Browsing by Subject "Environmental"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6

An analysis of ways to maximize the efficiency of the NEPA environmental process at the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs
(2010-05) Ramphul, Ryan Christian; Paterson, Robert G.; Mueller, Elizabeth J.
In light of the substantial sums of money that the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA) was awarded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, ways to maximize the efficiency of the agency’s various processes are highly sought after. The TDHCA environmental review process, which is required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), is one of the longest processes that people applying for federal funding through TDHCA must face. It is, therefore, a process that would substantially benefit the agency by being made more efficient. In this report, areas where applicants find the TDHCA environmental process to be difficult are illustrated by a systematic tabulation of the deficiency reviews sent to a sample of applicants from 2009. Additionally, survey data collected from people who submit environmental applications, and also people who review environmental applications, provides quantitative data about specific areas of the process where applicants meet with difficulty; and also qualitative data about where survey-takers feel the process could be made easier and more efficient. The data seems to indicate that applicants have significant difficulty knowing how to start the environmental process, the documents necessary, and how to fill out the necessary documents. In terms of suggestions, the results indicate that a more elaborate, user-friendly environmental webpage, complete with examples of required documents, and examples of how to fill them out, would make the environmental process exponentially easier for applicants. With the process being easier for applicants, TDHCA Environmental Specialists will hopefully not need to send out as many deficiency reviews to applicants, and will instead be able to review applications faster and issue environmental clearance quicker; thus making the process more efficient.
“Ce monde qui s’écroule en nous” : Abdellatif Laâbi’s apocalyptic consciousness
(2017-05) Goodstein, Liza Morrow; Grumberg, Karen
This report examines how francophone Moroccan poet Abdellatif Laâbi constructs an apocalyptic worldview in three of his poems from the early 1990s. These poems (“Éloge de la défaite,” “Le soleil se meurt,” and “Les écroulements”) rely on a double register of the word “apocalypse” that incorporates both its religious and secular connotations, which allows Laâbi to engage with questions of redemption and futility. The apocalypse manifests itself in imagery of both the disintegrating human body and the polluted environment, emphasizing the ecological interconnectedness of humanity and the non-human environment, as well as the role of the human in the planet’s destruction. I argue that this reading of Laâbi’s apocalyptic poems opens up a new understanding of his political engagement and humanism as he interrogates the possibility of a reformed humanity.
Cultivation ridges in theory and practice : cultural ecological insights from Ireland
(1998) Myers, Michael David, 1963-; Doolittle, William Emery
This study involves historical, ethnographic, and experimental investigations of agricultural ridged fields and associated farming practices in grassland environments. The literature review was global. Fieldwork was in Ireland, but implications pertain to similar features elsewhere. For theoretical purposes, the study considers rational decision-making pivotal to the temporal and spatial distribution of ridged-fields relative to level-field alternatives. The goal of the study, therefore, was to compare efficiencies in the economy of scarce resources, including labor, land, manure, tools, seed, and yields, and to compare subsistence risk from crop disease. This required analyzing the movements of body, tools, and soils in the field, calculating the time involved, and measuring effects on field forms, soil quality, micro-climates, and yields. Fieldwork in 1994 and 1995 included observations and interviews at traditional plow and spade competitions. Test plot experiments compared ridged and level field production from primary tillage through the harvest seasons. The analyses established significant labor- and yield-related variables, such as the linear measure of sod cutting, number of sods turned, and seed-furrow forms and spacing. They also provided local, case-study examples of labor inputs and agronomic results. The data suggest that prevailing ideas about ridging are in need of revision. They confirm that ridging can increase yields, reduce erosion, increase soil organic matter and fertility, and suppress bacterial and fungal pathogens, relative to level fields. The data also demonstrate that ridging can require less labor than level field tillage and is not necessarily a more complex technological invention. These observations may help explain the early, independent, and varied origins of ridge forms in Ireland and elsewhere. The variables of population density, markets, technology, farm size, frequency of cultivation, fallow practices, crops, fertility inputs, and bio-physical environments all affect the comparative costs and benefits, and the rational choice, between ridged and level fields. These variables modify the results of the fieldwork in logical ways for different contexts. Discussion of the field results and qualifiers in concert, sheds new light on the global distribution and timing of ridged field origins, persistence, obsolescence, absence, and future prospects
Development of sustainable transportation systems : lessons from Curitiba, Brazil
(2010-12) Mata Otero, Jorge; Zhang, Ming, 1963 Apr. 22-; Butler, Kent
Curitiba’s Integrated Transportation Network (ITN), in Brazil, has been highly regarded as a model of sustainable transportation for several years. Since its inception, the system has not only been molded to address the three core dimensions of sustainability –environmental, social and economic- but has also successfully brought together the government, the private sector and the general public. The purpose of this study is to describe the case of Curitiba’s planning process and transportation system. More specifically, this report first examines the conditions that led to a system to be well-regarded as sustainable and then determines some lessons learned that can guide the implementation of similar systems in other cities.
Sustainable aesthetics: perspectives from ecotourism design & Floating Bamboo Ecolodge in Halong Bay, Vietnam
(2014-05) Pham, Tue Duc; Garrison, Michael
Among all contemporary world's discourses that influence environmental design profession, sustainability appears to be a dominant and compelling narrative. The developing trajectory of sustainability in architecture seems to suggest an antinomy paradigm, a contradiction or inconsistency between two apparently reasonable principles or laws i.e. sustainability and aesthetics. As a result, emerging sustainable design requires an accompanying set of aesthetics which serve as design guidance and evaluation tool. Literature review of philosophy and designing profession realize three kinds of alternative aesthetics i.e. environmental, ecological, and performative aesthetics. The thesis argues that this alternative set of sustainable aesthetics provides a theoretical basis for the practical design of a built environment for eco-tourism. The thesis focuses on analyzing the implication of those aesthetics to sustainability in regards to design of ecolodges. Eco-tourism is one of the emerging pragmatic options of sustainable development and to consume ecotourism is to consume aesthetic experience. By reviewing and analyzing the case studies of ecolodge, this thesis provides the design features and strategies which are argued to integrate beauty and sustainability. The thesis also applies the findings to demonstrate the usefulness of aesthetic approach to sustainable design in one specific design proposal, Floating Bamboo Ecolodge in Halong Bay, Vietnam.
The deep roots of cannabis legalization : environmental and equity impacts of the legacy of prohibition in Mexico
(2022-07-08) Johnson, Margaret (Margaret Mary); Alvarez, C. J.; Olmstead, Sheila M.
There is a growing understanding that cannabis legalization in and of itself may not be the answer to the lasting harms of drug prohibition. Various examinations of the medical cannabis industry have uncovered issues of equity and how legalization can perpetuate the harms of prohibition by subjecting already marginalized small time producers to larger, more developed firms that can set competitive prices. Rather, the nature of legalization policy determines the effectiveness in alleviating the harms of prohibition and avoiding some of the environmental effects of legalization. Using Mexico, this paper will demonstrate how the legacy of prohibition has resulted in a consumer over producer narrative of legalization which in turn results in a pharmaceutical model of production based on the need to tightly control cannabis. The lingering anxiety of the illegal drug market and international market factors push a pharmaceutical model that is more capital intensive and environmentally fraught. Mexico’s newly legalizing market can help us see into the workings of this process and provide a way forward that is more equitable and more sustainable