Suchergebnisse

Recent evidence of widespread environmental degradation and global changes resulting from human activities have revived a debate about the sustainability of the progress of human welfare that began at least 200 years ago. In this renewed debate, the seriousness and causes of environmental degradation are subject to widely divergent interpretations. There are many conceivable sustainable futures; the most important differences among them are not technical but political and ideological. The practice of environmental planning is concerned with a wide variety of contexts and situations at the human-environment interface. Because land use is at the root of many of the problems of environmental degradation (e.g., habitat destruction, air pollution, water pollution), land use planning is an appropriate focus for consideration of the role of environmental planning in sustainable development. Planning as a profession, with its inherent future orientation and focus on public values, is well situated to deal with the kinds of problems raised in the discourse regarding sustainability. Examination of mainstream land use planning practices, however, reveals a reactive, reformist incrementalism that responds to environmental degradation caused by growth, but that addresses neither its causes nor its dynamics. Mainstream land use planning approaches have attempted to resolve conflicts between development and environment through spatial solutions at various scales. The need to plan for ecological sustainability is difficult to reconcile with the democratic ideal of local self-determination. Many alternative approaches to land use planning for sustainable development focus on design solutions. The requirements of sustainability are not merely technical, however. There are both emancipatory possibilities and their opposite in sustainability. Implementing sustainability offers planners a number of choices. They can act as mediators, demystifyers of technical information, exposers of hidden ideological assumptions, and advocates. They can strengthen existing authority, or work towards an enlightened self-determination at the local level. ; Ph. D.

This volume in the Greenwood Guides to Biomes of the World: series covers the freshwater biomes that exist in wetlands, ponds and lakes, and rivers and streams, examining all aspects that define these biomes: Vegetation, Geographical Distribution, Challenges posed by the environment, Adaptation of the plants and animals to the environment.

Contract No. HEW-105-78-1101. ; Issued Aug. 1980. ; Bibliography: p. 8-9. ; Mode of access: Internet.

Purpose
The purpose of this study was to determine whether, and how, electricity consumption by students in university residence halls were impacted through three intervention strategies.


Design/methodology/approach
The current investigation uses a quasi-experimental design by exposing freshman students in four matched residence halls and the use of three different interventions designed to encourage energy conservation, specifically electricity conservation. A control residence hall received no intervention. One residence hall had an energy dashboard prominently displayed. Another received various communications and programming designed to raise awareness of the need for energy conservation. A fourth residence hall had an energy dashboard and received programming. Electricity consumption among the residence halls was compared using multivariate analysis.


Findings
Students in all residence halls receiving interventions demonstrated significantly lower electricity consumption compared to the control residence hall. Across two years with different student populations, results were consistent: the residence hall receiving only the communications and programming, but not the dashboard, had the lowest electricity use. The residence hall with only the dashboard also demonstrated a significant but smaller decline in electricity use. Curiously, the residence hall wherein both interventions were used demonstrated the smallest decline in electricity use.


Practical implications
While total costs for the communications and programming are difficult to accurately assess, the results suggest that this approach is cost-effective when compared to the avoided cost of electricity and is superior in terms of electricity cost savings to both the dashboards and to the combined intervention. Results also suggest that any intervention is likely to induce a large enough electricity reduction to be cost-effective and there may be non-economic benefits as well.


Originality/value
This study takes advantage of the availability of four "matched" residence halls to approximate the rigor of a controlled quasi-experimental design to compare different strategies for inducing electricity consumption among freshman residents.

Underground coal mining can affect wells and springs used as water supplies. Subsidence caused by underground mining is generally acknowledged to be a primary cause of groundwater resource effects. In coal producing regions of Virginia and neighboring states, many rural residents depend on groundwater as their primary water source. Although it is well known that underground mines can impact groundwater supplies, guidelines for determining if a specific mining operation will be likely to affect a particular water supply have not been developed for the Virginia coalfield area. Complicating factors include variations in mining methods, depth of mining, and geology among locations within the Virginia coalfield area, and between the Virginia coalfield and mining areas in other states. Throughout central Appalachia, contested allegations of water supply impacts have been the subject of disputes between mining firms and residents. The costs associated with disruptions of groundwater supplies in rural areas can be substantial. When a household's water supply is disrupted, an alternative supply must be developed or the property must be abandoned. One way or the other, somebody must pay. When the cause of a water supply disruption is disputed, both sides must bear costs to resolve that dispute, through litigation or other means. Rational resource management requires that clear guidelines be available for determining cause-and-effect relationships. Such guidelines are not currently available for application to potential water supply impacts of underground mining operations in Virginia. The purpose of this paper is to report the results of an analysis of water supply impacts of underground mining in Virginia. We analyzed reports of 73 water supply investigations conducted by the Virginia Division of Mined Land Reclamation (VDMLR). These investigations were conducted between 1981 and 1987 for the purpose of resolving disputes between surface residents and underground mining firms. The results of the VDMLR investigations were analyzed with reference to guidelines for identifying the zone of subsidence influence on groundwater supplies which were prepared by geologist Henry Rauch (1989). based on research which he and his students conducted in the northern West Virginia - western Pennsylvania area. Rauch's "rules of thumb" are the most complete and explicit published guidelines for determining subsidence impacts on water supplies in Appalachia. This research addresses a subject that is relevant to recently enacted legislation. Section 2504 of the federal Energy Policy Act of 1992 requires mining firms to replace water supplies damaged by underground mining. Virginia House Bill 1687 (1993) also requires water replacement. In developing regulations to implement these laws, federal and state agencies must develop guidelines for determining whether or not alleged water supply impacts are, in fact, mining related. ; Department of the Interior ; Grant G1114151