made for agricultural lands render many assessment procedures uneconomic. Their use is only justified in populous, high-value areas. Many agricultural practices may have the same potential for initiating landslide activity recognized for some land uses in urban areas. Like their urban counterparts, residents dependant onagriculture for their livelihood suffer from the consequences of landslides. For these reasons, a method for landslide hazard assessment suitable for rural areas is needed. This need is satisfied by isopleth mapping of landslides. Isopleth mapping provides an economical means for assessing the degree of landslide hazard present within a large area. Data needs are limited to topographic and landslide maps. Isopleth maps facilitate comparison of landslide data to other information for developing a better understanding of how agricultural practices affect landslide activity. Their use in the Tuscany region of Italy provide insight on how changing agricultural practices altered landslide activity. Isopleth maps serve as a simple way to accomplish landslide hazard zonation. Landslide hazard zonation identifies locations where land use controls should be applied to achieve hazard reduction. Hazard reduction based on isopleth mapping is illustrated by their use in timber sale planning in California, USA.     

Without zoning: Urban development and land use controls in Houston

Houston is the only major city in North America without zoning. The growth of Houston illustrates a traditional free market philosophy in which land use zoning is seen as a violation of private property and personal liberty. This paper explores how the lack of zoning has an impact on land use controls and urban development in Houston. Using a theoretical framework derived from institutional economics and public choice theories for institutional analyses of land development controls, it explores how local land use policies made by both the local government and non-governmental sectors shape urban development in Houston. The study results show that despite the city’s lack of zoning, local land use regulatory policies made by the municipality have significant influence on urban development. Additionally, civic and private organizations such as super neighborhoods and homeowner associations fill the gaps left by the lack of land use zoning. These two aspects contribute to land use controls and urban development of the city. The study finds that land use controls by private contract and by government legislative intervention are not mutually exclusive or immutable; that equity goals are not met in market approaches, and public planning intervention is necessary; and that deed restrictions might be better at facilitating property sales and maintenance than at improving neighborhood welfare and governance.     

Contaminated Land Remediation: Economics v Liability

Chemical investigations of contaminated land can be expensive and yet still leave the landowner unaware of his/her full environmental liability. An approach to an effective means of planning chemical investigations is described by a case study of a contaminated site near London. This approach limits environmental liability in a cost-effective manner.
One of the main problems encountered in assessing the degree of contamination of land for the purposes of technical design, and ultimately for developer confidence, is the lack of recognized UK standards for acceptable levels of contaminants.
Using a second case study relating to a large contaminated site in the Midlands, the paper describes how a set of site-specific standards, for soil and water, was derived and used to develop a reclamation strategy for an 81-ha site. The case study also demonstrates the approach which was adopted in handling a large amount of analytical data and other quantitive information needed to produce a set of 'constraint models'. From these constraint models, the strategy for reclaiming the site has been developed.     

城市环境区边缘地带的土地利用规划导控

在以环境区边缘地带土地利用为切入点,剖析环境边缘区的空间特征的基础上,提出基于建设区与环境区内在生态关联的规划理念与方法:进行环境区与建设区之间的可相容性分析,激发两者间潜在的"边缘效应";在环境区的保护规划中纳入边缘区土地使用关联控制;强化环境边缘区土地利用控制,获取环境增殖效益;制订环境边缘区土地使用与空间设计导引,塑造城市空间特色.为在城市土地利用层面,将保护环境、塑造城市空间特色和发掘环境区价值统一起来,进行了有益探索.     

Microfoundations of project portfolio regulation in joint university-industry laboratories

Joint university-industry laboratories (joint U-I labs) consist of a new, yet little understood model of academic partnership with the firms, typically involving the establishment of a collaborative research unit to conduct research and development (R&D) projects. This type of collaboration faces an ongoing challenge in dealing with the tension between the development and deployment focus in the project portfolio. While several studies have investigated project portfolio management in a given firm, little is known about the interorganizational portfolio management and how the actors manage tensions in joint U-I labs. This study aims to investigate the microfoundations of project portfolio management in joint U-I labs. By combining the multiple-case study and at-home ethnography methods, we identified that the regulation approach explains how partners in joint U-I labs dynamically adjust and manage the project portfolio. Based on the empirical findings, we propose a new framework for project portfolio management in joint U-I labs: portfolio regulation. This framework consists of four processes: dual scouting, dual matchmaking, joint selection, and bridgemaking. These microfoundations enable actors to strategically regulate the portfolio by increasing/decreasing resources related to development or deployment. Our study explores how portfolio regulation evolves within a joint U-I lab through four stages: formation, learning, reconfiguration, and joint portfolio. The proposed framework contributes to interorganizational R&D portfolio management theory and joint U-I lab portfolio management practice.     

Strategic assessment of building adaptive reuse opportunities in Hong Kong

There is an increasing complexity and interplay between all the issues associated with property portfolio decisions. This paper explores the relationships between financial, environmental and social parameters associated with building adaptive reuse. An adaptive reuse potential (ARP) model is developed and discussed in the context of its application to the Hong Kong market. The model can assist in the transformation of the traditional decision-making processes of property stakeholders towards more sustainable practices, strategies and outcomes, by providing a means by which the industry can identify and rank existing buildings that have high potential for adaptive reuse. This in turn enhances Hong Kong's ability for sustainable, responsive energy and natural resource management by allowing issues regarding excessive and inappropriate resource use to be identified and assessed, and enabling appropriate management strategies to be implemented. The ARP model proposed in this paper provides, illustrated by a real case study, an important step in making better use of the facilities we already have and the residual life embedded in them.     

梵净山世界遗产提名地环境问题空间分布及整治研究

以2017年中国政府向世界遗产委员会提出的唯一世界自然遗产申报计划的梵净山为研究区,通过专家评议确定研究区环境问题类型,再以773处环境问题分布的实地调研数据为基础,运用空间分析技术和层次分析法对环境问题的空间分布及影响强度进行分析,结果表明:1)环境问题分类体系包括7个一级指标,13个二级指标;2)空间分布特征为集聚型,空间密度呈现"外疏内密"格局,空间集聚程度形成3个等级;3)生物多样性价值受到的影响强度最大,违规人类活动类问题是最突出的环境问题;4)空间分布主要受自然和人文因素影响。进一步提出相应整治策略,为我国世界遗产提名地环境整治提供借鉴。     

GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM TECHNOLOGY AND ITS APPLICATIONS IN CIVIL ENGINEERING

Geographic information system (GIS) technology is attracting interest from a broad range of civil engineering disciplines because of its potential to provide a new environment for problem solving which could lower costs, improve quality, and support multi-discipline analysis for complex projects. This paper reviews the primary components and capabilities of GIS technology and shows how it is used in many civil engineering applications, including infrastructure management, transportation, land use planning, water resources engineering, and environmental engineering.     

Land Drainage: Agricultural Benefits and Environmental Impacts

The paper reviews the context and contribution of agricultural land drainage in the UK and discusses the design and performance of land drainage improvement and maintenance schemes. The environmental impacts of land drainage are considered, and how drainage activities can be, and are being, modified to meet environmental criteria.     

Considerations for Recycling Sewage Effluent in the UK

Technical, environmental, legislative and institutional considerations in relation to effluent re-use are described, with specific reference to experiences gained through the development of a scheme to augment Essex and Suffolk Water's Hanningfield reservoir with effluent from Chelmsford sewage-treatment works. Effluent standards are driven by a number of EU directives associated with protection of fisheries, recreational water quality, eutrophication and nitrate control for designated sensitive areas, and surface-water abstraction. The selection of the most appropriate strategy for re-use needs to consider public perception issues, in addition to technical feasibility and environmental concerns.     

The Roadford Scheme: Planning, Reservoir Construction and the Environment

Roadford reservoir completes South West Water's major three reservoir strategy quadrupling storage in the region.
The paper examines how environmental issues have impacted on the scheme and demonstrates how effective planning and management can minimize effects and concerns on a major civil engineering project.
Strategy changes from river regulation to gravity water mains have given reduced environmental impact on rivers and a lowering of power costs, also giving environmental gain. The setting of strict environmental protection measures within contracts and a determined policing policy during construction have produced low levels of pollution incidents during construction.
The paper highlights the benefits of working with environmental groups to secure a successful conclusion not only of the construction element but how that construction can be blended into its local environment. Costs are identified and the authors point to the substantial public relations benefits that can be gained with the successful management of environmental issues.     

Environmental Influences on Company Valuations

The benefits accruing from good environmental management of companies are most often linked to economic benefit and the concept of moving towards sustainable development. However, the link between environmental liabilities, assets, or performance, and the financial valuation of a company remains obscure at best. Operational improvements, for example from implementing a waste minimization programme, can give a clear short-term reduction in costs, and impact immediately on profits. Many environmental risk management programmes also need to deal with long-term issues such as historical land contamination and changes in manufacturing technology. These have a much more protracted and ultimately fundamental impact on the perceived capital value and future prospects of a company. This paper seeks to describe how the relationship between environmental and financial risk management is becoming clearer, and uses examples to show how this is brought into focus during merger and acquisition activities.     

Use of iron-based technologies in contaminated land and groundwater remediation: a review

Reactions involving iron play a major role in the environmental cycling of a wide range of important organic, inorganic and radioactive contaminants. Consequently, a range of environmental clean-up technologies have been proposed or developed which utilise iron chemistry to remediate contaminated land and surface and subsurface waters, e.g. the use of injected zero zero-valent iron nanoparticles to remediate organic contaminant plumes; the generation of iron oxyhydroxide-based substrates for arsenic removal from contaminated waters; etc. This paper reviews some of the latest iron-based technologies in contaminated land and groundwater remediation, their current state of development, and their potential applications and limitations.     

Integrating decision tools for the sustainable management of land contamination

The approach to taking decisions on the management of land contamination has changed markedly over 30 years. Change has been rapid with policy makers and regulators, practitioners and researchers having to keep pace with new technologies, assessment criteria and diagnostic methods for their measurement, techniques for risk analysis and the frameworks that support decision-makers in their efforts to regenerate historically contaminated land. Having progressed from simple hazard assessment through to 'sustainability appraisal' we might now consider piecing together the experience of decision-making for managing land contamination. Here, we critically review recent developments with a view to considering how better decisions can be made by integrating the decision tools available. We are concerned with the practicality of approach and the issues that arise for practitioners as decision criteria are broadened.     

Owner organizations’ value-creation strategies through environmental certification of buildings

The existing literature (mostly referencing heuristics of the valuation profession) provides little evidence on how property owners and managers themselves perceive value creation from environmental certification (EC) of buildings. To address this issue, questionnaire and interview data from non-residential EC building owners in Sweden are gathered and related in a ‘strategy map’ that explains their perceived value creation from EC. The mapping process also considers the four standard perspectives of the balanced scorecard, prompting researchers and owners to evaluate EC in terms of its contribution to long-term strategy, measuring it according to financial and non-financial metrics of organizational performance. The study confirmed that tenant demand is an important EC driver for property owners (particularly for large organizations) and therefore that increased EC awareness amongst tenants is important for EC and for further value creation. It was found that tool developers, property owners and valuers could all benefit from more closely aligning valuers’ documentation requirements with those for accreditation with EC tools. Energy efficiency contributes significantly to value creation, but owners use energy management programs in addition to EC, possibly as a result of the performance gap phenomenon.     

Land Use Planning for Seismic Safety: The Los Angeles County Experience, 1971–1994

The 1971 San Fernando Earthquake increased the level of seismic safety concern by local, state, and federal government agencies, and it catalyzed numerous policy changes by all three levels of government. New demands were placed on local planning and building departments to consider the seismic safety implications of their decisions. This article reports on research that describes how several southern California jurisdictions implemented these requirements and evaluates their success as tested by the 1994 North-ridge Earthquake. The research found that seismic hazard information generally has not affected decisions on location, type, or intensity of land uses unless coupled with other concerns. Seismic safety policies, however, have created an environment in which it is easier to implement engineering initiatives, such as building codes or hazard abatement.     

Towards Zero Carbon Homes in England? From Inception to Partial Implementation

In 2007, the UK Government announced an ambitious zero-carbon target for all new housing in England. This paper shows how the definition and its associated policies emerged from discourses of environmental policy innovation; how the problem subsequently became framed as one of mainstreaming, consequent upon the apparent success of experimental schemes and defined in more detail through the interaction between pressure group politics and the technical analyses that accompanied the government's consultation exercises. Finally, it shows how regional and local variations in housing and property markets are likely to influence the ease of zero carbon development. The analysis uses concepts drawn from both the science and technology literature and the literature on policy implementation.