A complex nature conservation scheme has been taking shape in China since 1965. After the first national park made its debut in 2007 in Yunnan Province in southwest China, the gap between this new model and existing conservation tools became apparent. This article attempts to analyze the degree to which a model of national parks can contribute to and remedy the defects within the existing nature conservation scheme in China, and to reveal the obstacles that impede the national parks from reaching their full potential. These are main findings of this report: (a) The model of the national park has not fully delivered the desirable outcome that its initiators had anticipated (i.e., a more effective balance between conservation and use of natural resources). (b) A gap exists between national parks envisioned and national parks in practice in terms of objectives, institutional capacity, community development, and legislation. (c) The new model does not fundamentally solve the existing problems, such as the funding shortage, overlapping authorities, and implementation deficiencies; rather, it has revealed new problems, such as central-local conflicts. (d) The obstacles that national parks face are foreseeable, such as the adverse effects of tourism and economic pressure on nature conservation, the constrained role of nongovernmental organizations, and the government bureaucratic structure in China. (e) The legality of the national parks has been challenged, and conflicts have arisen between legislation on national parks and superordinate law existing in terms of the rezoning within national parks.

Environmental Practice 15:293–312 (2013)

In recognition of the limitations of strict, objective, instrumental decision making, government agencies, businesses, communities, and environmental groups are beginning to use concepts of participatory democracy and social learning in planning and decision-making processes. Information and power are shared among affected interests so that decisions can be reached that are supported by all parties to the process. This collaboration engages parties in mutual planning and decision making. Providing a forum for discussion that permits diverse points of view to be aired leads to joint problem solving. An open dialogue can demonstrate that opposing parties may actually share certain interests. In an effort to determine some characteristics and common threads in collaborative planning and decision making, this study examined 76 cases of environmental management described as involving overlapping or competing interests. Many of the reviewed case studies offered evidence that the following basic elements of collaboration were included: the establishment of a formal organization, the sharing of information among all participants, the open discussion of all matters by all participants, and the sharing of power among all participants. Organization formation (86% of the cases) and information sharing (80%) appear to be fundamental to collaborative planning and decision making. However, power sharing (65%) and open discussions (54%) were indicated in fewer cases and are likely to be more difficult to achieve.

For climate stabilization, the United States (US) will need to cut its transportation carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 60%–80% by 2050. As we cannot accomplish this reduction through vehicle and fuel technology alone, the environmental and transportation communities are focusing on strategies to reduce growth in vehicle miles traveled (VMT), reversing recent trends. The majority of recent VMT growth is due, not to population growth, but to the effects of urban environment, such as increased auto ownership, longer trips, and driving alone. The US Department of Energy forecasts that driving will continue to increase at almost threefold the growth in population. Even under the most stringent vehicle and fuel standards, transportation-related CO2 emissions will be 40% above the target level. In response, climate-change legislation has been passed in California and is pending in other states and in the US Congress that places strict new requirements on mandated environmental impact documentation. One limitation on compliance has been the lack of a unified set of scientific information on the underlying relationships between development form and VMT generation. This article distills and reconciles various forms of prior research on the subject, producing a unified quantitative understanding of the mechanisms that relate urban development forms with VMT and CO2. The findings will help improve the insightfulness and accuracy of the next generation of environmental documents. The article provides results of research and planning studies from throughout the US that indicate the degree to which developments with higher densities, mix of uses, accessible destinations, and interconnected streets reduce vehicle trips and VMT. Sources include regional blueprint studies, as well as project-specific studies such as Atlanta's Atlantic Station development, whose predicted trip reduction was found to be so compelling that the development was deemed a transportation control measure and air quality benefit by the Environmental Protection Agency and Federal Highway Administration. The article identifies the emerging practices in transportation impact analysis for assessing the degree to which the characteristics of development can reduce VMT and carbon impacts. It presents the empirical evidence of how vehicle travel is affected by density, diversity, walkability, regional accessibility, and distance from transit. It also reviews tools that transportation planners and analysts have available to capture these effects, including simple elasticities and new trip generation rates under consideration by the Institute of Transportation Engineers.

Environmental Practice 11:196–208 (2009)

From the time it appeared in the 1978 regulations implementing the United States' National Environmental Policy Act, agencies have struggled with the concept of cumulative impacts in their environmental analyses. Although the regulations touch on every aspect of environmental impact analysis, they merely define cumulative impacts and then refer to them only in other definitions in the Terminology section. Agencies have become fairly adept at analyzing direct and indirect effects, but cumulative impacts have posed more difficult methodological problems, giving rise to a host of legal challenges. The courts have attempted to sort out what is required for adequate cumulative impact analysis, causing agencies to reactively develop agency-specific, and often complex, methodologies. This article relates the basic concepts of cumulative impact assessment to emerging case law, focusing on US federal land management issues. From this basis, it proposes a novel approach to cumulative effects analysis that (1) uses the doctrine of proximate cause from tort law to ensure that there is a reasonable probability that a proposal will affect a resource of concern before undertaking analysis of other effects on that resource, and (2) uses the No Action Alternative's trajectory of resource conditions (which incorporates the effects of other past, present, and reasonably foreseeable future actions) as the baseline for assessing an action's incremental effects. The proposed six-step process integrates effects analysis by describing the overall effects of the No Action Alternative, altered by an action's direct and indirect (or incremental) effects, as the cumulative effect on a particular resource of concern.

Environmental Practice 10:107–115 (2008)

In light of the potential need for disinfection and nutrient removal at the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago's water reclamation plants (WRPs), the inhibitory effects of ferric chloride (FeCl3) on ultraviolet (UV) radiation disinfection was examined. Results of a 2007 preliminary study indicated that a 2-log reduction in fecal coliform (FC) concentrations for each WRP secondary effluent was achieved with a UV dose of 10 mJ/cm2 except for the John E. Egan (Egan) WRP, where FeCl3 addition in the aeration basin for phosphorus removal was being employed. A subsequent study examined the effect of Egan unfiltered (secondary) and filtered (final) effluent on UV disinfection in 2008 during FeCl3 application and 2009 upon cessation of FeCl3 application: FeCl3 addition and filtration had little effect on UV transmittance (UVT). However, with FeCl3 addition, secondary and final effluent had higher total iron and lower total phosphorus relative to the respective secondary and final effluent without FeCl3 addition. Final effluent with and without FeCl3 addition showed lower total suspended solids concentrations relative to secondary effluent. Collimated beam test results indicated that a higher UV dose was needed to achieve the desired log reductions with FeCl3 addition and secondary effluent. Therefore, filtration of the effluent may be required if FeCl3 addition for nutrient removal is used at WRPs that employ UV disinfection.

Environmental Practice 12:275–284 (2010)

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) has been hailed as one of the most successful environmental statutes ever written, and has been used as a model for environmental stewardship throughout the world. One of the primary objectives of this act is to provide citizens with a voice in governmental decisions. However, recent efforts to make the NEPA process more efficient, less costly, and less time-consuming threaten to undermine achievements in public participation and participatory policy making gained during the last 30 years. This article examines public participation under NEPA and demonstrates that the recent rise in the use of the Environmental Assessment (EA) as the primary document for NEPA compliance, and the corresponding decrease in the use of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), is due to efforts to streamline NEPA as part of the overall movement to reinvent government. The article examines recent trends in NEPA implementation and public involvement requirements for EISs and EAs, and concludes that the increased use of Environmental Assessments significantly limits the public's ability to respond to environmental impacts caused by federal actions, thereby damaging one of the most effective vehicles for citizen participation in government. Finally recommendations are provided to increase opportunities for public involvement in the EA process without sacrificing improvements in efficiency.

Many successful residential and other redevelopments have appeared at individual brownfield sites, yet the larger transformation of mixed-use urban neighborhoods distressed with numerous smaller, less marketable contaminated sites remains elusive. In this article, we discuss the use of three innovative mechanisms to move beyond a single parcel's boundaries to address larger-scale regeneration of contaminated areas: areawide brownfield approaches, community land trusts, and progressive financing. In addition to their conceptual appeal, each of these mechanisms has a record of implementation. For instance, community land trusts have helped revitalize communities burdened with contamination and other stresses for the benefit of lower-income and moderate-income residents, most notably in the context of affordable housing. Areawide brownfield initiatives under way in several states and municipalities have helped decrease environmental assessment costs through economies of scale. And progressive finance, although not yet applied in a contaminated-land context, has shown success in revitalizing distressed urban cores.

Environmental Practice 11:134–143 (2009)

On December 31, 2009, President Barack Obama proclaimed the 40th anniversary of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA), a landmark “conservation” law. During this 40-year period, NEPA has been hailed as a champion of American “environmental rights” and criticized as an obstacle to economic progress. In the view of some critics, NEPA uselessly exploits private and public time and resources. It is remarkable that NEPA, although battered and worn, has survived virtually intact for four decades. This article is not a “how to” dissertation containing new or revised prescriptions for preparing defendable environmental impact statements (EISs), environmental assessments (EAs), and other action-forcing documents prepared by federal agencies. It is not a recitation of main provisions in the NEPA [National Environmental Policy Act of 1969] with which most readers are familiar. Instead, it selects 10 of a plethora of problems blockading responsible NEPA process implementation: seven historic and persistent and three new or emerging. This selection is by no means an all-inclusive list. Finally, the article reviews NEPA's development and looks to some future steps that might be taken to implement NEPA as its founders intended.

Environmental Practice 13:235–249 (2011)

The United States courts are increasingly requiring federal decision-makers to assess greenhouse gas emissions of proposed actions in National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) analyses. With respect to NEPA, the cumulative effect of a proposal must be assessed in reaching a determination regarding the significance of its environmental impact. Analysis of cumulative impacts is one of NEPA's most challenging requirements. The problem of assessing cumulative greenhouse gas emission (GHG) impacts under NEPA is one of the thorniest in American environmental law and poses perhaps the most significant challenge to NEPA's regulatory framework in decades. A strict regulatory interpretation of “significance” can also lead to a paradox (Eccleston's Cumulative Impact Paradox), when one considers how the environment appeared before the intervention of human activities. A Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI), by its very definition, states that an action will not have a significant effect, including a cumulatively significant effect. Because the global GHG concentration is generally considered to have already breached a cumulatively significant level (i.e., cumulatively significant impact), the assessment of proposals that emit even innocuous levels of GHGs can become a paradoxical effort. Specifically, a logical paradox arises in which many, if not most, federal activities should require preparation of an environmental impact statement (EIS) because they are technically ineligible for a FONSI. A strict interpretation of “significance” leads to such a conclusion, even in cases where the direct and indirect impacts of a relatively ‘small’ proposed activity may be finite but essentially innocuous. As described in this article, NEPA practitioners and decision-makers are beginning to appreciate the implications of this Cumulative Impact Paradox. This paradox must be resolved, if the analysis of cumulative GHG emissions is to contribute in a meaningful way to federal decision making.

Environmental Practice 12:105–115 (2010)

This article outlines the current literature regarding anthropogenic inputs of nutrients and microorganisms into the coastal oceans. The concern about nutrients and microorganisms in coastal marine waters is that they may cause a shift in local populations of organisms and encourage invasive algae and coral diseases. The lack of baseline data on marine populations makes it difficult to determine the source of marine population shifts. This report focuses on the question of whether there is sufficient data to implicate coastal ocean outfall discharges of secondary treated wastewater effluent in southeast Florida as a causative agent in impacts to coastal communities. The literature does not appear to support evidence of population shifts from any particular source.

Environmental Practice 12:285–303 (2010)

Many communities contain a number of underutilized and contaminated infill properties, known as brownfields, which often result from changing development patterns. Florida's program offers incentives, such as liability protection and tax credits, for job creation and cleanup costs in order to alleviate this problem. Although the program has continuously expanded, after more then ten years little research has been conducted evaluating the program's effectiveness. In this article, I review the relevant literature and interview stakeholders to evaluate the program. Although little empirical evidence exists, Florida's program is largely considered successful. An increasing number of areas are designated, cleanup agreements are signed, and properties are cleaned and redeveloped. I have narrowed down a number of ideas that will help promote local brownfield programs as well as policy recommendations that would increase the effectiveness of state programs. Specifically, I have isolated a number of factors existing on the local level that promote brownfield development, including infill demand, access to funding, trained staff, experienced developers and consultants, political and community support, and land use/zoning intensity. Although every program would benefit from increased funding, greater consistency in review, and more research and information, I recommend several development policies that would promote brownfield development, such as a state policy and amended planning requirements. Through these changes targeted at the local and state levels, I believe that brownfield redevelopment could reach a new level of achievement.

Environmental Practice 11:153–163 (2009)

The extension of surfactant-based technologies for use in remediation of mercuric ion [Hg(II)]-impacted soils and ground-waters was explored. In concept, a target metal ion can be selectively sequestered and mobilized from the subsurface by a ligand solubilized in surfactant solution. The selected ligand, 1-decyl-2-thiourea (DTU), was used in this study due to its extremely high selectivity for Hg2+ and its compatibility with micellar solubilization. In batch semiequilibrium dialysis studies using a mixture of 0.3 mM DTU and 30 mM cetylpyridinium nitrate (a cationic surfactant), 99.8% of applied Hg(II) (0.1 mM) was retained, thus demonstrating the effectiveness of this ligand-surfactant system for separating the mobile contaminant from the waste stream. Isolation of the target metal ion from the complex is desirable to allow for ligand and surfactant reuse. As a function of the ligand type, this can be achieved by precipitation, pH stripping, or ligand-ligand exchange. In theory, for DTU, Hg(ll) removal can be done at an elevated pH by formation of a soluble mercury-hydroxide complex, which would pass a secondary ultrafiltration stage, allowing retention and reuse of the ligand-surfactant colloid. While only batch studies were conducted for this feasibility study, the possibility of utilizing flow-through ultrafiltration units coupled with contaminant isolation steps in pump-and-treat field applications is discussed.

In China, water shortage and water pollution are pronounced challenges. The limited water resources are poorly managed. Despite a lack of water, China is committed to being food self-sufficient, which requires extensive irrigation. The paradoxical ambitions of reducing water shortage and promoting food self-sufficiency are supported by technological innovation and costly engineering projects. Yet, these attempts will ultimately fail to bridge the gap between water demand and supply. China's continued economic growth presents difficult problems and new prospects in the context of water and food security. On one hand, a growing number of wealthier, urban Chinese consumers are demanding water-intensive food products, which cannot be sustainably produced in China in light of heavy irrigation requirements and continued population growth. On the other hand, the economic growth opens a window of opportunity for China to include virtual water trade as a component of its water policies. China is reluctant to embrace this trade because it perceives it to have a negative effect on its national security. It appears that China's security axis must shift. It cannot maintain its growing population and economy while preserving current levels of water, food, and national security simultaneously. A policy change is needed. It is argued, therefore, that the policy relevance of virtual water trade must be addressed, and the water shortage–induced imperative of food imports must be given appropriate attention.

Environmental Practice 15:253–261 (2013)

Climate change has quickly emerged as one of the hottest topics in NEPA (the National Environmental Policy Act) analysis. Analysis of climate change impacts in NEPA documents is a fairly recent development; many NEPA documents today contain no such analysis. Although a few federal agencies have addressed greenhouse gas emissions and related climate change impacts in documents for some time, such analyses have been historically atypical. The recent widespread media attention on climate change, however, coupled with a substantial increase in litigation focusing on climate change impact analysis in NEPA documents, has driven a rapid rise in interest over how to incorporate such analysis into NEPA analyses. This article is part one of a two-part series, briefly describing the context for considering climate change in NEPA analyses and reviewing the case law and other legal developments centered on NEPA climate change. Part two, to appear in a subsequent issue of Environmental Practice, will discuss methodological approaches, analysis techniques, and mitigation measures for addressing climate change in NEPA analyses.

This paper describes seven institutional problems that plague subnational public sector environmental decision making. These problems are: (1) turnover among decision process participants, (2) difficulties in building and maintaining expertise in government, (3) lack of credibility of participants in environmental decision making processes, (4) difficult relationships between government and the public, (5) difficult relationships among state/regional/federal governments, (6) lack of institutional support for decision makers, and (7) difficulties in making decisions under high degrees of uncertainty. These findings were drawn through extensive and intensive interactions with people engaged in environmental decision making through their roles in government, the private sector, and the nonprofit sector. It can be argued that these types of institutional problems now overwhelm other factors traditionally thought to be worse plagues upon environmental decision making, such as lack of scientific data and deficient decision making models. It can also be argued that with respect to the general practice of public administration, institutional issues associated with environmental decision making may pose the most significant challenges of all public policy issues because these problems entail scales of political, technical, ethical, and decision making complexities unmatched in other areas. Several recommendations for overcoming these problems are provided, including solutions related to pay, training, evaluation, and information technology.

Climate change knowledge and risk perceptions were examined in farming communities in Southern Ethiopia. Based on multistage probability sampling, data were collected from 2,188 respondents. Most respondents (80%) were concerned about risk of climate change. Variables that predicted knowledge and risk perception for both men and women were frequency of listening to the radio, household size, agroclimatic zone, and educational status. Additionally, age, household wealth, and social institution membership were predictive for women, and frequency of newspaper reading was predictive for men. The high levels of risk perception suggest receptiveness to context-appropriate strategies to reduce potential long-term vulnerability.

Environmental Practice 16: 29–36 (2014)