A Shift Towards Landscape-Scale Approaches in Compensation - Suitable Mechanisms and Open Questions

ABSTRACT

Landscape-scale mitigation approaches reflect a shift from a project-by-project approach to more strategic planning by applying the mitigation hierarchy – avoidance, minimization, compensation – for impacts on natural resources on a larger scale. This paper discusses requirements for the implementation of landscape-scale mitigation approaches in general. It continues with a criteria-based analysis of compensation mechanism under the Endangered Species Act – conservation banks, in-lieu fees, and permittee-responsible mitigation – to determine which mechanism best meets these requirements. Findings show that, in theory, conservation banks are best-suited to implement landscape-scale compensation. However, evidence for claimed benefits of third-party mitigation and large-scale mitigation approaches is lacking. The article concludes by identifying a number of open questions in the field.     

Strategic environmental assessment in Romania: between benefits and constraints

This paper offers an overall picture of the importance of Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) in Romania and its opportunities and constraints. The role, scope and effectiveness of SEA in Romania are presented in two good practice examples and examined in order to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the procedure at national and local scale. In practice, the number of SEA procedures is very high due to the legislation in force, and it is increasingly effective in decision-making about programmes and plans. SEA can be viewed as a great opportunity for the implementation of sustainable development in practice. It also continues to be an important procedural and decisional instrument for management and monitoring of socioeconomic development, spatial planning and environmental protection in Romania.     

Biodiversity offsets in South Africa – challenges and potential solutions

South Africa has a decade of experience designing and implementing biodiversity offsets. In the absence of explicit national policy on biodiversity offsets, the country has relied on existing legal provisions in environmental law as the basis for offset requirements, supported by provincial guidelines. South Africa’s periodic national biodiversity surveys provide scientifically rigorous quantification and mapping for individual ecosystems and finer scale surveys identify biodiversity priority areas, primed as ‘offset receiving areas’. Yet despite enabling factors the use of offsets has frequently been inadequate to deliver intended biodiversity outcomes. Challenges include: (a) the absence of national policy to drive and shape offset implementation; (b) insufficient capacity to evaluate, design and implement offsets; (c) inconsistent decision-making; (d) problems establishing sustainable financing mechanisms; and (e) inadequate enforcement and monitoring, linked to poor drafting of licencing conditions and/or insufficient capacity to monitor implementation. South Africa’s experience provides valuable insights into the challenges and potential solutions for making offsets work for biodiversity conservation and offers important lessons for the development and implementation of biodiversity offsetting in other developing countries.     

Towards a contingency theory of collaborative planning initiatives in supply networks

In recent years there has been increased interest in supply chain (SC) collaboration, as a process that promotes inter-company co-operation in different business areas. This paper focuses on collaborative planning initiatives adopted to support demand and supply planning in supply networks. Since companies implement several different forms of collaborative planning initiatives, this paper intends to examine the relevant contingency effects that lead firms to choose a precise collaborative planning initiative. Ten cases were analysed to investigate the research question. Results found indicate that specific contextual conditions – i.e. goals of the collaboration, demand elasticity, product diversity and supply network spatial complexity – can affect the level of the collaboration in collaborative planning initiatives. Three different levels of collaboration are identified (i.e. communication, limited collaboration and full collaboration) – depending on the level of integration (i.e. whether companies simply exchange data/information, or synchronise and jointly decide their plans) and multiplexity (i.e. the number of business areas involved in the collaboration). It emerges that, while the goals of the collaboration influence the level of integration between companies; the elasticity of demand can determine the level of multiplexity. Furthermore, the research found that product diversity (i.e. whether companies sell different products) and a high supply network spatial complexity could limit the level of multiplexity in the collaboration.     

Ecological compensation: an evaluation of regulatory compliance in New Zealand

Ecological compensation is an example of a trade-off whereby loss of natural values is remedied or offset by a corresponding compensatory action on the same site or elsewhere, determined through the process of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). Ecological compensation actions are often criticised for having low levels of compliance: meaning that they are achieved only partially or not at all, while development activity proceeds with much greater certainty. Our research investigated compliance with 245 conditions relating to ecological compensation across 81 case studies across New Zealand under the Resource Management Act 1991. Our results show that present tools and practice in New Zealand are not adequately securing the necessary benefits from ecological compensation requirements, with 35.2% of requirements not being achieved. Significant variation in non-compliance with ecological compensation occurs between different activities, applicant types and condition types, while critical variables within the planning process influence levels of compliance. Our research demonstrates the importance of understanding the nature of non-compliance and of providing a consistent and robust decision-making framework for the consideration of ecological compensation in practice.     

Assessing economic impacts of forced land acquisition and displacement: a qualitative rapid research framework

The healthy functioning of ecosystems is fundamental to human wellbeing, but sustainable development policies have failed to reverse global decline in biodiversity and ecosystem services. Accepting loss of biodiversity as a tradeoff for socio-economic gains means that the global ecological deficit continues to grow, with attendant risks for human wellbeing. While impact assessment has become more effective at identifying potential impacts on biodiversity, it has generally retained a ‘damage limitation’ focus, rather than striving to sustain, or even enhance, important biodiversity and ecosystem services. This paper recommends changes in how biodiversity is addressed in impact assessment to avoid increasing the ecological deficit. It considers whether, and how, integration of biodiversity offsets, namely measurable conservation outcomes to compensate for significant residual loss of biodiversity, can achieve ‘no net loss’ outcomes for biodiversity. It also reviews some of the implementation challenges. These challenges include obtaining the information needed to assess impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services at appropriate spatial and temporal scales, and recognizing when impacts might be impossible to offset or compensate in practice, thus setting limits to tradeoffs.     

Towards automatic generation of plans for automated assembly

The present CAD/CAM systems still lack the appropriate CAE component that would allow more efficient assembly planning in the effort to integrate the product design, assembly system design, assembly device programming and assembly execution. The problem is related to both the complexity and incompleteness of the planning methodology, and the lack of the algorithmized planning elements. The previous explorations often concentrated on particular planning elements such as assembly sequence, neglecting the urge of integral and a more general approach. Furthermore, they sometimes pose tedious requirements on the user, causing him/her to focus more on the planning method than on the planning goal. The paper presents a CAD-based prototyping system for the generation of plans for automated assembly. It uses many relevant well-established concepts in the assembly planning field and proposes a few new ones (especially regarding assembly process space structuring), trying to achieve the highest possible level of automation, and to highlight the problems of computer implementation of the planning knowledge. A mechanical product to be assembled is, at first, a CAD modelled assembled product. After that, the planning elements such as assembly sequence, assembly paths and parts positions of disassembled product are defined, providing the basis for assembly device design and assembly execution.     

新发展格局下自然资源与国土空间规划标准化工作思考

标准化工作是保障和引领生态文明新时代自然资源与国土空间治理的有效手段。本文通过分析自然资源部组建以来,自然资源与国土空间规划标准化工作取得的积极成效,以及存在的标准供需不平衡不充分、信息化和国际化程度不高等问题,提出需要按照高质量发展、高水平治理的要求,加强自然资源与国土空间规划领域标准化工作的顶层设计,注重基础能力建设,优化工作程序,强化标准实施监督,提升信息化和国际化水平,为推进自然资源治理体系和治理能力现代化发挥基础性和战略性作用。     

Material requirements planning in hierarchical production planning systems

Material requirements planning (MRP) is a way to develop the time phased material and other resource requirements to satisfy the needs of a master production schedule. Hierarchical production planning (HPP) is a framework for analysis and decision making in complex production environments. They are complementary approaches to the decision support system needs of multi-stage production systems. The hierarchical approach provides for efficient management review of proposed plans at corporate, plant, and shop levels while MRP provides a sound and detailed basis for understanding the implications of proposed plans and for executing the selected plan. The relationships between these two approaches are illustrated with an example application.     

Demand Driven MRP: assessment of a new approach to materials management

Demand driven material requirements planning or DDMRP is a recent and promising material management method that has been developed and implemented in the practitioner world. Essentially, DDMRP represents a rethinking of the basic MRP logic. By incorporating elements drawn from Lean Systems and the Theory of Constraints and by introducing new features such as dynamic buffers, DDMRP modifies the basic MRP logic so that it is better able to satisfy customer demands in an increasingly demanding, turbulent and dynamic environment. Claims have been made by firms that DDMRP represents a superior planning approach. In this paper, we introduce and explore DDMRP. In addition, we evaluate its effectiveness relative to two other widely accepted approaches – MRP II and Kanban/Lean production – through a series of structured computer simulation experiments. The results strongly indicate that DDMRP does represent a superior approach – one that warrants further academic study.     

Strategic environmental assessment in coastal zones,especially Australia's

Intense resource use and development pressure on the world's coastal zone has prompted international calls for integrated coastal management programmes. Associated with increasing coastal development has been the uncoordinated use of project-based environmental impact assessment (EIA) applied to individual coastal projects. In Australia, there is a complexity of different pieces of EIA legislation at federal and state level, and little enthusiasm to adopt the more recently developed formal strategic environmental assessment (SEA) of policies, programmes and plans. Australian coastal management has a parallel complexity of state-level legislation, although day-to-day decisions are mostly taken by local coastal managers. This paper illustrates the inadequacy of project-based EIA for coastal developments with generic environmental issues, and gives an Australian example of an SEA approach to overcome these problems.     

Cycle time-oriented mid-term production planning for semiconductor wafer fabrication

Wafers are produced in an environment with uncertain demand and failure-prone machines. Production planners have to react to changes of both machine availability and target output, and revise plans appropriately. The scientific community mostly proposes WIP-oriented mid-term production planning to solve this problem. In such approaches, production is planned by defining targets for throughput rates and buffer levels of selected operations. In industrial practice, however, cycle time-oriented planning is often preferred over WIP-oriented planning. We therefore propose a new linear programming formulation, which facilitates cycle time-oriented mid-term production planning in wafer fabrication. This approach plans production by defining release quantities and target cycle times up to selected operations. It allows a seamless integration with the subordinate scheduling level. Here, least slack first scheduling translates target cycle times into lot priorities. We evaluate our new methodology in a comprehensive simulation study. The results suggest that cycle time-oriented mid-term production planning can both increase service level and reduce cycle time compared to WIP-oriented planning. Further, it requires less modelling effort and generates plans, which are easier to comprehend by human planners.     

Developing environmental management systems to deliver mitigation and protect the EIA process during follow up

Developmental projects are dynamic in the manner in which proponents react to issues or events arising during the conceptual planning, design or construction phases. The basic challenge of integrating environmental impact assessment (EIA) into an existing environmental management system (EMS) is to provide adequate control while allowing flexibility to cope with site-specific project requirements. Environmental management plans (EMP) are one way of controlling the environmental effects of construction projects. These contain project-specific protocols that act as an EMS interface between the EIA and subsequent project planning and development phases. This paper developed from the EIA follow-up session of IAIA 2001 in Cartagena, Columbia outlines the framework for an EMP and its application in respect of the development of an electrical infrastructure project within the UK.     

Data standards are back seat drivers! Methodology for incorporating information quality into quality assurance project plans.

Quality assurance project plans for environmental data collections consider user requirements for the measurements and express these in the form of data quality objectives. User requirements now may include capture of measurements and associated information in prescribed formats to facilitate entry into computerized information systems. Establishing ahead of time that the data requirements may be an important "back seat driver" for an environmental collection effort can save considerable resources for an organization. Also, the planning may need to accommodate unique requirements associated with the entry of data into data collection systems.     

Avoiding sustainability trade-offs in environmental assessment

Progress towards sustainability requires positive steps to meet all of the interdependent core requirements for sustainability – including biophysical system integrity and basic human well-being. Where these essentials are involved trade-offs should be avoided, unless all other options are worse. In environmental assessments, it is useful to identify major trade-offs and minimize them through selection of less bad alternatives or addition of mitigations or offsets. However, the more promising approach starts earlier and encourages planning that avoids invidious trade-offs, including through re-consideration of the initial purposes and alternatives.

This paper considers two historical cases of assessments that avoided significant trade-offs through processes that gave mandatory attention to purposes and alternatives, covered the full suite of sustainability considerations, empowered citizen participants and facilitated the bumping of cases up to a more strategic level where broader alternatives offered better trade-off avoidance. These long-advocated assessment design elements are still rarely applied as a full package in existing environmental assessment law and practice. Commitment to trade-off avoidance adds to the reasons for their general adoption.     

Current practice in biodiversity impact assessment and prospects for developing an integrated process

Irish guidance for Integrated Biodiversity Impact Assessment provides a methodological approach for integrating impact assessment requirements, with regard to biodiversity, under EU and Irish legislation. Preparation of the guidance was supported by extensive consultation, including international and national surveys. These offered insights into the issues affecting the treatment of biodiversity in impact assessment practice as well as expert opinion on factors affecting and supporting the development of a more integrated and adaptive approach. This paper contrasts the international literature with the consultation feedback. Among other aspects, the results highlight the requirement for an improved application of evidence-based assessment techniques, continuity in monitoring, enhanced information exchange between scientists, assessors and proponents, as well as increased awareness amongst stakeholders for inclusion of appropriate biodiversity protection objectives and mitigation in final planning decisions. Comparative analysis of results indicates that current practice is characterized by limited information exchange and the use of in-house databases in assessments. A central spatial data repository is identified as key for quantitatively assessing (cumulative) effects through Geographic Information Systems, and thus supporting evidence-informed decision-making towards biodiversity conservation.     

Road network safety evaluation using Bayesian hierarchical joint model

Safety and efficiency are commonly regarded as two significant performance indicators of transportation systems. In practice, road network planning has focused on road capacity and transport efficiency whereas the safety level of a road network has received little attention in the planning stage. This study develops a Bayesian hierarchical joint model for road network safety evaluation to help planners take traffic safety into account when planning a road network. The proposed model establishes relationships between road network risk and micro-level variables related to road entities and traffic volume, as well as socioeconomic, trip generation and network density variables at macro level which are generally used for long term transportation plans. In addition, network spatial correlation between intersections and their connected road segments is also considered in the model.A road network is elaborately selected in order to compare the proposed hierarchical joint model with a previous joint model and a negative binomial model. According to the results of the model comparison, the hierarchical joint model outperforms the joint model and negative binomial model in terms of the goodness-of-fit and predictive performance, which indicates the reasonableness of considering the hierarchical data structure in crash prediction and analysis. Moreover, both random effects at the TAZ level and the spatial correlation between intersections and their adjacent segments are found to be significant, supporting the employment of the hierarchical joint model as an alternative in road-network-level safety modeling as well.     

Towards a better understanding of SEA effectiveness in Ireland

The first review of strategic environmental assessment (SEA) effectiveness in Ireland examined how a number of selected case studies performed procedurally. The findings pointed not only to deficiencies in the consideration of alternatives, monitoring and SEA Statements, but also in its capability to lead to more informed and sustainable decisions. Six years on from that review, this paper revisits some of the case studies and appraises non-procedural effectiveness via stakeholder interviews to obtain a more comprehensive account of SEA effectiveness across the life of the reviewed plans. The case studies illustrate a general openness to SEA. Overall, consulted experts agreed that SEA contributes significant knowledge to planning decisions. SEA iterations tend to be more efficient as a result of learning; in some cases, the process led to internal organisational restructuring, facilitating better environmental integration in subsequent plans. There is limited implementation of monitoring across the case studies, so while the review points to positive outcomes of SEA (e.g. new data and knowledge, mitigation by avoidance), it remains to be evidenced whether it ultimately prevents adverse environmental effects.     

Towards self-adaptive production systems: Modular generic simulation models for continuous replanning and reconfiguration

Changing factors within markets, such as continually shortening product life cycles, increasing competition due to shorter development and order processing times, manufacturing in intercompany networks and the individualization of customer needs, create new requirements that manufacturing organizations are expected to fulfil. To be successful, manufacturing organizations and business processes have to be transformable to cope with these environmental changes. That is why the creation and implementation of self-adaptive production systems represent one vision of the near future. A first step to self-adaptive production systems is the transition from a non-recurring, static planning and operation cycle to a continuous replanning and reconfiguration of work systems, supported by new planning methods and tools. Starting with a definition of self-adaptive production systems, the requirements for planning support systems for a continuous reconfiguration and replanning are derived. The paper also presents a solution for an integrated planning tool based on object-oriented, generic simulation models. The architecture and planning procedure are described in detail. The paper finally shows the first test results of the implemented prototype.