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Illuminating opportunities to develop a more integrated approach to
municipal water system design, Natural and Engineered Solutions for
Drinking Water Supplies: Lessons from the Northeastern United
States and Directions for Global Watershed Management explores
critical factors in the decision-making processes for municipal
water system delivery. The book offers vital insights to help
inform management decisions on drinking water supply issues in
other global regions in our increasingly energy- and
carbon-constrained world. The study evaluates how six cities in the
northeastern United States have made environmental, economic, and
social decisions and adopted programs to protect and manage upland
forests to produce clean drinking water throughout their long
histories. New York, New York; Boston and Worcester, Massachusetts;
New Haven and Bridgeport, Connecticut; and Portland, Maine have
each managed city watersheds under different state regulations,
planning and development incentives, biophysical constraints,
social histories, and ownerships. Some of the overarching questions
the book addresses relate to how managers should optimize the
investments in their drinking water systems. What is the balance
between the use of concrete/steel treatment plants (gray
infrastructure) and forested/grassland/wetland areas (green
infrastructure) to protect surface water quality? The case studies
compare how engineered and/or natural systems are employed to
protect water quality. The conclusions drawn establish that it
makes environmental, economic, and social sense to protect and
manage upland forests to produce water as a downstream service.
Such stewardship is far more preferable than developing land and
using engineering, technology, and artificial filtration as a
solution to maintaining clean drinking water. Lessons learned from
this insightful study provide effective recommendations for
managers and policymakers that reflect the scientific realities of
how forests and engineering can be best integrated into effective
watershed management programs and under what circumstances.
Many different types of private investment are described and their
impact on the environment analyzed, leading to the conclusion -
surprising for many - that improved environmental performance can
accompany foreign direct investment. The book, the first in-depth
study of these important links, is built around a series of case
studies of various industries in Mexico, Argentina, Brazil and
Costa Rica. The authors, a multi-national, multi-disciplinary team
of experts, show how governments of developing countries can
actually attract foreign investors by integrating environmental
considerations into their investment promotion efforts. The book
also identifies points of leverage for actions by governments,
investors, environmental groups, and customers to increase even
further the environmental benefits that can accompany private
capital flows. This book makes an important and timely contribution
to the debate on foreign direct investment and sustainable
development. It will be of great interest to scholars and students
of environmental economics, development economics, international
finance, law, and management as well as to policymakers,
environmental advocates, and private investors.
Practical ideas provided by a case study of the Panama Canal
Watershed Exciting opportunities await the use of market mechanisms
for protecting forest ecosystems. However, questions remain on how
to best apply these mechanisms. Emerging Markets for Ecosystem
Services: A Case Study of the Panama Canal Watershed provides an
integrated, interdisciplinary methodological approach for
evaluating market opportunities for watershed services, carbon
sequestration, and biodiversity protection. Using the Panama Canal
Watershed as a case study example, this probing resource addresses
the main questions often asked about the various practical aspects
of the emerging markets for ecosystem services, including
quantifying value, payment structure, and equitable distribution of
benefits. Environmental issues are often at odds with economic and
business concerns. Emerging Markets for Ecosystem Services examines
practical strategies to integrate diverse aspects into coherent
strategies that benefit all. A scientific overview of the science
and current knowledge provides a solid foundation to build policy
and positive direction using the Panama Canal Watershed as an
example. This unique resource sheds useful light on the challenges
and provides insightful recommendations for areas struggling with
ecosystem issues and the application of market mechanisms. This
text is extensively referenced and includes several tables to
clearly illustrate data. Topics in Emerging Markets for Ecosystem
Services include: an overview of carbon sequestration in natural
forests, exotic plantations, native plantations, and agroforestry
systems policy tools to help reduce barriers to selling carbon
credits alternatives for increasing demand for land-use-based
carbon sequestration actions to encourage land managers to protect
water quantity and quality receiving full value of watershed
protection approaches to bioprospecti
Illuminating opportunities to develop a more integrated approach to
municipal water system design, Natural and Engineered Solutions for
Drinking Water Supplies: Lessons from the Northeastern United
States and Directions for Global Watershed Management explores
critical factors in the decision-making processes for municipal
water system delivery. The book offers vital insights to help
inform management decisions on drinking water supply issues in
other global regions in our increasingly energy- and
carbon-constrained world. The study evaluates how six cities in the
northeastern United States have made environmental, economic, and
social decisions and adopted programs to protect and manage upland
forests to produce clean drinking water throughout their long
histories. New York, New York; Boston and Worcester, Massachusetts;
New Haven and Bridgeport, Connecticut; and Portland, Maine have
each managed city watersheds under different state regulations,
planning and development incentives, biophysical constraints,
social histories, and ownerships. Some of the overarching questions
the book addresses relate to how managers should optimize the
investments in their drinking water systems. What is the balance
between the use of concrete/steel treatment plants (gray
infrastructure) and forested/grassland/wetland areas (green
infrastructure) to protect surface water quality? The case studies
compare how engineered and/or natural systems are employed to
protect water quality. The conclusions drawn establish that it
makes environmental, economic, and social sense to protect and
manage upland forests to produce water as a downstream service.
Such stewardship is far more preferable than developing land and
using engineering, technology, and artificial filtration as a
solution to maintaining clean drinking water. Lessons learned from
this insightful study provide effective recommendations for
managers and policymakers that reflect the scientific realities of
how forests and engineering can be best integrated into effective
watershed management programs and under what circumstances.
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