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The UK is one of several countries around the world that has enacted legislation to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. Monitoring of emissions has been done through a detailed sectoral level bottom-up inventory (UK National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory, NAEI) from which national totals are submitted yearly to the United Framework Convention on Climate Change. In parallel, the UK government has funded four atmospheric monitoring stations to infer emissions through top-down methods that assimilate atmospheric observations. In this study, we present top-down emissions of methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) for the UK and Ireland over the period August 2012 to August 2014. We used a hierarchical Bayesian inverse framework to infer fluxes as well as a set of covariance parameters that describe uncertainties in the system. We inferred average UK emissions of 2.08 (1.72-2.47)Tgyr-1 CH4 and 0.105 (0.087-0.127) Tgyr-1 N2O and found our derived estimates to be generally lower than the inventory. We used sectoral distributions from the NAEI to determine whether these discrepancies can be attributed to specific source sectors. Because of the distinct distributions of the two dominant CH4 emissions sectors in the UK, agriculture and waste, we found that the inventory may be overestimated in agricultural CH4 emissions. We also found that N2O fertilizer emissions from the NAEI may be overestimated and we derived a significant seasonal cycle in emissions. This seasonality is likely due to seasonality in fertilizer application and in environmental drivers such as temperature and rainfall, which are not reflected in the annual resolution inventory. Through the hierarchical Bayesian inverse framework, we quantified uncertainty covariance parameters and emphasized their importance for high-resolution emissions estimation. We inferred average model errors of approximately 20 and 0.4 ppb and correlation timescales of 1.0 (0.72-1.43) and 2.6 (1.9-3.9) days for CH4 and N2O, respectively. These errors are a combination of transport model errors as well as errors due to unresolved emissions processes in the inventory. We found the largest CH4 errors at the Tacolneston station in eastern England, which is possibly to do with sporadic emissions from landfills and offshore gas in the North Sea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large areas of the United Kingdom currently have nitrogen (N) deposition at rates which exceed the thresholds above which there is risk of damage to sensitive components of the ecosystem (critical loads), and are predicted to continue to do so. Previous studies have shown that this excess N can be very damaging to semi-natural ecosystems. However, such studies have focussed primarily on the relationship of species richness to nitrogen, possibly missing the risk that increased deposition can have on individual plant species. To address this gap in knowledge, we used data from two national observation networks over Great Britain: the vascular plant database and the Botanical Society of the British Isles local change network to examine the response of individual vascular plant species to nitrogen in acid grasslands, calcareous grasslands and heathlands. Presence absence records of individual species, along with mean Ellenberg scores, within 10 km hectads were modelled against N deposition whilst at the same time controlling for the effects of climate, land use and sulphur deposition using generalised additive models. Ellenberg N showed a significant increase with increasing N deposition in almost all habitats across both surveys. Many individual species showed strong relationships with N deposition and clear negative trends in species prevalence to increasing nitrogen were found in all habitats. Species that showed negative relationships to N showed signs of decline at low levels, far below the current critical load levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Notwithstanding its central place in social security policy-making and in the experiences of those on the receiving end of welfare reforms, cumulative impact is an under interrogated and theorised problem in social welfare scholarship. This paper seeks to address this in two ways. First, it draws on the lessons of the comparatively well-developed literature on cumulative impact in environmental studies to: (i) identify different dimensions of cumulative impact and (ii) best practices in undertaking cumulative impact assessments. Second, it argues that having regard to cumulative impact is not just good policy-making, but is also a legal obligation. To discharge the 'Public Sector Equality Duty' under s.149 Equality Act 2010, a public authority needs to have due regard to clear cumulative impacts between measures. In the context of social security policy-making, a failure to undertake enquiries to establish cumulative impacts between policies is likely to breach the PSED. Drawing on examples from the UK Government's Welfare Reform Act 2012 and the Welfare Reform and Work Act 2016 throughout, the paper makes the case for both the importance of addressing cumulative impact in policymaking, and the need for greater interrogation by social welfare scholarship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - This paper aims to summarise the methods and main findings of a study of the environmental impacts of providing higher education (HE) courses by campus-based and distance/open-learning methods. Design/methodology/approach - The approach takes the form of an environmental audit, with data from surveys of 20 UK courses - 13 campus-based, seven print-based and online distance learning courses - covering travel, paper and print consumption, computing, accommodation, and campus site impacts. Results were converted into energy and CO2 emissions per student per 100 hours of degree study. Findings - Distance learning HE courses involve 87 per cent less energy and 85 per cent lower CO2 emissions than the full-time campus-based courses. Part-time campus HE courses reduce energy and CO2 emissions by 65 and 61 per cent, respectively, compared with full-time campus courses. The lower impacts of part-time and distance compared with full-time campus courses is mainly due to a reduction in student travel and elimination of much energy consumption of students'' housing, plus economies in campus site utilisation. E-learning appears to offer only relatively small energy and emissions reductions (20 and 12 per cent, respectively) compared with mainly print-based distance learning courses, mainly because online learning requires more energy for computing and paper for printing. Research limitations/implications - Assumptions were made in order to calculate the energy and emissions arising from the different HE systems. For example, it was decided to include all the energy consumed in term-time accommodation for full-time campus students while part-time campus and distance learning students live at home, only requiring additional heating and lighting for study. Future studies could include more distance and blended learning courses offered by institutions other than the UK Open University and impacts other than CO2 emissions. Practical implications - Existing HE sustainability programmes should be broadened beyond considering campus site impacts and "greening the curriculum". Indeed, were HE expansion to take environmental impacts seriously, then part-time and distance education should be prioritised over increasing full-time provision. This appears compatible with the Leitch Review of Skills on continuing education and training for the UK workforce. Originality/value - The paper represents the only existing quantitative study of this issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy demand associated with energy consumption (commonly fossil fuels) has increased in line with the rise in world population and this has led to a number of complications. The best known and most prominent issue induced by fossil fuel utilization is unavoidable greenhouse gas emissions released as a result of the combustion of fuels. Emitted greenhouse gases from various sources, such as industrial plants, power plants, transportation services, residential utilization and so on, are largely responsible for global warming and climate change. According to latest reports, the share of the transportation sector in total energy-related CO2 emissions is approximately 23%. As a result of a detailed investigation and dissemination of transportation-induced emissions, air transportation is found to be responsible for approximately 3–4% of total energy-related CO2 emissions. The current study introduces a different perspective in the evaluation of aircraft greenhouse gas emissions. In this manner, a thermodynamic evaluation on the basis of the first and second laws of thermodynamics and a cost evaluation of greenhouse gases emitted from domestic flights in the UK are presented in the current paper, in addition to an environmental impact assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The preparation of strategic environmental assessment (SEA) inclusive sustainability appraisals (SAs) for neighbourhood plans (NPs) in England may be required when significant environmental effects are expected to arise from an NP. In this paper, we report on the result of a Ph.D. project, conducted between 2012 and 2015, in which all 15 NP SEA inclusive SAs that had been completed at the time were evaluated. In this context, the quality of SA practice was found to differ substantially. SAs were prepared either 'in-house' (i.e. by neighbourhood planning steering groups) or by consultants. The quality of SAs was found to be associated with their overall perceived degree of influence on the underlying NPs. Whilst the focus of this paper is on practice in England, findings are expected to be of interest to a wider international audience, in particular to those experimenting with voluntary neighbourhood/local level plan SA/SEA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The most widespread approach to transport appraisal is to combine cost-benefit analysis (CBA) with environmental assessments and public consultations. However, large-scale transport projects such as the HS2 high-speed rail system in the UK seem to have pushed this approach beyond its limits, leading to broad discontent with the appraisal process. There is a need both to develop new methods capable of integrating a wide range of perspectives in a systematic manner and to test these for large-scale projects. Multicriteria analysis (MCA) has proven useful in supporting transport decision-making by including a broader set of criteria in the appraisal process. Multiactor multicriteria analysis (MAMCA) has extended this approach to include multiple actors and stakeholders in the judgment and decision-making process. This paper builds on the MAMCA method and demonstrates its practicability and usability by applying it to the case of HS2. The purpose of this paper is not to reach a definitive conclusion on the desirability of various project options, but to complement existing transport appraisal methods by making different perspectives explicit. For example, the results for this case show contrasting views for different groups of transport professionals: a favorable assessment of HS2 among transport planners employed in government, but an unfavorable assessment among transport researchers with a background in sustainability. In terms of contribution to the development of data collection methods, this research demonstrates the usefulness of conducting semistructured interviews in conjunction with an online questionnaire for the assessment and weighting process within MCA. Because MCA results are expressed in terms of relative desirability of projects, the approach also effectively systematizes the inclusion and assessment of multiple options. Overall, the proposed method enhances the capacity to analyze conflicting views in large-scale transport project appraisal processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The EU water framework directive (WFD) provides a template for sustainable water management across Europe. The WFD requires the development of procedures to ensure appropriate mitigation of anthropogenic impacts on river ecosystems resulting from water abstraction and impoundments. It is widely acknowledged that alterations to flow regime impact on riverine ecosystems. As a result, hydromorphology, which includes the hydrological regime, is embedded within the WFD as a supporting element to achieve good ecological status (GES). Environmental flow releases from impoundments such as reservoir dams will need to be implemented to mitigate impacts from their construction and operation. This paper outlines the process involved in the analysis of available scientific information and the development of guidance criteria for the setting of environmental flow release regimes for UK rivers. The paper describes two methods—developed by round-table expert knowledge and discussions and supported by available data—for implementation of the WFD for rivers subject to impoundments. The first is a method for preliminary assessment of a water body to determine if it is likely to fail to achieve GES because of changes to the flow regime (indexed by simple flow regime statistics) in systems where appropriate biological assessment methods are limited or currently unavailable. The second is a method for defining an environmental flow regime release based on the requirements of riverine ecological communities and indicator organisms for basic elements (building blocks) of the natural flow regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CoRWM) set up in 2003 was tasked to oversee a review of options for managing UK radioactive waste and to engage the public in choosing a long-term solution with the objective of inspiring public confidence. This paper reviews the Committee's processes against their remit and guidance on public engagement. It shows that CoRWM assumed proof of-concept for geological disposal, despite the contrary verdict of the Sellafield inquiry, and biased the framing of options against 'interim storage plus ongoing R&D' (Netherlands option). CoRWM also failed to propose technical criteria comparable to those used internationally, and to resolve the deep disagreement on timescale between key stakeholders. The paper points out vested interests operated via CoRWM's programme manager (AMEC-NNC) and sees the checking role of Defra's chief scientist as also undermining the proclaimed independence of the Committee. CoRWM did recognise their need to range much wider than scientific and technical issues, introducing concepts of institutional breakdown, volunteerism, and socio-cultural timescales. However, these concepts were not subjected to stakeholder consultation and public judgement. The audit of public and stakeholder engagement omitted questions of procedural norms, imbalance of power, and lack of consultation on novel judgements. Two late 'show stoppers' were ignored in a desire to complete the task, resulting in a fudged compromise papering over deep divisions between members. Their final choice of 'Phased Deep Geological Disposal' expressed qualified confidence in the concept, yet favoured keeping the repository open while continuing R&D into other options. The substantial scientific uncertainties associated with this choice, the problematic process by which this decision was reached, and the concerns associated with the modes of public engagement, mean that their 'solution' is more rhetorical than real. The technical problems and requirements for public confidence remain obscured and unresolved. The reasons for this problematic outcome are located in the current UK policy push for substantial new nuclear power plants and in a culture tolerant of vested interest in nuclear policy-making and civil service warping of the science process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that small island states and territories provide a case for the application of health impact assessments. Their characteristic ecological fragility, vulnerability, relatively small size and limited resources give cause for environmental impact concerns. The tendency, therefore, is for decision-makers and developers to focus upon the economic benefits of proposed development projects while mitigating their environmental impacts, paying little attention to health impacts. The paper defines health status and health determinants and provides a toolkit of guidelines for carrying out health impact assessment in small islands. It discusses the approaches and lessons from the UK and Canada by which assessors in small islands can develop health impact assessment processes within their own contexts. The paper identifies the positive and negative health impacts that assessors should consider in assessing the impacts from tourism. The conclusions point to policy implications and the need for decision-makers to incorporate health impact assessment into their respective island's planning and regulatory frameworks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the UK Government now committed to promoting eco-efficiency through the Sustainable Consumption and Production programme, the role of eco-efficiency metrics and associated sustainability metrics is becoming ever more important. Business has a key role to play in actually delivering sustainability, and business-friendly metrics are vital in informing decision-making as well as monitoring progress. This paper describes how ecological foot- printing can measure the environmental impacts of projects and services and, more challengingly, relate those impacts to global environmental sustainability. The research described in this paper shows how ecological footprinting has been used at the project planning stage, to appraise possible construction options in the context of sustainable production and consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the treatment of social and economic impacts within UK environmental impact assessment (EIA). Socio-economic effects have an uncertain status in EIA, guidance on their assessment is limited and their treatment is often partial and of poor quality. This has led some commentators to view socio-economic impacts as the 'poor relations' in EIA. The paper presents the results of a recent review of the socio-economic component of UK environmental statements (ESs), which provides information on the extent, scope, balance and quality of socio-economic impact treatment. The review reveals that, although most ESs include some information on socio-economic issues, coverage tends to be narrowly focused on a small number of—primarily beneficial economic—impact types. Quantification of socio-economic impacts is also rarely attempted. The review findings are compared with those of similar studies undertaken in the mid-1990s, and the paper concludes with some recommendations for EIA practitioners relating to the treatment of socio-economic impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite widespread recognition that post-development auditing has the potential to provide feedback which could improve future Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), there remains a paucity of research which relates specifically to the evaluation of EIA predictive techniques, with even less progress in the development of audit methodologies. This paper describes a spatial analytical approach to post-development auditing that focuses upon the identification and analysis of the residual errors between the impacts predicted at a site using a particular predictive method and the actual impacts found to occur through monitoring. For three case studies, relevant impact predictions are tested (to determine the residual errors) and statistical models of the errors are developed in order to explore factors which may explain the performance of the predictive technique. The paper then considers the broader lessons and limitations that can be drawn out from the research both for auditing and EIA practice, including feedback on predictive techniques, the potential role of scoping decisions in generating errors in impact prediction, and the implications of uncertainty over future baseline conditions for auditing and impact prediction/interpretation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Breweries generate large quantities of waste materials per litre of beer produced. • LCA is used to model current management and valorisation of barley straw. • The valorisation scenario has a higher environmental impact associated. • This impact is mainly caused by the high energy use in the extraction process. Most food manufacturers in industrialised countries produce significant amounts of food wastes during their manufacturing activities. Due to the serious environmental consequences of managing these materials, environmental impact analyses have become popular to identify more sustainable practices for food waste management. Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a useful methodology to assess such environmental impacts. This paper presents the main results obtained using the LCA methodology to analyse the potential environmental impacts of waste management for a brewery in the UK. Initially, the main waste types are identified for this industry: barley straw, malt waste and spent grain, and then barley straw is selected to study its environmental impact in detail. An alternative, more sustainable way to manage barley straw by extracting its wax with supercritical CO 2 is discussed. SimaPro software is used to both quantify potential environmental impacts and evaluate the overall environmental performance of this valorisation opportunity, and to compare its modelled environmental impacts to the current impacts of managing barley straw. Results show that valorising barley straw by this method generates a high environmental impact due to the energy requirements of the processes involved, principally for human toxicity (cancer effects), human toxicity (non-cancer effects) and freshwater ecotoxicity impact categories. Using more energy-efficient processes or an alternative energy source would reduce this environmental impact. The analysis used in this paper allows an objective comparison between different scenarios with the final aim of supporting the use of sustainable solutions for waste management in the food industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper describes the research that underpins the development of EATS (the Environmental Assessment Tool for School meals), a life cycle-based decision support tool for local authorities and their contractors responsible for providing catering services to schools. The purpose of this tool is to quantify the carbon footprint (CF) and water footprint (WF) of the meals served in order to identify hotspot meals and ingredients, and suggest simple, yet transformative, reduction measures. A case study is used to test the tool, comparing the impacts of 34 school meal recipes. Methods: The tool utilises secondary data to calculate values of CF and WF for a school meal from cradle to plate. This includes three phases: (1) food production, (2) transport of each ingredient to a generic school kitchen in the UK, and (3) meal preparation. Considerations for waste along the supply chain are included. After testing the tool against a set of nutritionally compliant meals, a sensitivity analysis was performed to investigate the influence of the origin and seasonality of the ingredients, transport mode and cooking appliances used on the final results. Results and discussion: The results of the case study show the predominance of the production phase in the overall carbon footprint and that there is a strong tendency towards lower impacts for meat-free meals; however, this is not always the case, for instance some of the chicken-based meals present lower impacts than vegetarian meals rich in dairy ingredients. The sensitivity analysis performed on one of the meals shows that the highest value of CF is obtained when the horticultural products are out of season and produced in heated greenhouses, whilst the highest value of WF is obtained when the origin of the ingredients is unknown and the global average values of WF are used in the analysis; this defines a crucial data need if accurate analyses are to be uniformly possible. Conclusions: This article focuses on the potential offered by the public food sector for a transformative reduction in the environmental impact of urban food consumption. The results presented prove that careful menu planning and procurement choices can considerably reduce the overall environmental impact of the service provided without compromising quality or variety. This research thus supports those responsible for making these decisions via a user-friendly tool based on robust scientific evidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses two diverging interpretations of resilience to review and assess current UK policies and guidelines for urban resilience, a term generally associated with the strength of key systems and cities and their capability to maintain functionality in the face of external shocks. Both developed in scientific studies, the first interpretation (engineering resilience) is based on a mechanistic model of systems that can recover their original state aftershocks, and the second (ecological resilience) is based on an evolutionary model enabling adaptation to disturbances. Through a literature review, practical applications to planning are discussed for each model in terms of long-term efficacy. The contribution of this paper to an understanding of urban resilience is therefore twofold. First, an identification of the long-term consequences on the built environment of the policies associated with each model is provided, with the mechanical model ultimately hindering, and the ecological model favouring, adaptation. Second, some approaches to generate effective responses to environmental and societal change are identified, together with enabling tools. Ultimately, this paper emphasizes that the idea of a resilient city is fit for this age characterized by uncertainty, although it requires the recognition within planning practice that urban adaptation cannot be attained with current methodologies, and that much can be learned from theories on the resilience of ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper examines two related methods for estimating selected environmental effects of tourism consumption associated with major events. Monitoring and evaluation procedures for major events require that event promoters and managers understand how levered tourism consumption creates both economic and environmental effects. This process is however far from straightforward. The article focuses on the case of the UK stages of the 2007 Tour de France and describes two interrelated methods for examining environmental effects. The article shows that the methods adopted can be linked to more common economic impact assessments. With respect to the Tour de France event, the paper demonstrates that the approaches when combined provide useful information for policy makers, particularly in terms of how changes in travel behavior could significantly reduce the environmental consequences of major events. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The increasing awareness of the environmental impacts of construction materials has resulted in an increasing interest in earth masonry in the UK in recent years. The use of traditional vernacular techniques has raised the profile of earthen architecture but wider impact is likely to come from commercially produced, thin-walled, earth masonry as a replacement for blockwork, brickwork or timber-framed non-structural internal walls. Earth masonry is susceptible to changes in moisture, and this paper investigates the potential for early-age cracking from changes in moisture content during the most critical period for these materials, namely during construction. It is shown that internal stresses generated by moisture-driven expansion after rendering may exceed masonry flexural (flexure-induced tensile) capacity leading to premature wall failure. This failure mechanism was observed in a test panel and has potential to occur in real walls. Recommendations on how to minimise the risk of early-age cracking are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses the relationship between amount of climate forcing - as indexed by global mean temperature change - and hydrological response in a sample of UK catchments. It constructs climate scenarios representing different changes in global mean temperature from an ensemble of 21 climate models assessed in the IPCC AR4. The results show a considerable range in impact between the 21 climate models, with - for example - change in summer runoff at a 2 °C increase in global mean temperature varying between -40% and +20%. There is evidence of clustering in the results, particularly in projected changes in summer runoff and indicators of low flows, implying that the ensemble mean is not an appropriate generalised indicator of impact, and that the standard deviation of responses does not adequately characterise uncertainty. The uncertainty in hydrological impact is therefore best characterised by considering the shape of the distribution of responses across multiple climate scenarios. For some climate model patterns, and some catchments, there is also evidence that linear climate change forcings produce non-linear hydrological impacts. For most variables and catchments, the effects of climate change are apparent above the effects of natural multidecadal variability with an increase in global mean temperature above 1 °C, but there are differences between catchments. Based on the scenarios represented in the ensemble, the effect of climate change in northern upland catchments will be seen soonest in indicators of high flows, but in southern catchments effects will be apparent soonest in measures of summer and low flows. The uncertainty in response between different climate model patterns is considerably greater than the range due to uncertainty in hydrological model parameterisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines approaches to biodiversity assessment for environmental impact assessment in the context of an increasing emphasis on the conservation of biodiversity beyond the confines of protected sites, and the role of ecosystem services in sustainable development. The paper argues that while the matrix approach adopted in the UK for environmental impact assessment has some value in providing a consistent national framework, for ecological impact assessments it lacks sensitivity and focuses attention on notified sites and species. It therefore under-values those ecological resources at local scales. Three case studies are briefly considered where evaluation employed local assessment criteria, including an appraisal of the impacts on ecosystem integrity and the functioning of ecological networks. Attention is drawn to the importance of national and local biodiversity action plan habitats and species where trend data provide one of the key criteria for inclusion in the action plans and the England Biodiversity List. Evaluations based on the presence of such habitats and species need to take ecological and geographical context into account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background, aim and scope Considerable debate surrounds the assessment of the environmental impacts and the ethical justification for providing a year-round supply of fresh produce to consumers in the developed countries of northern Europe. Society is seeking environmentally sustainable supply chains which maintain the variety of fresh food on offer throughout the year. This paper compares the environmental impacts of different supply chains providing lettuce all year round to the UK and considers consumers' meanings of--and attitudes to--available options. Lettuce has been selected as a case study as its consumption has grown steadily during the last two decades and the supply chains through cold months are protected cropping in the UK and field cropping in Spain; during warm months, lettuce is sourced from field cropping in the UK. Materials and methods Data were collected from farms supplying each of these supply chains, and life cycle assessment methodology was used to analyse a range of impacts associated with producing (from plant propagation to harvesting and post-harvest cooling) and delivering 1 kg of lettuce to a UK Regional Distribution Centre (RDC). The downstream stages (i.e. retailing, consumption and waste management) are the same regardless of the origin of the product and were omitted from the comparison. The impacts considered included potential to induce global warming and acidification as well as three inventory indicators primary energy use, land use and water use). Qualitative data were collected in order to assess the consumer considerations of purchasing lettuce also during winter. Results Importation of Spanish field-grown lettuce into the UK during winter produced fewer greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions than lettuce produced in UK-protected systems at that time (0.4-0.5 vs. 1.5-3.7 kg CO2-eq/kg lettuce in RDC). Refrigerated transport to the UK was an important element of the global warming potential associated with Spanish lettuce (42.5% of emissions), whilst energy for heating dominated the results in UK-protected cultivation (84.3% of emissions). Results for acidification were more variable and no overall trends are apparent. Results from qualitative social analysis revealed complex and multidimensional meanings of freshness and suggested that the most striking seasonal variation in vegetable/salad eating was a tendency to consume more salads in the summer and more cooked vegetables in the winter, thus suggesting that in-home consumption alone cannot explain the rise in winter imports of lettuce to the UK.… [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first part of this paper demonstrated the existence of bias in GCM-derived precipitation series, downscaled using either a statistical technique (here the Statistical Downscaling Model) or dynamical method (here high resolution Regional Climate Model HadRM3) propagating to river flow estimated by a lumped hydrological model. This paper uses the same models and methods for a future time horizon (2080s) and analyses how significant these projected changes are compared to baseline natural variability in four British catchments. The UKCIP02 scenarios, which are widely used in the UK for climate change impact, are also considered. Results show that GCMs are the largest source of uncertainty in future flows. Uncertainties from downscaling techniques and emission scenarios are of similar magnitude, and generally smaller than GCM uncertainty. For catchments where hydrological modelling uncertainty is smaller than GCM variability for baseline flow, this uncertainty can be ignored for future projections, but might be significant otherwise. Predicted changes are not always significant compared to baseline variability, less than 50% of projections suggesting a significant change in monthly flow. Insignificant changes could occur due to climate variability alone and thus cannot be attributed to climate change, but are often ignored in climate change studies and could lead to misleading conclusions. Existing systematic bias in reproducing current climate does impact future projections and must, therefore, be considered when interpreting results. Changes in river flow variability, important for water management planning, can be easily assessed from simple resampling techniques applied to both baseline and future time horizons. Assessing future climate and its potential implication for river flows is a key challenge facing water resource planners. This two-part paper demonstrates that uncertainty due to hydrological and climate modelling must and can be accounted for to provide sound, scientifically-based advice to decision makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the genesis, design and construction of the Mike Wilde Eco Centre at Cockermouth School, Cumbria, UK. This highly unusual multi-functional teaching facility was designed specifically to minimise its environmental impact and to act as a showcase for sustainable design. The paper discusses the choice of different construction materials used and reviews their principal characteristics, along with a number of practical problems faced during design and construction. The more unusual building materials used include recycled brickwork and paving slabs, waste tyres and extensive timber panel construction. The building services and power generation provided are also discussed, as is the success of the project-and the various construction materials used-in terms of achieving its objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses laboratory tests on Lower Oxford Clay (LOC) stabilised using different levels of lime (L) or Portland cement (PC), with and without blending with ground granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBS). LOC is used by Hanson Brick Company Ltd in the manufacture of fired 'London' bricks at the Stewartby brick plant in Bedfordshire. The research investigated L-PC, L-GGBS and PC-GGBS blends to assess their potential for application in sustainable unfired clay building materials (bricks, mortar, etc.). Use of unfired materials reduces not only energy costs, but also environmental damage associated with the traditional firing process used in the manufacture of clay building components. Due to the high strength requirements of the building industry compared with, for example, stabilised highway pavement layers, a high maximum stabiliser dosage of 20% was used. For road construction, typical stabiliser dosages are 3-8% for lime and 3-5% for PC. In the current investigation, cylindrical test specimens were cured for 28 days at moisture contents of 25, 30, 35 and 40% before testing for unconfined compressive strength. Preliminary results show that the strength values for all stabilised material investigated was within the strength range of 737-2077 kN/m at 28 days, with L-PC blends tending to achieve lower strength values than L-GGBS blends. Overall results suggest that there is potential in using GGBS-based binders for the manufacture of unfired building components. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) is to develop into an effective decision support instrument globally, then it should not just rely only on the input provided by a selected group of countries. In this context, the understanding of how to apply SEA effectively in different planning systems is unlikely to improve if the knowledge about those systems is limited. This paper establishes what appears to make SEA effective in two countries with different planning systems: Italy and the UK. Italy is chosen as an example, representing a specific Southern-European planning culture, which to date has not contributed to the SEA literature to any great extent. Based on empirical observations, it is suggested that the SEA effectiveness elements portrayed in the international literature are not fully valid. The UK is chosen as an example, which represents a specific Northern-European planning culture. Countries representing this planning culture have contributed heavily to the international SEA literature and have influenced the development of SEA theory strongly. In this context, the SEA effectiveness elements and benefits portrayed in the international literature appear to be valid. As part of a PhD research project, this paper builds on the findings of a content analysis of the international SEA literature (Fischer and Gazzola, 2006). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose — The purpose of this paper is to provide a snapshot of environmental management practices in the UK and discuss managerial responses to environmental issues in comparison with earlier research. Design/methodology/approach — A telephone interview survey approach is adopted encompassing both quantitative and qualitative open-ended questions with a sample of 167 UK companies stratified by firm size and industry sector. Findings — The majority of firms are undertaking efforts to reduce their environmental impacts, yet economic considerations such as cost and risk reductions and achieving compliance with environmental legislation dominate firms' environmental behaviour. Especially small and medium-sized firms appear to rely on relatively short-term planning horizons, which ultimately prevent them from becoming more proactive in their environmental outlook. Comparison with earlier studies suggests that the overall behaviour of firms towards environmental issues remains reactive and economically-oriented. Research limitations/implications — Despite the growing salience of many environmental challenges, businesses fail to employ more proactive environmental strategies, suggesting that more has to be done at policy level to stimulate the incentives involved with adopting such an approach. Originality/value — By using a mixed methods approach the paper aims to overcome problems of respondent identification and social desirability bias. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The environmental impacts of British agriculture have been a popular focus in recent years within Landscape Research. However, to date, little attention has been paid to the case of hay meadows, an important feature of the landscape in cultural, agricultural and ecological terms, and one which has been threatened with decline. The paper considers the factors which have marginalized hay meadows in the discussion of agri-environment relations, showing that the lack of definitive data on hay meadows, government funding for more intensive farming practices, and the ephemeral nature of hay meadows have contributed to their ‘silent’ decline. Drawing on a case study of the Peak District in the UK, the attempts of current agri-envrionment schemes to encourage ‘traditional’ management, and the problems associated with the use of this term and its connotations, are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is currently limited guidance available in the UK for predicting the significance of the impacts of developments on the water environment. This may be partly due to the disparate nature of the components of the water environment, which are covered by a range of scientific and engineering disciplines. This paper reviews the current status of Environmental Impact Assessment for the water environment in the UK and identifies key methodologies and guidance. Proposals are made for a more detailed approach to determining the significance of impacts on rivers, stillwaters (lakes and ponds), groundwater and floodplains, building on methodologies previously developed for highways schemes. Account is taken of the Environment Agency's ongoing work to classify water features to meet the requirements of the Water Framework Directive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the role of environmental impact assessment (EIA) in project authorization decision making and the way in which the courts have interpreted its role. The purpose of the paper is to establish whether or not that role has changed over the period between the introduction of EIA in 1988 and 2001. From the evidence reported here, it is argued that while the procedural stages of EIA have been very much strengthened over that period, the importance of EIA as a tool to aid planning authorization decision making remains largely peripheral. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With a view to suggesting ways in which we might arrive at a more socially acceptable waste management facility siting process, this paper considers the effectiveness of a more innovative approach to risk communication for a planned municipal waste-to-energy incinerator in Portsmouth, Hampshire, UK. The risk communication programme involved a contact group process designed to enable key members of the local community to participate in structured and informed discussions about the proposal before it was submitted as a planning application to the competent authority. The paper concludes that the communication model was dominated by the findings of technical assessments and that it provided only limited opportunities for interested stakeholders to participate fairly and competently in the development process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As part of its principal aim of contributing towards achieving the objective of sustainable development the Environment Agency in England and Wales established a National Centre for Risk Analysis and Options Appraisal in 1997. This paper describes a key area of the Centre's work over the past four years, namely the development of an approach for integrated appraisal. This approach has been developed jointly by EIA specialists, economists, a social psychologist and an expert in technology assessment. There have been several opportunities for developing tools and techniques for internal use and the Agency has also been able to advise and inform others, particularly the Central and regional governments. This paper aims to summarise some of these case studies for the benefit of a wider audience. Significant challenges remain, not least because there are few role models to follow and relatively little published literature on the subject of integrated appraisal. Challenges are methodological, procedural and institutional. The paper recommends the term “integrated appraisal” as the umbrella term under which many other approaches (variously termed) fit and develops a checklist of questions to be asked. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Regulations to implement Directive 85/337/EEC have been in operation in the UK for over 10 years. Implementation of the amended Directive (97/11/EC) in March 1999 marked the start of a new phase in environmental impact assessment (EIA), and so a review of the impact of the original Directive upon EIA activity is timely. This paper examines the implementation of the Directive in the UK through an empirical analysis of the publication of environmental statements (ESs) between July 1988 and April 1998. ES submissions are analysed under Annexes I and II of the Directive and under the main UK regulations, and then development control decision outcomes are considered. The implications of selected legislation and policy initiatives for ES submissions are then investigated in detail for four types of project. The Directive has been a major force in stimulating the development and growth of EIA in the UK, although the interaction of policies and legislation (environmental and otherwise) can exert an important influence upon trends in ES submissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) has recently received increasing attention among UK manufacturing firms, there is a concern as to whether SSCM practices are being implemented because they are profitable or only because of governance coercive pressure. Thus, the aims of this paper are twofold: first, determining the role of governance in the adoption of SSCM practices; second, investigating whether SSCM practices can be both environmentally beneficial and commercially viable. In light of these issues, this paper develops and empirically assesses an integrated model of governance pressures-SSCM practices-performance. Data was collected from 146 UK manufacturing managers, and analysed using the structural equation modelling method. Exogenous driving forces of governance were found to be precursors to the successful implementation of SSCM practices. The empirical results further suggest that while the implementation of sustainable supply chain management has a positive effect on environmental performance, it does not necessarily lead to improved economic performance, as only sustainable procurement was found to have a positive effect on economic performance. This paper contributes to the literature by highlighting the role of governance in SSCM adoption and performance gains in environmental protection while economic performance is partially compromised. The results also provide useful insights for both managers seeking to adopt sustainable practices and policy-makers seeking to further promote sustainable supply chain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development steered by The United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO) since 2005 ended in 2014. It looked into the integration principles, values and practices of sustainable development in all aspects of education and learning, with the intention of addressing the global social, economic, cultural and environmental issues in the 21st century. It has become an essential issue in architectural education to create awareness among future generations of architects to be more sensitive towards the environmental impact of architecture on human behavior. This encouraged every school of architecture to incorporate sustainability knowledge into its curriculum and promote ‘sustainable architectural education’, leading to the questions of: what type of structural model of integration approach being applied in promoting architectural sustainable education? The objectives of this paper are to investigate the type of structural models that have been applied in architectural curriculum in selected schools of architecture in both countries and evaluate the level of emphasis in incorporating sustainability knowledge in the curriculum. Therefore, this paper reviewed the approach of integration principles, values and practices of sustainable development at 10 conveniently sampled architecture schools in the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States of America (USA). Data was collected from their respective web sites and their concepts of integration were reviewed and the distribution of credit hours revealed to determine the level of emphasis considered. Findings showed various paths taken by the different institutions in integrating the knowledge of sustainability into their architectural curriculum. This paper concludes with recommendations for further research into gauging the effectiveness of architectural curricula with integrated sustainability knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local level decision-making can provide a vital and practicable means through which to deliver carbon reductions at individual, household and community levels. This paper explores the opportunities and challenges associated with the role of local government action in delivering a resilient, low carbon future. Drawing on qualitative data gathered through interviews with six case study local authorities in the UK, the paper examines in particular the ways in which they have tried to address energy and environmental goals in their areas of jurisdiction. The principles of Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) are employed to provide fresh insights on the potential for local government to encourage ‘niche’ level influences on economic, technological and social/behavioural innovation. In doing so, we identify the enabling factors and drivers that have given rise to success in linking microlevel goals with existing macro-level objectives, as well as highlighting some of the persistent obstacles that continue to hamper progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is much debate and conjecture over how participation in agri-environment schemes (AESs) (re)shapes farmers’ environmental actions, understandings and associated identities. This paper develops a unique, temporally sensitive, qualitative approach of revisiting farms—which acts as a corrective to the current, speculative, understandings of how farmers’ relationships with AESs change over time. The paper advances Bourdieusian-inspired ideas of the cultural construct of ‘good farming’ and ‘knowledge cultures’, bringing in the notion of hysteresis in order to develop a temporally-inflected consideration of farmers and their AES involvement. The findings reveal how, over the 10 year period, constructive interchanges have taken place between farmers and conservation officers, and stress the need, when thinking about the cultural sustainability of AESs, to recognise the multiple forms of capital that farms may produce. Conceptually, the paper reshapes the concept of the good farmer to: (1) recognise the geographically-contingent nature of the term; (2) redefine the concept away from the hitherto predominant focus on farming individuals; (3) give closer appreciation of the multiple forms of capital which constitute the good farmer identity (as well as how these intersect with each other); (4) and offer clearer recognition of how the good farmer ideals may evolve and be redefined over time. The paper moves on to make practical recommendations for those developing and administering AESs. Beyond the consideration of farmers, the paper has implications for wider understandings of environmental behaviours and associated identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

EIA is globally recognised and implemented as a decision making support instrument in project planning. Whilst it should be involved in both, pre-development consent deliberations as well as in subsequent phases, including post construction, in practice, follow-up is often deficient. In this paper, a review of how follow-up is dealt with in UK environmental statement non-technical summaries is presented. Furthermore, opinions of UK EIA practitioners with regards to current practices and barriers and possible implications of the new EC EIA Directive from 2014 are discussed. Comparing results with earlier publications, an overall minor positive change in follow-up practices in the UK is identified and three main barriers for improved follow-up are established: (1) lack of appropriate legislation, (2) implementation costs, and (3) lack of enforcement. The latter may still be the number one reason for continued deficient practice, even when the new EIA Directive is implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a quantitative-based evaluation of the environmental impact of a proposed wind farm is presented using the Rapid Impact Assessment Matrix (RIAM). The paper uses the revised Environmental Statement of the Grove Farm Wind Energy Project, which was rejected during the planning decision consent stage initially and upheld on appeal. The paper evaluates quantitatively the potential impact of an onshore wind farm at the construction and operation stages. Based on the RIAM evaluation conducted, the paper then goes on to apply a mathematical model to the results to determine the indicated potential level and nature of sustainability of the proposed wind farm. The results indicate that the Grove Farm project was deemed, as a whole, detrimental to the environment–human system, particularly in respect to impacts to visual amenity and cultural heritage. The application of the model to the RIAM indicated that in both the construction and operation stages, the project was considered as unsustainable. The results obtained raised legitimate questions as to the benefits of such projects as a major contributor to the UK׳s renewable and sustainable energy mix. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents life cycle environmental impacts of UK shale gas used for electricity generation, in comparison with other fossil, nuclear and renewable options. Per kWh of electricity generated, shale gas has higher environmental impacts than the other options, except for coal. Thus, if it were to replace coal, most impacts would be reduced, including the global warming potential (GWP; by 2.3 times). However, if it were to compete with nuclear or some renewables most impacts would rise, with the GWP increasing by 5-123 times. Within a future UK electricity mix up to 2030, shale gas would make little difference to the environmental impacts of electricity generation, including the GWP, even for the most optimistic assumptions for its domestic production. This suggests that, in the medium term, shale gas cannot help towards meeting UK climate change targets and that certain renewables and nuclear power should be prioritized instead. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tidal stream energy is a predictable renewable energy source; however, environmental consent of developments remains a key barrier to the expansion of this industry. Uncertainty around collision risk, i.e., the risk of animals colliding with a tidal device, remains a major barrier to consent. Collision risk models are used in environmental impact assessments. Common collision risk models, like the Encounter Rate and Band Models, have limitations in accommodating new device designs and flexibility. To address this, a simulation-based approach was developed. To provide confidence in its use, it is important that the simulation-based approach is compared against the Band model and the Encounter rate model, which have been regularly used in the UK. Here, we compared collision risk estimates from the three models under the same exact conditions and one alternative condition. The results of the main scenario (where all conditions were the same) showed that the three models produced comparable results with <6% difference across all models. However, for the alternative scenario, the simulation-based approach produced a result three times higher compared to other models, which could not account for a vertical approach angle. These findings provide confidence in the simulation-based approach whilst also outlining the importance of selecting an appropriate collision risk model, tailored to the specific assessment scenario. Improved understanding and application of such models hold the key to more accurate risk evaluations in environmental impact assessments, thus facilitating the sustainable development of the tidal energy industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The aim of the paper is to estimate life cycle costs (LCC) of the current housing stock in the UK as part of sustainability assessment of the residential construction sector. This is carried out by first estimating the life cycle costs of individual houses considering detached, semi-detached and terraced homes. These results are then extrapolated to the UK housing stock consisting of seven million each of semi-detached and terraced houses and four million of detached houses. A brief discussion of life cycle environmental impacts is also included to help identify improvement opportunities for both costs and impacts. Methods: The life cycle costing methodology followed in the study is congruent with the life cycle assessment methodology. The system boundary for the study is from 'cradle to grave', including all activities from extraction and manufacture of construction materials to construction and use of the house to its demolition. The functional unit is defined as the construction and occupation of a house in the UK over the lifetime of 50 years. Results and discussion: The total life cycle costs are estimated at £247,000 for the detached house, £192,000 for the semi-detached and £142,000 for the terraced house. The running costs in the use stage contribute 52 % to the total life cycle costs of which half is from energy use. The construction costs contribute 35 % to the total LCC with the walls and the roof being the most expensive items. The remaining 13 % of the costs are incurred at the end of life of the house which are largely (85 %) due to the cost of labour for demolition. Recovery of end-of-life materials has a limited potential to reduce the overall life cycle costs of a house. The life cycle costs of the whole housing stock are estimated at £67 billion per year or £3,360 billion over the 50-year lifetime. Conclusions: The existing housing stock in the UK is facing a number of challenges that will need to be addressed in the near future. These include improving energy efficiency and reducing the dependency on fossil fuels to reduce energy demand, fuel poverty and environmental impacts. Furthermore, the disparity between the construction costs and house market prices will need to be addressed to ensure that access to housing and house ownership do not become the privilege of a few. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we establish how effectively EIA is currently utilised in the deployment of onshore and offshore wind energy in the United Kingdom (UK) and Germany. In this context, the quality of EIA documentation and the coverage of a range of key EIA aspects of 20 developments are evaluated. Furthermore, the impact of EIA on decision making is established, based on opinions of decision makers and other stakeholders. We find that whilst there are certain weaknesses, overall EIA information is central to decision making, and EIA is resulting in major project modifications. Our results differ from the findings of most previous studies which usually observed a moderate impact on decision making only. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Potential evapotranspiration (PET) is the water that would be lost by plants through evaporation and transpiration if water was not limited in the soil, and it is commonly used in conceptual hydrological modelling in the calculation of runoff production and hence river discharge. Future changes of PET are likely to be as important as changes in precipitation patterns in determining changes in river flows. However PET is not calculated routinely by climate models so it must be derived independently when the impact of climate change on river flow is to be assessed. This paper compares PET estimates from 12 equations of different complexity, driven by the Hadley Centre's HadRM3-Q0 model outputs representative of 1961-1990, with MORECS PET, a product used as reference PET in Great Britain. The results show that the FAO56 version of the Penman-Monteith equations reproduces best the spatial and seasonal variability of MORECS PET across GB when driven by HadRM3-Q0 estimates of relative humidity, total cloud, wind speed and linearly bias-corrected mean surface temperature. This suggests that potential biases in HadRM3-Q0 climate do not result in significant biases when the physically based FAO56 equations are used. Percentage changes in PET between the 1961-1990 and 2041-2070 time slices were also calculated for each of the 12 PET equations from HadRM3-Q0. Results show a large variation in the magnitude (and sometimes direction) of changes estimated from different PET equations, with Turc, Jensen-Haise and calibrated Blaney-Criddle methods systematically projecting the largest increases across GB for all months and Priestley- Taylor, Makkink, and Thornthwaite showing the smallest changes. We recommend the use of the FAO56 equation as, when driven by HadRM3-Q0 climate data, this best reproduces the reference MORECS PET across Great Britain for the reference period of 1961-1990. Further, the future changes of PET estimated by FAO56 are within the range of uncertainty defined by the ensemble of 12 PET equations. The changes show a clear northwest-southeast gradient of PET increase with largest (smallest) changes in the northwest in January (July and October) respectively. However, the range in magnitude of PET changes due to the choice of PET method shown in this study for Great Britain suggests that PET uncertainty is a challenge facing the assessment of climate change impact on hydrology mostly ignored up to now. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The environment has become an increasingly prominent consideration across the third sector in the UK. However, while there has been an 'audit explosion' in relation to demonstrating the social mission of third sector organisations (TSOs), this has not transferred to the management of environmental impacts. This paper offers the first assessment of the development and adoption of environmental management systems (EMSs) across the third sector. Through a comparison with the experience of the private sector, analysis of key documents, interviews with third sector and government actors, and case studies of TSOs that have applied and/or adapted EMSs, the paper provides evidence of a relatively low level of innovation in this area. The paper concludes with reflections on the tensions associated with the future development of EMSs across the third sector, in particular the ambiguous role of government policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]