Definition and Scope of Environmental Management PDF

Definition and Scope of Environmental Management JULIE ROSE D. APDOHAN What is environment? What is environment? Environment can be defined as a sum total of all the living and non-living elements and their effects that influence human life. While all living or biotic elements are...

Definition and Scope of Environmental Management JULIE ROSE D. APDOHAN What is environment? What is environment? Environment can be defined as a sum total of all the living and non-living elements and their effects that influence human life. While all living or biotic elements are animals, plants, forests, fisheries, and birds, non-living or abiotic elements include water, land, sunlight, rocks, and air Overview: Plan versus Management Plan Management A plan is a structured outline of actions Management is the process of organizing, planning, designed to achieve a specific goal or controlling, and leading resources to achieve objective. It serves as a roadmap, detailing the organizational objectives. It involves coordinating steps, resources, and timelines required to the efforts of individuals and teams to ensure accomplish a desired outcome. efficient and effective operations. Key aspects of management include: Key characteristics of a plan include: Planning: Developing and implementing plans to Goal-oriented: A plan is always focused on achieve organizational goals. achieving a specific goal. Organizing: Structuring resources and assigning Structured: It outlines a sequence of steps or responsibilities to individuals or teams. activities. Leading: Motivating and inspiring employees to Resource-based: It considers the necessary achieve their best. resources (time, money, people, equipment) Controlling: Monitoring performance, evaluating to implement the plan. results, and taking corrective action as needed. Time-bound: It specifies a timeline for completing the planned activities. Introduction The science of environmental studies is an interdisciplinary field that integrates areas of life, physical and earth science to study and address problems facing the environment and to implement science- based solutions." ~ Jill Nugent It is a broad field of study that includes also the natural environment, built environment and the set of relation between them (interdependence Our very survival in this planet earth depends on the proper management of environment  The climatic conditions depends on the air, temperature. Everyone is now feeling the change of climate due to the rise in air temperature of the earth Due to enormous increase in population and stress on environmental factors like air, water and soil, it is now urgently needed to frame guideline and rules for the management of environment in a proper way A good management of environment can only bring a sustainable life to all in this planet earth What is environmental management? EM displays the following characteristics: it is often used as a generic term; it supports sustainable development; it deals with a world affected by humans (there are few, if any, wholly natural environments today); it demands a multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary approach; it has to integrate different development viewpoints; it seeks to integrate science, social science, policy making and planning; it recognizes the desirability of meeting, and if possible exceeding basic human needs; the timescale involved extends beyond the short term, and concern ranges from local to global; it should show opportunities as well as address threats and problems; it stresses stewardship, rather than exploitation. Defining Environmental Management EM is the means of controlling or guiding human-environment interactions to protect and enhance human health and welfare and environmental quality (Randolph, 2004:3) EM is a system of administrative functions that are used to (i) develop; (ii) implement; and (iii) monitor the environmental strategy of a business (Antweiler, 2014: ) EM seeks to steer the development process to take advantage of opportunities, try to avoid hazards, mitigate problems, and prepare people for unavoidable difficulties by improving adaptability and resilience – Erickson and King, 1999) Defining Environmental Management EM is a process concerned with human-environment interactions, and seeks to identify; what is environmentally desirable; what are the physical, economic, social and technological constraints to achieving that; and what are the most feasible options – El-Kholy, 2001 Context: Challenges Facing Environmental Management We refer to the general challenge facing EM as the ecological crisis Sounded ever since Silent Spring (Carson, 1962), The Limits to Growth (Meadows et al, 1972) “Sustainable development” popularized in 1986 WCED-The Bruntland Commission Ecological crisis has been generally slow to sink in – response have been to little and too late Deeper sustainability – zero emissions, zero footprints, zero impact, energy self-reliance and other similarity ambitious indicators Context: Challenges Facing Environmental Management Ecological crisis is largely imponderable because of factors which include complexity, uncertainty, gaps in baseline data, shortcomings in basic science and the increasing prevalence of unnatural disasters. EM, we include all of its many aspects – social, political, cultural, economic, and potentially more Context: Challenges Facing Environmental Management Complexity “The number of species at each trophic level and number of trophic level in a community” Cunningham et al, 2005 “As complexity rises, precise statements lose meaning and meaningful statements lose precision” Lawrence, 2013 Why are ecological systems so complex and why are their futures so impervious to human understanding? Understanding of ecological systems require a nuanced, long-term consideration of many factors that combine to shape them. Deep sustainability requires consideration of multiple time-scales as well as numerous interrelated yet subtle factors.  Uncertainty How bad would the situations become, would systems recover from stress or collapse, and how might systems respond to different remedial measures? ---risks, consequences and uncertainties of climate change and other regional and global problems Uncertainty and risk might sometimes be reduced through research and the acquisition of knowledge and insight, or at least experts may claim that is the case Scientific knowledge is far from conclusive and subject to continual revision and reinterpretation Mother nature remains, as always, in charge, and conventional approaches to EM will probably never be sufficient in addressing irreducible uncertainty.  Gaps in baseline ecological knowledge – work in progress. It is uneven. Gaps are common. Unnatural disaster – the ecological crisis does not resonate or register until they personally experience some of the direct impacts of the crisis Environmental risks were simply tolerated and rationalized as the price to be paid for the benefits of “progress”. This mindset changed as externalities could no longer be ignored Climate change  Political context of environmental management Neoliberalism - contemporarily used to refer to market-oriented reform policies such as "eliminating price controls, deregulating capital markets, lowering trade barriers" and reducing, especially through privatization and austerity, state influence in the economy. Environmental Governance - includes policy, rules and norms that govern human behavior and it also addresses who makes decisions, how decisions are made and carried out, the scientific information needed for decision-making and how the public and major stakeholders can participate in the decision-making. Scope of Environmental Management The awareness regarding environmental problems and their proper management began in 1970s through various people movement around many countries of the world The greenpeace movement, the Chipko movement etc. are some of them The advancement in the field of science and technology helped to provide various tools and instrument supported statistical data to properly solved environmental problems and help in its management The broader scope of environmental management includes To identify the environmental problem and to find its solution To restrict and regulate the exploitation and utilization of natural resources To regenerate degraded environment and to renew natural resources To control environmental pollution and gradation To reduce the impacts of extreme events and natural disaster To make optimum utilization of natural resources To assess the impacts of proposed projects and activities on environment The scopes in the following areas need environmental management Population increase and health services Treatment of pollutants (air, water, and solid) generated from various sources Pollution level in air, water and soil Development of non-polluting renewable energy sources like wind, solar, biomass etc Solid waste utilization through recycling Biodiversity conservation Environmental awareness in society The components of EM are based on 5 fundamental aspect 1. Environmental perception and public awareness Consider the following points Sources of environmental perception and public awareness Level of environmental perception Role of environmental perception in environmental planning and management 2. Environmental education and training 3. Resource management Classification of natural resources Survey and evaluation of ecological resources Preservation of resources Conservation of resources The components of EM are based on 5 fundamental aspect 4. Control of Environmental degradation and pollution Control of environmental degradation and pollution Adopting suitable preventive mechanisms to reduce natural hazards and disaster Regeneration of degraded environment 5. Environmental impact assessment Appraisal of existing environmental conditions Appraisal of existing and proposed production methods Methologies and procedures Probable impacts of existing proposed projects Review of technology and required improvement