Search results for "Environmental Planning"

The socio-economic and communication challenges of spent nuclear fuel management in Finland

2010

Abstract One of the key factors behind the expansion of nuclear energy policy in Finland is nuclear waste management. As in many countries, nuclear waste management agencies are still struggling with the siting of intermediate and low level nuclear waste management facilities, in Finland Posiva, the nuclear waste company owned by the two nuclear power utilities Teollisuuden Voima (TVO) and Fortum Power and Heat (FPH), has been excavating a underground characterization facility since 2004 in the Olkiluoto site in the municipality of Eurajoki. The facility under construction is meant to be for a part of the final repository for disposal of spent nuclear fuel (SNF). The site selection process …

Managing Change in Tourism: Creating Opportunities—Overcoming Obstacles

2010

Past Objectives and Future Scenarios

2016

The intimate link between landscape and urban planning has long been denied and underestimated. In spite of the “good intentions” of certain scholars, practitioners and policy makers across Italy, Spain and other EU countries, their efforts are undermined by rigidly framed, sector-focused laws and by a concept of landscape defined in purely aesthetic terms. We have established the importance of identifying tools used to integrate the various approaches that “urbanism” and landscape planning adopt in dealing with urban planning to date. In fact, even with the prospect of significant environmental legislation, the discipline is still unable to incorporate the concept of landscape and its asso…

Quality of Environmental Impact Assessment: Finnish EISs and the opinions of EIA professionals

2010

This article presents and compares findings of two EIA quality studies conducted in Finland. First a survey was targeted at competent authorities and environmental consultants to investigate their perceptions of the quality of Finnish EIAs. Second, 15 EISs were considered using the European Commission's guidance on review criteria. The results show that the EIA professionals generally consider the quality as good, though they also recognized that the quality varies and suggested certain areas for improvement. In the professionals' opinion the performance of Finnish EIAs could be enhanced, especially with more profound alternative considerations. Based on the results it is also suggested tha…

FIRElinks. Fire in the Earth System: Science & Society

2020

FIRElinks is a EU-spanning network of scientists and practitioners involved in forest fire research and land management with backgrounds such as fire dynamics, fire risk management, fire effects on vegetation, fauna, soil and water, and socio-economic, historical, geographical, political perception and land management approaches. FIRElinks connect communities from different scientific and geographic backgrounds, allowing the discussion of different experiences and the emergence of new approaches to fire research. The main aim of FIRElinks is to power synergistic collaborations between European research groups and stakeholders with the objective to synthesise the existing knowledge and exper…

The effect of soil on human health: an overview

2018

Soil has a considerable effect on human health, whether those effects are positive or negative, direct or indirect. Soil is an important source of nutrients in our food supply and medicines such as antibiotics. However, nutrient imbalances and the presence of human pathogens in the soil biological community can cause negative effects on health. There are also many locations where various elements or chemical compounds are found in soil at toxic levels, because of either natural conditions or anthropogenic activities. The soil of urban environments has received increased attention in the last few years, and they too pose a number of human health questions and challenges. Concepts such as soi…

Ranking of small scale proposals for water system repair using the Rapid Impact Assessment Matrix (RIAM)

2014

Abstract Environmental impacts of small scale projects are often assessed poorly, or not assessed at all. This paper examines the usability of the Rapid Impact Assessment Matrix (RIAM) as a tool to prioritize project proposals for small scale water restoration projects in relation to proposals' potential to improve the environment. The RIAM scoring system was used to assess and rank the proposals based on their environmental impacts, the costs of the projects to repair the harmful impacts, and the size of human population living around the sites. A four-member assessment group (The expert panel) gave the RIAM-scores to the proposals. The assumed impacts of the studied projects at the Easter…

Monitoring fungal biodiversity – towards an integrated approach

2012

Biodiversity information databases and platforms have seen considerable progress in recent years. They have a high potential in conservation science in general, but may be even more revolutionary in relation to poorly known species groups such as fungi, whose practical conservation work has been jeopardised by scattered and poorly controlled information. We review the tradition of collecting information on species occurrences in mycology and discuss the characteristics of the present fungal biodiversity information databases. With a special focus on population trend monitoring of fruit body producing macrofungi, we emphasise several unrealised opportunities of these databases and point out …

“Serpentone Reload” an Experience of Citizens Involvement in Regeneration of Peripheral Urban Spaces

2015

Suburbs are often very contradictory places. Despite great part of urban population live there, these parts of cities are mostly considered as degradation places. The topic of suburbs regeneration is relevant today. Nevertheless, often expensive interventions implemented by local authorities fail to regenerate their public spaces. This paper presents the experience of “Serpentone reload”, a workshop based on participatory reactivation of abandoned or underused spaces and buildings in “Cocuzzo/Serpentone” neighbourhood in Potenza (Basilicata, Italy). The workshop particularly focused on the reuse of the “Ship”, an underground building, completed in 2010, never used, because it has been perce…

Metro Manila’s Challenges: Flooding, Housing and Mobility

2014

Among the many challenges faced by MetroManila, the National Capital Region of the Philippines, three appear as the most pressing issues for the everydaylife of its citizens: housing, flooding and traffic. The rapid increase in population of the metropolitan area had led to a mushrooming of substandard housing and squatting, sometimes in danger areas such as waterways and transport lanes. In a tropical context of heavy monsoon rains and frequent typhoons, riverside slums impeding the flow of water appear as one of the reasons—not the only one—why Manila floods, when at the same time people are placed at high risk. Coupled with a lack of available space throughout the metropolis, the high po…