Environmental Policy and Planning (EPP)
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| Research Projects | Faculty Publications | Doctoral Dissertations | Masters Thesis | Links to Practice | |||||||||||
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Recent Theses |
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The thesis is a major element of the Masters program. The following sample of Masters theses gives an idea of the topics that students in environmental policy have pursued.
Flexibility with Accountability: An Experiment in Environmental Governance This thesis examines an experiment in environmental governance in Wisconsin. This program uses cooperative agreements between firms and the state to provide flexibility to environmental regulation, and to shift from adversarial norms to cooperative norms. To maintain democratic accountability, firms are required to create a group of interested community participants, who meet with the firm regularly to discuss the cooperative agreement. Two cases are explored to determine the extent to which flexibility can be achieved with accountability. Matt found a number of difficulties associated with role changes and norm consolidation that arise in experimental governance. His preliminary conclusion is that while much can be gained through such cooperative agreements, it is difficult to build the ad hoc legitimacy required to make them work. Barton Catalogue - DSpace - Order Using Climate Policies and Carbon Markets to Save Tropical Forests: The Case of Costa Rica In the late 1980s and early 1990s, advocates for forest conservation thought that climate change could provide a lever to motivate developing countries to reduce deforestation. Fifteen years after the first climate change convention, however, global emissions from deforestation have increased. This thesis uses Costa Rica as a case study to examine how the international climate policies and markets have attempted to address greenhouse gas emissions from tropical deforestation. I argue that, to date, international climate regime has failed to provide effective incentives to Costa Rica to finance its forestry reforms because of political decisions that favor forest protection in developed over developing countries. To be effective, the international climate regime needs to generate a substantial financial investment for avoided deforestation in developing countries and to develop flexible policies that build capacity, promote sustainable forestry practices, and reward early reformers. Barton Catalogue - DSpace - Order Evaluating Next-Generation Environmental Policy Tools: Adaptive Management in the Bureau of Land Management The U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has begun to embrace the concept of adaptive management as an alternative to traditional natural resource planning and management. Adaptive management may provide BLM managers with the means they need to enhance the effectiveness of management actions, allow for flexibility to adjust practices and opportunities for rapid learning, and at the same time improve public support for resource management decisions. To realize these benefits, BLM must include 1) adaptive design of management objectives, actions, monitoring and evaluation protocols and 2) effective collaboration between BLM and interested stakeholders. Barton Catalogue - DSpace - Order Reining in Drought: How Water Limits Influence Conservation in Massachusetts Towns It’s surprising to learn that the water-rich state of Massachusetts experiences incidences of water stress, where rivers go dry for stretches of the year and municipalities struggle to meet water demand. Water conservation and demand management is one important way to reduce pressure on water supplies and alleviate ecosystem stress. Although the state has recently revisited its water management policies and has promoted revised measures to increase conservation, decisions about what actions to take remain in municipal hands. This thesis examines water conservation efforts in three affluent suburban municipalities located in stressed river basins in eastern Massachusetts. The stories reveal that the decisions to curb water demand have been influenced most of all by actual experiences with supply limits. A water shortage not only focuses local attention on the need for conservation, it can also provide an opportunity for local leaders to take action. As towns continue to face increasing pressure on water supplies, some would like to regionalize water management decisions. This might help, but it might also remove the perceived limits that have led to local conservation efforts. Barton Catalogue - DSpace
- Order Simulating some of the travel impacts of transit station parking Barton Catalogue - DSpace - Order Civil Society Strategies on Urban Waterways; Stewardship, Contention and Coalition Building Contaminated urban, industrial waterways have attracted
the attention of civil society organizations. This is particularly true in New York City. These groups view urban waterways as among the last available
open spaces in the city and as potential public amenities that merit revitalization. These groups are trying to leverage public and private influence.
Some groups choose strategies rooted in conflict, other focus on collaboration.To understand the selection and efficacy of various strategies, alliance-building in particular, this thesis seeks to answer several questions: 1) how do internal and external factors shape the strategies that civil society actors select as they seek to engage in the protection of urban industrial waterways?; 2) to what extent and for what reasons do civil society actors pursue collaboration and coalition building as a preferred strategy? and 3) what environmental and social outcomes have these groups achieved? Case studies of the Bronx River, the Newtown Creek, and the Gowanus Canal are presented. Corporate Adoption and Implementation of Innovative Environmental Policy Measures in China XIXI CHEN Since the1970s, the governments in many countries including China have begun to implement systematic environmental policies aimed at curtailing industrial pollution. During the past three decades, environmental policies have evolved from simple directives regarding emission limitations to comprehensive packages using various market-based economic instruments, such as taxes and emissions trading. As environmental conditions have become more serious, traditional approaches, including market mechanisms, have become inadequate. Additional innovative measures, including voluntary action (by polluters), collaboration among public and private stakeholders, and dissemination of information regarding industry performance, have emerged. This study explores how these three innovative measures have been implemented in China and whether they have encouraged private corporations in China to improve their environmental practices. Three case studies are offered. They cover corporate collaboration with environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs), the work of ISO 14000-an environmental management systems certificate program- and the China Environmental Labeling Program. This study finds that each enterprise is motivated quite differently as to whether or not it is willing to adopt these innovative measures. And, each has generated varying results in different situations Barton Catalogue - DSpace - OrderFree, Prior and Informend Consent: (FPIC): Does it give indigenous peoples more control over the development of their lands in the Philippines?
Barton Catalogue - DSpace - Order Does the community really matter? Civic environmentalism, in brownfield redevelopment This thesis analyzes the process of civic environmentalism Meeting the Mandate for Clean Water: An Evaluation of Private-Sector Management
of US Water and Wastewater Operations Reliable provision of clean and safe water is critical for public health, economic stability and growth in the United States. Due to a combination of financial, regulatory and operational challenges, however, it is becoming increasingly difficult for publicly-owned water utilities to meet these goals. Since the mid 1980’s, new actors have entered the US water utility scene in the form of large international firms that specialize in water utility management and ownership, offering the opportunity to increase efficiency expedite long-delayed maintenance, minimize rate increases and provide needed capital for system expansion. This study examines the multi-objective planning dilemma that many publicly owned US water utilities face and assesses the viability of private sector participation (PSP) and public-private partnerships (PPP’s) as emerging trends in the water sector. Through detailed examination of four case studies, Evan finds problems with both the viability and sustainability of private sector involvement in supplying and treating the public’s water. Regulating Farm Nutrient Runoff:
Maryland’s Experience with the Water Quality Improvement Act Federal and state programs designed to address non-point agricultural nutrient pollution rely almost exclusively on voluntary programs and financial incentives to encourage farmers to adopt nutrient management plans and other best management practices. In 1998, after highly publicized fish kills highlighted shortcomings in the voluntary approach, Maryland adopted the nation’s strictest and most comprehensive nutrient management regulations. Seven years later, a majority of farmers are not in compliance with the law. This thesis examines the Maryland Department of Agriculture’s implementation of the Water Quality Improvement Act. Anne finds the department has continued to adhere to a voluntary approach to nutrient management. As a result, farmer practices are largely unchanged and the efficacy of a mandatory approach is unrealized. Barton Catalogue - DSpace - Order How green was my electricity? : designing incentives to co-optimize waste management and energy development in New England
Barton Catalogue - DSpace - Order The Road Still Not Taken: Distributed generation in Massachusetts
Barton Catalogue - DSpace - Order Flames in the WUI: How the Colorado Front Range is Managing Its Wildfire Risk in the Wildland-Urban Interface
Barton Catalogue - DSpace - Order
In July 2002 the California State Legislature passed the California Clean Cars Bill. The Clean Cars Bill is the first law in the United States that authorizes the regulation of carbon dioxide emissions from automobiles. California’s adoption of standards limiting vehicular carbon dioxide emissions has the potential to result in changes in vehicles across North America. But, neither the automotive industry nor national environmental groups paid attention to it until well into the legislative process. Given the auto industry’s high economic stakes in the legislative outcome and their economic and political power, one would expect that auto manufacturers would have been able to block the legislation. But, in the end, the biggest budget and scariest messages did not prevail. The environmentalists that supported the bill leveraged other, more influential resources. Carli examines the key elements of the environmentalists’ strategies that led to the passage of the Clean Cars Bill. Barton Catalogue - DSpace - Order How Does Participation in the Framing, Review, and Incorporation of Scientific Information Affect Stakeholder Perspectives on Resource Management Decisions? JENNIFER PEYSER The conventional environmental impact assessment (EIA) decision-making process, governed by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), represents the prevailing practice with regard to public involvement in science-intensive policy disputes. The efficacy of the current system of public involvement has been widely criticized. By analyzing case studies of conventional and joint fact finding models of public involvement, Jenn explores joint fact finding as a process with the potential to improve the legitimacy and credibility of environmental assessments. Joint fact finding (JFF) offers a way for stakeholders to work with scientists and decision-makers to frame, review, and incorporate scientific information into policy decisions. Because resource management decisions involve, not only scientific information, but nonobjective judgments and values-based considerations, the involvement of stakeholders in a range of scientific processes, and the linking of scientific information to policy-making, is key to their judgement about the credibility and legitimacy of governmental action. Barton Catalogue - DSpace - Order Case Studies on Route 1: How the Perceived Identity of Local Commercial Strips Affects Zoning LILY POLLENS Designers, planners, and new urbanists argue that highway strips, replete with big box retail and countless malls, are essentially placeless. Many also assert that generic local zoning is largely to blame for the existence and persistence of such strip development. While there may be some truth to these claims, every strip exists within a city, or town, or municipality, and has a unique relationship with that place. Lily’s thesis explores Route 1 through Dedham, Saugus and Peabody, MA to highlight that far from being interchangeable landscapes, the Route 1 strip varies from town to town, bearing distinctive marks of each towns approach to controlling various aspects of development. These cases illustrate that a key variable in how heavily towns rely on zoning to shape and control strip development is whether or not they view their strip as part of the town or as an outside entity. Lily argues that, while it is true that variations between strip landscape stems from zoning, the strip formula is not that simple: the way in which the towns write and implement their code derives from the perceived identity of each Route 1 strip, ultimately affecting the appearance of that strip. Barton Catalogue - DSpace - Order Is God Green? Emerging Environmentalism in the Evangelical Community Evangelical environmentalism has been the subject of recent media coverage and debate. The central questions are whether evangelical environmentalists
could be potential allies for the mainstream environmental movement, and what impact pro-environment
evangelicals might have on politics. This thesis suggests that evangelical environmentalists do not seek alliances with the mainstream environmental The Parking Policy and Smart Growth Disconnect: Obstacles to Establishing and Parking is increasingly understood as an underlying factor in traffic generation. It leads to increasing vehicle miles traveled, congestion, and several other nuisances that arise from a growing number of vehicles on the road. Furthermore, parking increases the cost of living in urban areas where parking demand is high and supply is tight. Traditional growth patterns that encourage low density development with minimum free parking exacerbate problems caused by parking. Smart Growth counters traditional growth patterns by offering mixed use development, maximum parking requirements, context sensitive design and focusing on increasing pedestrian and transit trips. Between traditional growth theory and Smart Growth theory, it is arguably more desirable for zoning regulators and developers to pursue Smart Growth parking policy measures, especially as one moves closer to the downtown area. Four case studies from the Boston Metropolitan Area (North Station, Ruggles, Quincy Center, and Alewife) illustrate the pros, cons, as well as the constraints that make it hard to shift paradigms from traditional to Smart Growth policies. Heather argues that zoning regulators and developers are constrained from adopting Smart Growth parking policies by developer perceptions of buyer preference, lender perception of buyer preference, and community preference for low density development. Barton Catalogue - DSpace - Order
The Agricultural Potential and Usability of Ecological Sanitation Ecological sanitation, or ecosan, refers to a host of sanitation technologies through which human excreta is recovered and retained on-site, and eventually reused. In the past decade, there has been much research, development, and on-the-ground experimentation with ecosan in developing countries. This technology not only provides households with adequate sanitation but also a valuable agricultural resource. However, when a culture does not have a tradition of reusing human waste, what would motivate a household to recycle and reuse their waste? To investigate this question, field research was conducted in rural Kenya on 26 “skyloo” toilets, a urine-separating ecosan style toilet. The findings suggest that ecosan is not a great solution for everyone, but does have a comparative advantage to some specific user groups in developing countries: the very poor (those who have trouble affording fertilizer), those who are in areas with high nutrient loads to natural waters, households with an exceptional environmental consciousness, and and households in which adverse hydrogeologic conditions do not allow the construction of a pit latrine. Barton Catalogue - DSpace - Order How Does the Public Process Impact the Selection of a Nuisance Wildlife Management Plan?
Barton Catalogue - DSpace - Order Groundwater Decline and the Preservation of Property in Boston There is a slow-motion disaster underway below the city of Boston. The levels of groundwater have been steadily decreasing over the past eighty years and the structural integrity of the city’s older buildings is in jeopardy. Buildings located on fill that were constructed
prior to 1900 were supported with wood pilings. Wood pilings remain strong so long as they are submerged in groundwater. When exposed to air, however, the wood decays and buildings can eventually collapse. Repairing rotted wood pilings is a substantial financial burden and is currently shouldered entirely by homeowners. State and local governments ignored the city’s pilings problem for decades, but in the last eighteen months the city’s groundwater issues have moved up the political agenda. The city, state and community members are now working collaboratively to implement solutions
aimed at increasing the level of groundwater throughout the city. A window of opportunity has opened in which lasting policies can protect buildings
from further damage. Barton Catalogue - DSpace - Order Sustainable Urban Development at the Project Level: Evaluation methods applied to the case of Willets Point, Queens
Barton Catalogue - DSpace - Order The Boston Indicators Project: The role of indicators in supporting environmental efforts in the Boston metropolitan region Community indicators projects are an increasingly popular way to measure, track, and, advocates claim, make progress. The commonly held belief is that indicators provide residents, governments, private entities, and community groups with the information
they need to make “wise choices.” Many studies have documented the benefits that can arise from indicators projects, particularly as community members come together to define “sustainability” and “quality of life.” However, it is unclear whether the information obtained by the use of such indicators
influences decisions, actions, or policy in ways that improve performance. Barton Catalogue - DSpace - Order Mending Split Incentives: Overcoming Barriers to Energy Efficiency for Rental Housing
Barton Catalogue - DSpace - Order Coordinated Offshore Wind Networks
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