what is planning?
problem solving
organizing resources to achieve goals and objectives
avoiding problems
another name for communism
What is environmental planning?
How to make choices about:
Natural environment: wildlife, wetlands, coasts
Working landscapes: farmland forests, mineral and aggregate resources
Built environment: redevelopment of cities and suburbs, greenfields development
Public health: air and water and toxics pollution clean up, pollution prevention.
The triple bottom line/Sustainability
3 types: economic, social and economic.
Environmental Sustainability: Intergenerational equity, stewardship, durability, waste management. Trying to match population size with ecosystem (carrying capacity/environmental damage).
social justice, economic opportunity, income equality----> environmental protection-------> overall economic growth and efficiency ==>i.e. green, profitable, and fair.
Why Plan?
*anticipate the change and shape it
*orderly growth and change
*save money
*sustainable economy and environment
*social issues
*future generations
We have a lot of people coming. How are we going to move towards greater sustainability while we add 3 million/year.
Getting the prices right--> getting the right type of environmental incentives. Not just regulating.
Three events that brought sustainability to the forefront:
Hurricane Katrina
Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth
Recent spike in energy prices
Read Elizabeth Colbert's book on how the scientists are in agreement on the affects of global warming.
More frequent extreme weather
Decrease in bio diversity
Sea level rise
Drying out in the great plains
US oil peaked in 1970.
Every year the Economist prints the reserves in each country and the number of years a country has left--the US has 11 years.
The Death of Environmentalism-->STOP BEING COMPLACENT!
Who does environmental planning?
*The Federal Government
*State Governments
*Local Governments
*Businesses (there is going to be some kind of regulation so they are trying to get on board a.k.a. long term business)
*Individuals (transportation modes, location of residence, technologies, recycling, reusing, vote)
*Nonprofit Organizations
Three Key Aspects of Public Environmental Planning
The level of government involved and responsible (federal, state, LOCAL)
the form of government activity*regulation command and control, financial incentive, public goods, ban-moratorium, design)
the degree of government action (what goals and standards, and how rigorously pursued)-clean air act
public good/merit goods-->non excludable and not appropriable.
The Case for a Federal Role:
*Without national standards and controls, a fear that states would lower environmental standards as part of interstate economic competition (currently happening0
*Environmental problems caused by interstate externalities- coal fired power plants and acid rain, water pollution, and nutrients in Chesapeake Bay
*Environmental justice
externality-->result of an economic activity that does now show up in that product.
The Cast for A State Role
*State review of developments of regional impact (DRI)-siting a regional mall
*Responsible for providing clean water to citizens of the state
Urban redevelopment--brownfields.
*Transportation dollars? (Jack)
MTBE-->all you need is a drop of it to pollute 50 gallons of water http://www.epa.gov/safewater/contaminants/unregulated/mtbe.html
The Case for a Local Role
*Ecosystems, watersheds (drainage system), and air pollution do not respect political boundaries
*Spillovers from one community to the next
*Land use, transportation, air quality connection (LUTRAC study, greater Portland)
*Land use-water quality connection eg The Chesapeake Bay
New Zealand does planning according to watersheds since 1995.
The Case for a Local Role
*Local governments have control over land use planning and regulation.
*Where development is located (and the type of development) can hae major impacts on the environment (e.g. impervious surfaces, thirsty industries, etc).
Why is Local Planing for the Environment Important?
*Federal government has turned most of the administration of the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act over to the states. And state administration varies considerably.
*Local development decisions have major implications for environmental impacts, e.g. South Miami-Dade
*Land use is political and all politics is local.
Steps in the Local Planning Process
*Decision to Plan
*Commitment to money and personnel
*Inventory
Elements of the Comprehensive Plan
1. A brief history and context
2. Economic base analysis
3. Housing
4. Transportation and Circulation
5. Natural Resource Inventory
6. Land Use Suitability and Future Land Use
7. Community facilities
I=PAT (Inventory = Population+ Affluence +Technology)
http://www.eoearth.org/article/IPAT_equation
Adding Environmental Planning into the Comprehensive Planning Process
*Action Plan (SO IMPORTANT)
*Benchmarking
*Annual Report on Environmental Progress, e.g. Columbus, OH, Sustainable Seattle, WA
--> usually there is no progress and officials don't want people to know.
Land Suitability, Water Suitability and Infrastructure
*The layers approach
*Developed by Ian McHarg
*One of McHarg's students founded ESRI, another Itergraph
Land Suitability: identify constraints to development: steep slopes, wetlands, waterways, prime farm and forest lands, wildlife habitats, geological formations, soils with hallow depth to bedrock.
GIS environmentally relevant layers: parcels, zoning, floodplains, wetlands, land cover, soils, reference framework, composite overlay.
Soils map: different soils have different permeabilities, different slopes, and different capabilities.
Problems on the cape: no central sewer system and the population is rising. Ground water is being polluted by septic but the people are too cheap to pay for central sewer out of fear that more people will move in.
Slow growth:http://www.slowgrowthinitiative.com/master.html
Speth-10 Global Environmental Crises: Thick Global, Act Local
*Ozone depletion by CFCs and other gases
*Climate Change-global warming-#1 threat
*Loss of crop and grazing land-soil erosion
*Loss of tropical forests-wildlife, watershed
*Extinction of species
*Population growth
*Freshwater shortages
*Overfishing oceans
*Pesticides
*Acid rain
Six Solutions
*A Stale or smaller world population
-currently 6.2 bullion, going to 9 illion by 2050
*Reduce mass poverty
*Environmentally-friendly technologies
*Environmentally honest prices
*Sustainable consumption energy food materials eliminate toxics
*Environmental education
------------------------------------
Brief Summary of Environmental History
1. 1890-1920
a. Parks and Playgrounds
b. City Beautiful/Hygiene
c. Garden Cities (E. Howard)
d. Wilderness (John Muir) vs. Conservation (Pinchot)
-Teddy Roosevelt sort of went between the two (National Park Service)
2. 1920s-1969
a. Ecological regional planning (Appalacian trail 1921, 1938(+)
b. New Deal: Tennessee Valley Authority clean up
c. Soil conservation service; now Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS)
d. EIA/Environmental Impact Assessment (McHarvy, scientific analysis of what's going on)
e. 1970 NEPA, Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, Safe species Act (Command and Control approach)
d. backlash (brings in the use of financial incentives) i.e. the cap and trade approach to reducing sulfur dioxide.
3. Sustainability Era --> will probably involve both command and control and incentives.
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