The Local Agenda 21 Planning Guide - Democrats Against UN ...

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The Local Agenda 21 Planning Guide municipal structure coordinated the work and analyzed and interpreted the data; forum stakeholders verified the accuracy of their findings. The Green Audit was completed in May 1991. The results of the data collection and analysis were documented in a report entitled, “Lancashire, a Green Audit.” This report details the assets and quality of both natural and manufactured resources, and considers how human activities and natural processes are influencing these resources. The report covers sections on geology, topography, soils, climate, and vegetation, and it devotes chapters to air, water, waste, noise, land and agriculture, wildlife, landscape and townscape, open space, transport, and issues. The report has been designed to assist readers’ understanding of these topics, and as such, maximum use has been made of figures and tables and a glossary of technical jargon is included. Once the Green Audit report was prepared, an extensive awareness campaign was launched. The Green Audit report was widely circulated to libraries, schools, colleges, and Council offices. Each community in the county hosted a traveling information display. Forty-thousand information leaflets were circulated, and through this circulation process, citizens and Forum members were canvassed to identify priority issues. The major aim of the Green Audit awareness campaign was to gather the community’s views on the environmental issues and problems that concerned them most. These responses, together with the views expressed by all Forum partners, formed the basis for prioritizing the Green Audit’s issues of concern. This prioritized list of concerns formed the agenda for the development of Lancashire’s strategy for sustainability, the Environmental Action Programme (LEAP). To contribute to the monitoring and reporting process, the Green Audit will be updated every three years. LEAP will be updated every five years to address changes and incorporate new approaches. The Forum is now working to move beyond their environmental sustainability focus. The second Green Audit, which began in 1994, will be broadened to incorporate the social and economic aspects of sustainable development, providing the basis of an integrated approach to development. A Green Audit Working Group has been established to oversee the information aspects of the Forum’s work, including the selection of new sustainable development indicators. The next Green Audit will include indicators of physical sustainability, the quality of life, the social and equity consequences of environmental change, and the availability of sustainable lifestyles, in addition to providing up-to-date information on the state of the natural environment. Contact Graham Pinfield Head of Environmental Policy Lancashire County Council, P.O. Box 160 East Cliff County Offices Preston, UK, PR1 3EX Tel.: +44 177/226-4188 Fax: +44 177/226-4201 References Lancashire County Council. A Green Audit, A First State of the Environment Report. Preston, UK: Lancashire County Planning Department, 1991. 3.3.5 CASE #9 GOTHENBURG, SWEDEN ECOCYCLES IN THE URBAN SYSTEM Program Name The Eco-Balancing Method Background http://www.idrc.ca/openebooks/448-2/ (80 of 180)18/10/2010 12:47:23 AM
The Local Agenda 21 Planning Guide Gothenburg, Sweden, located at the mouth of the Gota River, has served as an important western port and trading center for Sweden since the city was founded in 1621. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Gothenburg was one of the largest shipping cities in the world. Today, Gothenburg has a population of 445,000 and covers 454 square kilometers. The port is still the largest in Scandinavia, with approximately 25,000 ships arriving every year. The dominant economic activities are automobile production, oil refining, trade and transport, technology and research industries, and education and services. Over the past century, Gothenburg has become increasingly contaminated due to the large quantities of hazardous substances used in local industries, as well as the presence of hazardous substances in locally consumed products. Other environmental problems, such as ambient air pollution, result from the high rate of population growth in the city’s suburbs, which has increased long-distance commuting into the city. Air quality problems have been aggravated because the city is located in a mountain valley and is subject to air inversions. For many years, the primary criteria used in making planning decisions during reviews of the city’s Structural Plan have been of an economic nature. Traditionally, structural planning in Swedish cities has not considered relationships between urban structure and environmental quality. However, recent recognition of the linkages between environmental resources and land use and development has made it imperative to develop new approaches to structural planning. Since 1987, Swedish local authorities have been required by the Swedish Planning Act to have a current structural plan covering the entire municipal area, including all land and water areas. These structural plans are to be based on assessments of both urban and natural systems. To obtain information on the relationship between the city’s physical plan and local environmental issues, and to identify and create public debate on “eco-cycle” issues, Gothenburg employed an “eco-balancing” methodology. This method offers residents and municipal officials an understanding of the possible environmental impacts of development alternatives by analyzing the flows of materials and energy in the city. Eco-balancing identifies existing or potential imbalances in these flows, thereby providing important information for consideration in structural planning. Program Description Definitions Eco-balancing employs a terminology not yet common in local government management. Eco-cycles refers to the fact that all matter that is circulated on Earth is used over and over again. In exploring eco-cycles in an urban system, two issues are studied and considered: 1) the recycling of materials and energy in urban processes and built systems, and the incoming and outgoing flows of materials generated by human activities, and 2) the impacts of urban processes upon natural cycles. Natural systems are known to have a limited carrying capacity. The term loads and limits refers to a calculation of the capacity of built systems (infrastructure) and natural systems (rivers, fisheries) to operate or absorb stresses before they fail, collapse, or change unalterably. Eco-cycle measurement and analysis conducted on any single material flow does not result in a comprehensive representation of the load on any given system. Urban systems are complicated and contain numerous material flows and links, which cumulatively impact or “load” biophysical cycles. Eco-balancing is a method for measuring the principle material and/or energy flows of a city. These include incoming flows such as water, energy, and raw materials, outgoing flows, such as wastewater and air pollution and the loads and limits on biophysical systems. Balancing analysis reviews the importation of materials and energy into urban processes, the conversion of such resources in the processes, and the export of materials and waste products into the economy and environment. This information is used during a planning process to inform and broaden public debate about the possible cumulative impacts of a course of development. Ecobalancing can fulfill many roles. Its functions include: • providing accessible and easily understood information on sustainability for public debate; • providing information for decision making; • identifying points of balance or non-balance in a system in order to determine how the creation, preservation, and change of settlements should take place; and • measuring progress towards sustainability. Application of the Eco-Balancing Approach http://www.idrc.ca/openebooks/448-2/ (81 of 180)18/10/2010 12:47:23 AM
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