Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science

The 1993 Environmental Action Programme for Central and Eastern Europe presented a series of recommendations for integrating environmental objectives into the process of economic and democratic reform in Central and Eastern European countries (CEEC) and the New Independent States of the former Soviet Union (NIS). In this paper, on the basis of findings of a recent OECD study, we look at progress across the region in light of these recommendations. In several CEEC, there has been a synergy among economic reforms, democratic development, and environmental improvement. These countries have seen important improvements in environmental conditions but now face a variety of challenges, many tied to the process of accession to the EU and the need to deepen integration between environment and sectoral policies, such as those for agriculture and transport. In other countries, and in particular many NIS, pollution reductions have mainly resulted from declines in economic production. Many of these countries face ongoing crisis in terms of establishing economic reform, stable societies, and environmental protection. In several areas of the former Soviet Union, environmental problems—in particular poor access to safe drinking water—pose serious threats to human health. Addressing these problems presents a difficult challenge both for national governments and for international cooperation agencies.

The transition experience in Russia in the 1990s has produced benefits for some people, but it has not generally been a happy one. The level of GDP is well below what it was at the beginning of the period, inequality has increased very sharply, and other indicators of well being, such as crime and human health, have deteriorated significantly. Much of this is not unique to Russia; many of the other transition countries have faced similar problems. Although Russia was not the worst performer for many of the indicators, one might have expected better given its initial advantages, especially the immense natural resource wealth. In this paper we seek to understand why the transition process has been difficult in Russia, and in particular to what extent these difficulties arise from its resource-rich status. Three hypotheses are analysed. First is the view that resource-abundant countries are slow to make reforms as they have a cushion of rents to rely on. The second explanatory factor is the impact of resource abundance on the real exchange rate. The last factor is a social one. Resource abundance creates social conflict, as the benefits from this are unequally distributed. Although all three factors have played some part in explaining the relatively poor performance of Russia during the transition period, in our view the last explanation is the most potent. For the future, the government must pay the highest attention to reducing the social conflict. This requires a crackdown on corruption and criminal activity. Furthermore, when reforms are introduced, the government must ensure that these are not used as a vehicle for a few people to extract more rents from the system. A more careful accounting of the rents from natural resources, allocating them to the highest value uses in a transparent way, would clearly be beneficial.

Most countries with economies in transition in Central and Eastern Europe and the New Independent States of the former Soviet Union use earmarked, environmental funds to channel subsidised finance for environmental protection. In some Central and Eastern European countries in particular, the funds are major financiers of environmental investments. The funds are typically governmental institutions capitalised by various revenue sources, including environmental charges and fines. They generally provide grants or soft loans for a wide range of environmental protection activities. Although a number of circumstances in economies in transition may justify the provision of subsidised finance for environmental investments, and though funds have been endorsed as potentially effective transitional mechanisms, a number of concerns remain as regards their role vis-à-vis other environmental policy tools, their effectiveness and efficiency, and their impact on the development of more market-based financing mechanisms. In this paper I will review development trends among the funds, examine issues critical to their role and operation, and identify institutional strengthening needs.

Since the adoption of the Climate Convention in 1992 at the latest, formerly communist countries have been following the climate debate despite serious domestic economic and social problems. Since 1990 the region has contributed the most to curbing the problem of climate change, albeit accidentally, through the sharp decline in their emissions in parallel with the decline in their economies. In this paper we review the role played by the economies in transition in the climate negotiations until early 2000, especially in light of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol to the Climate Convention. We consider emissions trends and the scope for further emissions reductions. Subsequently, the potential benefits of the “Kyoto Mechanisms”, which include emissions trading, joint implementation, and the Clean Development Mechanism, are discussed. We find that the climate policies in Central and Eastern Europe and in the former Soviet Union are drifting further apart. Activities in Central and Eastern Europe are dominated by the EU accession process, while the countries further east continue to grapple with economic crises.

The first part of this paper consists of a summary of previous studies on Russian emissions of oxides of sulphur (SO _x ) and nitrogen (NO _x ), followed by a summary of reports of Russian carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions. This range of estimates is then compared with reports of emissions from other major industrial Western countries, in order to provide information on the comparative magnitudes of acid rain and greenhouse gas emissions from the former Soviet region. The next section of the paper provides information on technological options for the reduction of acid rain and CO₂ emissions within a framework of available fuels and combustion processes utilised in power generation within the former USSR, paying particular attention to those technologies which are applicable to the reduction of acid rain or greenhouse gases either separately or simultaneously. I conclude the paper with a discussion of the Russian economic, political, and commercial factors which will influence the practical implementation of those technologies in that region, paying particular attention to the potentials for the development of indigenous Russian technologies and the assimilation of Western know-how.

The relationship between environment and tourism in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) can be portrayed as symbiotic, embedded within processes of postcommunist restructuring. With reference to specific CEE experience, I will evaluate briefly in this paper some of the components, problems, and outcomes of five dimensions of the tourism — environment relationship. These are: environment as a stimulus to tourism; environment as a constraint on tourism; tourism and sustainability; environment and place marketing; and tourism impacts on the environment. It is concluded that, although tourism should be viewed as just one element of postcommunist development, it has a multifaceted relationship with natural and cultural environments which demands that particular attention be paid to sustainable management.

Management of recreational activity in areas that are culturally or ecologically sensitive requires knowledge, and effective management, of recreationists' behaviour. In this paper we explore the role of spatial information systems, spatial modelling, and virtual reality in the analysis and prediction of visitor location and movement patterns. The quantitative modelling of the time spent by visitors on various aspects of the site attractions and of visitor conflict has not been widely attempted, having only recently become possible because of greater computer power, better spatial data storage options, and new modelling paradigms. Rule-driven autonomous agents can be used as surrogates for human visitors. Behavioural rules can be derived and calibrated from visitor surveys. This is, however, an expensive and time-consuming process and testing of people's decisions in a virtual environment may provide sufficient information for rule definition. Once a rule-set is determined, the autonomous agents move over a GIS-based model of the landscape. Rendering algorithms determine what an individual agent is able to “see”. Based on the established rules, this and other factors (such as tiredness) determine behavioural choice. Recording of model runs to file allows managers to undertake additional analysis to quantify and explore the influence of alternative management options on recreationist movement, congestion, and crowding. Through the GIS, impacts such as erosion can also be modelled. In the longer term the combined models can become part of a decision support system for sustainable tourism in fragile environments.

There is an implicit paradigm in the theory of spatial planning, which we call “spatial planning as a design discipline”. It is implicit in much of planning theory, and the exposition here is in many respects an ordering of ideas from planning theory which have been in circulation for many years. I will make them explicit and relate them to each other in order to lay bare the underlying assumptions, to help planning education, and to improve the relationship between theory and practice. Such an ordering of existing ideas inevitably looks backwards, so I will also investigate how the paradigm presented here relates to some recent innovations in planning theory. Because many of the ideas have been in good currency for a long time, it is probable that they have had a strong influence on planning practice in much of Western Europe: there is not just a paradigm shared by academics but also a discourse shared by academics and practitioners.

The increased acceptance and use of computerized GIS and digital data sets in private and public organizations in the United States has been in recent years further encouraged by the Federal initiatives which promote sharing of geographic data. In spite of the obvious benefits in terms of efficiency and effectiveness to be derived from sharing geographic information both within and between organizations, the idea continues to be resisted, leading to inefficiencies from duplication of data collection and storage. Using case-study methodology, we examine in this research the mechanisms and behavioral factors that can facilitate or inhibit the willingness of organizations to share GIS and databases. Five cases, including organizations with varied levels of joint GIS and database activities, were studied to determine the characteristics underlying successful interorganizational GIS. Our findings offer a number of suggestions for organizations seeking to derive maximum benefits from the interorganizational GIS activities.