Almost every country requires some form of environmental licensing prior to the inception of development projects that may affect the integrity of the environment and its social context. We developed a new conceptual and methodological model to instruct the assessment of the potential impacts posed by proposed projects. Susceptibility to Human Interventions for Environmental Licensing Determination (SHIELD) includes a novel geomorphological interpretation of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). It considers the impact of human interventions on geomorphological processes and landscape functioning in the context of the entire ecosystem, going further than the classical concept of vulnerability. Estimated susceptibility of the site informs the screening stage, allowing local conditions to help define the criteria used in the process. Similarly, the level of detail of the environmental baseline is scoped by considering the degree of disturbance of natural processes posed by human intervention. Testing this geomorphological susceptibility model on different kinds of environments would allow shifting the environmental licensing practices from the prevailing anthropocentric and static conception of the environment towards an Ecosystem Approach. SHIELD addresses the need to improve the screening and scoping stages that form the basis of the rest of any EIA. SHIELD introduces several innovations to EIA including the incorporation of fuzzy logic, a preassembled database of contributions form experts, and a shifting of emphasis from the type of proposed intervention to the type of environment and its relative susceptibility. 相似文献
We live in a rapidly advancing digital information age where the ability to discover, access and utilize high-quality information in a reliable and timely manner is often assumed to be the norm. However, this is not always the experience of researchers, practitioners and decision makers responding to the challenges of a rapidly changing climate, despite the billions now being made available for investment in climate change adaptation initiatives throughout the world and particularly in developing countries. In recognition of the importance of information in adaptation planning, Article 7.7 of the Paris Agreement sets out clear guidance for parties to develop, share, manage and deliver climate change knowledge, information and data as a means to strengthening cooperation and action on adaptation. This article provides some key lessons and insights on climate change information and knowledge management (IKM) in small island developing States (SIDS) from the perspective of Pacific SIDS. A situation analysis of current climate change IKM practices in Fiji, Tonga and Vanuatu was conducted and key barriers to effective climate change IKM identified. The outcome of this article is a range of pragmatic policy considerations for overcoming common barriers to climate change IKM in the Pacific, which may be of value to SIDS more widely.
Key policy insights
The partnership approach of co-investigating climate change IKM barriers in collaboration with Pacific SIDS generated considerable trust, a shared purpose and therefore rich IKM lessons and insights.
Turning climate change IKM aspirations into practice is significantly more complicated than expected, and requires a long-term commitment from both national governments and development partners.
Pacific SIDS need to establish national guiding climate change IKM Frameworks that leverage rather than duplicate growing national investments in whole-of-government IKM.
Reframing climate change IKM in the Pacific towards demand and user needs will be critical to ensuring widespread ownership and participation in IKM solutions that lead to greater adaptation and resilience outcomes.
It is also critical that IKM activities in SIDS support the development of national capacity to scope, develop, deploy and maintain decision support systems.
Federated IKM systems are ideal for encouraging greater IKM collaboration.
This paper explores the failures of the quota allocation system in the hake fishery in Walvis Bay, Namibia through an examination of the complex processes that link commodities, labour, production, markets, and knowledge in the industrial setting. The relationships between state regulations and public nature point to a specific engagement in which nature is divided, distributed, and owned, namely through the market driven prospects of transferable quotas. This article examines fishing quota as a set of relations that links the transformation of fish from biological organism to global product and thus weaves science, the state, markets, and social relationships into an entanglement of different forms of capital. In this context, the tension between the quota holder, the value of that quota, and their participation in the industry reflects a complex network of capital mediated through various strategies. Based on ethnographic research in the Namibian trawl sector, this article surfaces these modes of capital in the dynamics of the fishing operations. As such, the fishing industry, the company that holds the fishing rights, the government׳s role in quota allocations, the vessels, gear, and technologies, and the relationships and roles of the crewmembers and skippers׳ knowledge all contribute to a particular formulation of fishing practices. Fisher׳s knowledge in industrial fishing practices becomes a site in which to explore the consequences of ITQs that may also begin to destabilise the neoliberal business model for fisheries in times of crisis. 相似文献