This book argues that groundwater pollution risk assessment is the essential foundation of groundwater pollution prevention and control. It is on this basis that economic leverage is used to make new breakthroughs in groundwater protection and governance. Presenting a case study on the Jilin Section of the Songhua River, the book applies the overlay index method to assess the shallow groundwater pollution risk and identify high-risk areas and major pollution sources in an effort to identify the mechanism of interaction between industrial structures and groundwater pollution. Further, it proposes concrete measures for preventing and controlling groundwater pollution from an industrial economics perspective. As such, the book offers a valuable resource for all graduate students, lecturers and researchers who are interested in learning about resources and environmental economics.

Through analysis of the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) and the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), this book demonstrates how to use a variety of econometric techniques to analyze the evolving and expanding carbon markets sphere, techniques that can be extrapolated to the worldwide marketplace. It features stylized facts about carbon markets from an economics perspective, as well as covering key aspects of pricing strategies, risk and portfolio management.

The book"Regional Approaches to the Energy Transition", discusses the key challenges the energy transition is facing at the European and International level. It is an edited collection gathering contributions from the experts in the field bringing together internationally renowned scholars, researchers, EU officials to address the current trends in the energy transition and its dilemmas. The book places the energy transition in a wide interdisciplinary context. It looks at energy policies, legal framework, regional strategies and the difficulties in their implementation. It argues for a regional approach to the energy transition, questioning at the same time the strategies and measures put forward for its realisation. The subject matter is topical, considering recent themes that occupy global and European political agendas. In a nutshell, the volume offers insights into regional regulations, public policies and local practices on the use of clean energy. It looks first at the EU commitment and its initiatives providing some examples from the Member States. Furthermore, it offers a comparative perspective and discusses the different approaches to the energy transition from Latin America, China, Africa and Australia. It covers a wide range of topics such as the EU renewable energy policies, Green Deal and regionalisation, energy auctions in the EU, environment in contemporary constitutionalism, Human Rights considerations, the Scandinavian perspective, practical examples from Italy and Spain. Moreover, it also considers the global context, looking at State and Market in China's coal-to-gas transition, tendencies of legal regulation in the sphere of renewable energy in Russia, the energy transition in Latin-American countries, regional approach to the energy transition and electricity access initiatives in Sub-Saharan Africa, and transnationalism and the regional approach to the energy transition in Australia. The systematisation that this book offers and the exchange of good practices and experiences are useful tools for the key players to seriously engage with a just and sustainable energy transition. The proposed book is a reference and study material for academics and students, but also for the policy makers, officials and practitioners dealing with the energy transition. It provides some answers, potential solutions and alternatives to the main problems that the energy sector is facing worldwide.

In April 1992 the Foundation Eni Enrico Mattei organized a workshop on the regulation of nonpoint source pollution. This volume inc1udes the proceedings of that meeting, as well as additional original contributions, in an attempt to provide an overview of recent theoretical developments in the field. Research on the causes, consequences, and control of nonpoint source pol lution has been carried out over the last two decades. Interest in this subject has grown as a result of the increasing recognition of the insufficiency of traditional pollution control policies focused on the large scale, confined, and general ly predictable pollutant discharges. In fact, many contemporary problems are caused by the combined activities of small polluters, along with natural pro cesses, intermittent and unpredictable events, and often involve pollutants with complex environmental outcomes. Despite the progress made in understanding the nature and size of pollution from diffuse sources, the issue of regulation is still far from being system at ically and adequately addressed. This policy vacuum is partly attributable to the difficulty of adapting the traditional point source regulatory tool kit to the specific features of nonpoint source problems. Such features inc1ude the tech nical difficulty of identifying sources and measuring individual emissions, their variability over time and space, the role played by natural processes in detennin ing pollutant discharges at source and their ultimate impacts on the receiving environmental media."

This book raises awareness about environmental issues that result from energy production, extraction and conversion, and examines the attitudes people have about these issues. It discusses societal and educational relations associated with energy and environmental issues, focusing on philosophical, sociological and psychological views, and provides an analysis of how the individual and the society perceive, process and analyze the information on this subject. The authors present the concept of environmentally conscious engineering, discussing various forms of energy extraction and production, and detail alternative, under-researched and unaffordable solutions, such as nuclear fusion and artificial photosynthesis. The book also touches on topics such as the storage of energy and greenhouse gases, recycling and reuse of energy waste, and energy saving and efficiency. The book will be of interest to students and researchers of environmentally conscious engineering, energy use, and human dimensions of ecology and the environment, as well as NGOs, policy makers, and environmental activists.

This book combines the fundamentals of industrial organization theories based on microeconomic foundations, applied econometrics and environmental and natural resource economics in undertaking a comprehensive review of reforms of the power sector and its impact on industrial and socio-economic performance. The book provides the reader with the intellectual groundwork necessary for understanding the workings and interactions of today's reforming power markets such as in the ASEAN and East Asia that are striving to achieve the energy policy trilemma of affordability, energy sustainability and energy security. The topics addressed in this book include application of welfare theorems such as competition in and for the market in the electricity sector, market failures such as lack of electricity access, analysis of forecasting models under volatility, energy resource allocation such as renewable energy and competitive market designs of energy markets. Country-specific and region-specific case studies are used to analyze the progress and outcomes of market-driven electricity reforms across the reforming and advanced electricity markets. Therefore, the book derives policy lessons and provides policy recommendations in reforming power markets for the ASEAN and East Asia taking stock of more than three decades of global experience with power sector reforms. The electricity markets case studies are carefully chosen and supported by extensive data analyses as appropriate. This book on energy economics and policy is highly recommended to readers who seek an in-depth and up-to-date integrated overview about the evolving literature and status on electricity market reforms with a particular reference to Asia.

Can economic globalization and environmental protection co-exist or does globalization inevitably lead to environmental degradation? How have firms in Europe responded to increased environmental regulation in the face of growing international competition, particularly from newly industrializing and transition economies? This book attempts to answer these questions using case studies of three pollution-intensive industries: iron and steel, leather tanning, and fertilizers. Based on in-depth interviews with managers and regulators in Western and Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America, the book illustrates the variety of responses to the conflicting pressures of globalization and environmental protection at corporate and industry levels. It also considers the impact which shifting competitive advantage has on the environment in newly industrialized countries and transition economies. Environmental managers and regulators of national and international environmental agencies will find Environmental Regulation in the New Global Economy of great interest, as will, academics and students of economics, environmental management, business studies, geography and international relations.

Food security is defined as the ability of countries, regions, or households to meet their required levels of food consumption at all times. Food security is an important component of human welfare, and it can act as an indicator of a region's development. This book addresses the roles of trade, policy development, and economic cooperation in creating sustainable food security in the West African region. The largely micro-level analysis is conducted on empirical data from the household where decisions on production and consumption take place. Food security is discussed in terms of its component parts, namely: availability of food (production and trade), its accessibility (incomes and poverty status), and its utilisation (health and nutrition).

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is a significant, anticipatory, environmental management tool. International debate focuses on its enhancement to meet the challenges of sustainable development, not least demands for scientifically robust integrated and participative decision-making. This Handbook hopes to improve practice by contributing an international, multidisciplinary, ready-reference source to this debate.

This first volume addresses EIA principles, process and methods. Part 1 maps the EIA process and its impact on decision. It positions EIA in the context of sustainable development and relative to other decision tools, including economic valuation. It also positions strategic environmental assessment (SEA) in a similar way. Part 2 addresses the elements of the EIA process and significant impact assessment topics - air, water, ecological, social, risk, landscape and visual - not only in terms of good practice but also methodological evolution. The volume concludes by addressing cumulative impact assessment and SEA methods.

Volume 2 provides a unique consideration for EIA implementation and practice - in Europe, Africa, the Far East, South America and North America. It uses a number of project types to provide 'how-to-do' guidance and addresses practice in policy and plan assessment.

This book should be ready by legislators, decision makers, economists, developers, industrial managers and consultants involved in this significant field.

This book explores the linkages among economic development, energy, and environment. An increase in economic activity is correlated with a higher level of energy consumption, which in turn leads to an increase in environmental pollution. Due to the influence of greenhouse gases, the higher the concentration of pollutants in the atmosphere, the higher the temperature, which ultimately leads to climate change. Under these imminent dangers, the role of economic and energy efficiency policies becomes important for ecological sustainability. The present policies, however, in various instances, have failed to address these issues. Hence, this book embarks not only to suggest modifications to improve the efficacy of the current policies but also to recommend to the policymakers, new and more effective policies for their respective countries. The book is bifurcated into two sections: The Economics and Policy of Sustainable Energy section discusses renewable energy policy responses to observed Impact of climate change using DPSIR Framework; the energy utilization strategies for transportation and commercial activities of Charland Bangladesh; the relationship of market globalization with the Indian energy sector; the socioecological effects of globalization from an energy perspective brought to a local standpoint; the seasonal disaster-induced energy consumption strategies of the char-dwellers of Bangladesh with respect to their domestic chores and agricultural activities; trends in GDP growth and energy usage in India; cross-border trade of electricity; and the events that the oil and gas industry has already faced and possible strategies it can adopt to overcome the recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Economics and Policy of Environmental Sustainability section analyses topics such as the role of hyper-globalization in spreading the pandemic across countries as threat to human ecology; the current scenario of environmental consequences, and future prospects of plastic pollution; the surface air temperature anomalies over selected countries of Africa; the impaired roles of the female gender in community natural resource exploitation in Ndop; the operational expansion strategies for garnering better output in terms of livelihood and conservation; opportunity for environmental justice and rethinking global community; linking indigenous traditional knowledge and sustainable development goals in the North-Western Himalayas; and recommendations to manage dry forest carbon stock. This book is a rich resource for policymakers, guiding them through untraveled pathways. Moreover, it is an extremely helpful resource for researchers, practitioners, industry professionals as well as students in the fields of energy, environment, and sustainable development with flavour of economics and policy.

Actions to accomplish Agenda 2030 have gained propulsion across time yet remain undetermined in several respects. This volume draws attention to environmental-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the progress of implementation at country and company levels, underscoring the urgent actions needed. Environmental Sustainability and Agenda 2030: Efforts, Progress & Prospects documents the status of environmental SDG implementation in the two developing blocs of BRICS and MINTS, highlighting the reporting practices across these countries. Contributors illustrate that multi-stakeholder participation using group model-building exercises can be practically helpful to generate a shared mental model of multiple stakeholders in conflict. Further insights with practical implications for managers and policy makers include mechanisms for managing modern slavery through corporate social reporting practices, minimising slavery in domestic and global supply chains; use of sustainability accounting in accomplishing Agenda 2030; corporate motivation for disclosing clean water and sanitation (SDG-6) related actions; and the state of corporate environmental reporting research in sub-Saharan Africa.

This book asks an important question of how management of the environment may benefit firms. The authors take an objective, neutral perspective on the extent to which environmental issues should, or should not, be addressed within the management of business corporations. The Environment in Corporate Management includes an up-to-date treatment of business practices, norms and standards, using the tools of microeconomic and industrial organisation analysis to provide an ordered and consistent picture. The analysis is couched within stakeholder theory, which determines how costs and benefits are defined for the firm. Utilising the most recent information the book also focuses on the underlying long-term trends. Actual examples and case studies illustrate the discussions. The authors conclude by highlighting the inevitable need to link environment and finance, for better stakeholder relationships and business performance. This unique book is written clearly and accessibly, but with a firm grounding in academia to challenge scholars and researchers in areas including environmental studies, business, economics and finance. Practitioners will also find the book of great interest.

The book explores the evolving economics of gold as a global commodity as well as the production and trade of gold in and from the African continent. The growth of gold as an increasingly important and diverse source of African wealth is examined, alongside the impact that the rise of China in the 21st century has had on the demand for gold. The volatility of the gold price has increased as a result of the dramatic decline of gold demand for manufacturing purposes. Gold is Africa's second largest export after oil and is a perfect metaphor for a continent rich in resources while so much of its population lives in such dire poverty. The artisanal and small scale gold mining (ASGM) sector, is surprisingly widely perceived as being beneficial to the development of Africa despite its exploitation and dreadful health and environmental consequences. African Gold: Production, Trade and Economic Development considers policy issues regarding the gold mining sector, the economics of beneficiation, the retreat of jewelry manufacturing across the continent as well as 'Africa's golden future'. It is a relevant book for both academics and policymakers interested in Africa, natural resource, and development economics.

This book celebrates the life and work of Peter Nijkamp, whose research provides a strong focus on regional science. His work follows a rigorous, comprehensive approach, centred around analytical modelling and methodological innovation. This edited volume, like Prof Nijkamp's research, covers a wide range of topics in regional science, analysed through multi-criteria evaluation, evaluation modelling, econometrics, and simulations, among other methods. These tools are applied to the analysis of society and culture, tourism and information, cities, environment and sustainability. Professor Nijkamp is one of the founders and the past president of the Regional Science Association International. His work forms a valuable reference for researchers, scholars, policymakers, and students in the field of regional science and other disciplines. This volume, timed to coincide with his 75th birthday, celebrates Prof Nijkamp's great contributions to regional science. He also promoted and participated in the education and development of young researchers not only in regional science but also in other fields, supervising many Ph.D. students and hosting even more as guests in Amsterdam. Contributors to this volume include Prof Nijkamp's former doctoral students and guest researchers, as well as associates and colleagues.

The fall of the Soviet Union was a transformative event for the national political economies of Eastern Europe, leading not only to new regimes of ownership and development but to dramatic changes in the natural world itself. This painstakingly researched volume focuses on the emblematic case of postsocialist Romania, in which the transition from collectivization to privatization profoundly reshaped the nation's forests, farmlands, and rivers. From bureaucrats abetting illegal deforestation to peasants opposing government agricultural policies, it reveals the social and political mechanisms by which neoliberalism was introduced into the Romanian landscape.

This book provides an in-depth analysis of the concept of the Circular Economy (CE), as well as an assessment of the drivers and barriers for circular practices by firms, and its implications for managers in firms and public policy makers. It includes proposals for policy frameworks and instruments that will encourage the uptake of CE practices. The book is presented in three linked parts. The first part of the book provides a broad view of the topic, put into the wider context of sustainability. In the second part, the drivers of and barriers to the uptake of the CE are analysed, with a special focus on the micro-level not seen often in the previous studies on the CE. This book is of interest to researchers, policy makers and post-graduate students in areas such as environmental management and economics.

This book presents a comprehensive overview and analysis of mangrove ecological processes, structure, and function at the local, biogeographic, and global scales and how these properties interact to provide key ecosystem services to society. The analysis is based on an international collaborative effort that focuses on regions and countries holding the largest mangrove resources and encompasses the major biogeographic and socio-economic settings of mangrove distribution. Given the economic and ecological importance of mangrove wetlands at the global scale, the chapters aim to integrate ecological and socio-economic perspectives on mangrove function and management using a system-level hierarchical analysis framework. The book explores the nexus between mangrove ecology and the capacity for ecosystem services, with an emphasis on thresholds, multiple stressors, and local conditions that determine this capacity. The interdisciplinary approach and illustrative study cases included in the book will provide valuable resources in data, information, and knowledge about the current status of one of the most productive coastal ecosystem in the world.

This book argues that mainstream economics, with its present methodological approach, is limited in its ability to analyze and develop adequate public policy to deal with environmental problems and sustainable development. Each chapter provides major insights into many of today's environmental problems such as global warming and sustainable growth. Building on the strengths and insights of Post Keynesian and ecological economics and incorporating cutting-edge work in economic complexity, bounded rationality and socio-economic dynamics, this book provides an interdisciplinary approach to deal with a broad range of environmental concerns. The contributors show how and where the two traditions share common ground concerning environmental problems and shed light on how the two schools can learn from one another. The book will be of great value to Post Keynesian and ecological economists as well as to those interested in new approaches to important global environmental issues.

Water pollution control has been a top environmental policy priority of the world's most developed countries for decades, and the focus of significant regulation and public and private spending. Yet, significant water quality problems remain, and trends for some pollutants are in the wrong direction. This book addresses the economics of water pollution control and water pollution control policy in agriculture, with an aim towards providing students, environmental policy analysts, and other environmental professionals with economic concepts and tools essential to understanding the problem and crafting solutions that can be effective and efficient. The book will also examine existing policies and proposed reforms in the developed world. Although this book addresses and has a general applicability to major water pollutants from agriculture (e.g., pesticides, pharmaceuticals, sediments, nutrients), it will focus on the sediment and nutrient pollution problem. The economic and scientific foundations for pollution management are best developed for these pollutants, and they are currently the top priorities of policy makers. Accordingly, the authors provide both highly salient and informative cases for developing concepts and methods of general applicability, with high profile examples such as the Chesapeake Bay, Lake Erie, and the Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone in the US; the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe; and Lake Taupo in New Zealand.

This book presents an exploration of linkages among soil-water, agriculture, and climate change with a special focus on thematic areas for assessment, mitigation, and management of natural resources under climate change conditions. This book covers advances in modelling approaches, including machine learning (ML)/ artificial intelligence (AI) applications; GIS and remote sensing; sensors; impacts of climate change on agriculture; subsurface water; contaminants; and socio-economic impacts, which are lacking in a more comprehensive manner in the previous titles. This book encompasses updated information as well as future directions for researchers working in the field of management of natural resources. The goal of this book is to provide scientific evidence to researchers and policymakers and end-to-end value chain practitioners which may help in reducing the overall adverse impacts of climate change on water resources and the related mitigation strategies. This book focuses on the knowledge, modern tools, and techniques, i.e., machine learning, artificial intelligence, etc. for soil-water, agriculture, and climate change. Further, nature-based solutions for management of natural resources with special targets on contaminants, extreme events, disturbances, etc. will be targeted. The book provides readers with the enhanced knowledge for application of engineering principles and economic and regulatory constraints to determine a soil-water, agriculture production action strategy, and select appropriate technologies to implement the strategy for a given data set at a site. It would also cover the application of laboratory, modeling, numerical methods for determination and forecasting of climate change impacts, agriculture production, pollution, soil health, etc. Overall, it provides hydrologists, environmental engineers, administrators, policy makers, consultants, and industrial experts with essential support in effective management of soils health, agricultural productions, and mitigation of extreme climatic events.

This book describes the latest microeconomic concepts and operations research (OR) techniques needed to comprehend the design and operation of power markets, as well as the actions of their agents: producers, consumers, operators, and regulators. This is critical when it comes to addressing a constantly evolving power system environment that incorporates an increasing number of no-marginal-cost renewable sources, increasingly competitive storage facilities, increasingly responsive demands, and widespread communication channels that allow distributed decision-making. Such evolving environments call for a re-examination of the microeconomic concepts and OR techniques required by graduate students and practitioners in the electric energy field. This accessible, tutorial-style book features numerous illustrative examples to help readers grasp the economic concepts and OR procedures used by power market professionals. The authors explian these concepts and procedures and present a vision of a renewable-dominated marketplace. Each chapter also includes exercises.

This book highlights the application of Geographical Information System (GIS) and nature based algorithms to solve the problems of water and water based renewable energy resources. The irregularity in availability of resources and inefficiency in utilization of the available resources has reduced the potentiality of water and water based renewable energy resources. In recent years various soft computation methods (SCM) along with GIS were adopted to solve critical problems. The book collects various studies where many SCMs were used along with GIS to provide a solution for optimal utilization of natural resources for satisfying the basic needs of the population as well as fulfilling their burgeoning energy demands. The articles depict innovative application of soft computation techniques to identify the root cause and to mitigate the uncertainty for optimal utilization of the available water resources. The advantage of SCM and GIS were used to maximize the utilization of water resources under cost and time constraints in face of climatic abnormalities and effect of rapid urbanization.

This book approaches economic problems from a systems thinking and feedback perspective. By introducing system dynamics methods (including qualitative and quantitative techniques) and computer simulation models, the respective contributions apply feedback analysis and dynamic simulation modeling to important local, national, and global economics issues and concerns. Topics covered include: an introduction to macro modeling using a system dynamics framework; a system dynamics translation of the Phillips machine; a re-examination of classical economic theories from a feedback perspective; analyses of important social, ecological, and resource issues; the development of a biophysical economics module for global modelling; contributions to monetary and financial economics; analyses of macroeconomic growth, income distribution and alternative theories of well-being; and a re-examination of scenario macro modeling. The contributions also examine the philosophical differences between the economics and system dynamics communities in an effort to bridge existing gaps and compare methods. Many models and other supporting information are provided as online supplementary files. Consequently, the book appeals to students and scholars in economics, as well as to practitioners and policy analysts interested in using systems thinking and system dynamics modeling to understand and improve economic systems around the world. "Clearly, there is much space for more collaboration between the advocates of post-Keynesian economics and system dynamics! More generally, I would like to recommend this book to all scholars and practitioners interested in exploring the interface and synergies between economics, system dynamics, and feedback thinking." Comments in the Foreword by Marc Lavoie, Emeritus Professor, University of Ottawa and University of Sorbonne Paris Nord

The book deals with the question whether the investment treaty law system could be harmonized with the climate change international legal framework and the climate interest that lies beyond. The answer to this research question is divided into three parts. The first examines the relevance of the climate change international legal framework in investment treaty disputes as a natural pre(logical)interpretative stage. The second focuses on the BIT's content-interpretation, which is the orthodox approach to solve the fragmentation between the system of investment treaty law and the system of international climate change law. Finally, the third part tackles this fragmentation through a heterodox approach that is grounded in the direct application of climate change principles through law ascertainment. Apart from concluding that harmonization between investment treaty law and international climate change law is possible through the orthodox approach to the expropriation and the FET standards, as well as through the direct application of the climate change precautionary principle and the CBDRRC principle heterodox approach, the book suggests that tribunals are expected soon to openly address climate change disputes in their rulings.

There has been some degree of reluctance in the past to consider disaster risk management within the mainstream of adaptation to climate variability and climate change. However, there is now wide recognition of the need to incorporate disaster risk management concerns in dealing with such phenomena. There is also a growing awareness of the necessity for a multi-sectoral approach in managing the effects of climate variability and climate change, since this can lead to a significant reduction of risk. This book presents the latest findings from scientific research on climate variation, climate change and their links with disaster risk management. It showcases projects and other initiatives in this field that are being undertaken in both industrialised and developing countries, by universities and scientific institutions, government bodies, national and international agencies, NGOs and other stakeholders. Finally, it discusses current and future challenges, identifying opportunities and highlighting the still unrealised potential for promoting better understanding of the connections between climate variation, climate change and disaster risk management worldwide.