Richard Burroughs

THE PROSPECTS FOR COMPREHENSIVE OCEAN MANAGEMENT

The authors purpose is to consider existent challenges to ocean management, and to also analyze the longer-term prospects. He discusses how changing uses, perceptions and legal arrangements alter views on ocean management and what obstacles are hindering more effective management.

Ecosystem management: A comparison of greater yellowstone and georges bank

Ecosystem management links human activities with the functioning of natural environments over large spatial and temporal scales. Our examination of Greater Yellowstone and Georges Bank shows similarities exist between human uses, administrative characteristics, and some biophysical features. Each region faces growing pressures to replace traditional extractive uses with more sustainable extractive or noncommodity uses coupled with concern about endangered species. Ecosystem management as a set of practical guidelines for making decisions under evolving expectations is far from complete, and it embodies new demands on individuals and institutions. In each system these challenges are considered relative to: the publics symbolic understanding of the management challenge, ecosystem management ambiguities, information availability, information use, administrative setting, and learning capabilities of governance organizations Progress in making ecosystem management operational may occur as refinements in content and approach make it an increasingly attractive option for resource users, the public, and government officials.

Regional Ocean Governance in China: An Appraisal of the Clean Bohai Sea Program

In 2001 China embarked on an ambitious program to improve water quality through creation of the Clean Bohai Sea Program (CBSP). It is the first regional ocean governance program in China. The joint conference of central and local government units directed CBSP under the leadership of the State Environment Protection Administration. To meet the environmental objectives established by the joint conference local governments must pay for the program and operate it, but to date they have not been able to fully fund the effort. Although data indicate a decline of polluted discharges to the Bohai, one tabulation shows that the area of the sea that is polluted has increased each year from 2001 to 2005. Future enhancement of CBSP depends on revising incentives to better link local environmental programs and development, establishing funding mechanisms to equitably spread costs throughout watersheds, and creating comprehensive monitoring programs to better appraise program results.

Exploring the Connections Between Ferries and Urban Form: Some Considerations Before Jumping on Board

Due in part to new technology and rapid population growth in coastal areas, there recently has been renewed interest in making ferry service an important part of urban transportation in the United States. This paper explores the relationship between ferry service and the built environment by examining three questions. First, what types of urban regional forms are most compatible with passenger ferry service? Second, what type of land-use activities can ferries support in and around a ferry terminal? Third, how should ferry terminals specifically and the waterfront generally be developed to maintain future flexibility for ferry services? A literature review on ferry services and terminals in coastal metropolitan areas and visits to several of the sites discussed in the literature are used as the basis for the general discussion about the interrelationship between ferries and urban form and the factors that create competitive advantages and disadvantages for ferries. The lessons learned from this review are applied to evaluate the feasibility for new or expanded ferry service on Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island. Findings indicate that while there are opportunities for new ferry routes and ferry transit-oriented development, investments in terminals should be kept to a minimum, especially at the beginning of a new service. Instead, resources should be focused on creating mixed-use neighborhoods near the ferry landing. Since water bodies represent an important type of open space in populated areas, the terminal, staging area and landing space for the ferry also be minimized.

Narragansett bay pollution control: An evaluation of program outcome

Abstract Program evaluation, a technique used to measure the effectiveness of governmental programs, is applied to estuarine management. Point source loadings of oxygen demanding organic material and ambient conditions of bottom water dissolved oxygen in the upper reaches of the Narragansett estuary were examined over recent decades to determine the effects of a sweage treatment plant in reducing pollution. Two tests of program outcome are presented. The first demonstrates that a statistically significant increase in bottom water dissolved oxygen is correlated with a sewage treatment plant upgrade. Other possible causes for this change are examined and eliminated. Apparently, enhanced sewage treatment is the cause of an improvement in dissolved oxygen, one measure of ambient water quality. The second analysis shows that these improvements in water quality exceed those that could be attributed to improved background conditions caused by reduced loading from the major river. Estuarine segments lacking impro...

Institutional change in the Port of New York

Innovation, organizational capabilities, and environmental values combine to determine institutional change for a major marine port. This conceptual framework is applied to the case of dredged material management for the Port of New York and New Jersey. During the century under review, the institutional setting has changed significantly with: (1) environmental considerations moving from nearly irrelevant to central: (2) the number of interests and organizations increasing; and (3) the decision processes becoming far more complex. Ultimately, the new institutional setting influences organizations and individual decisions. As a result of the changes, the practice of dredged material disposal in ocean waters has been limited based on the level of bioaccumulation of selected contaminants. In response to institutional changes, ports requiring deepened channels must rapidly innovate to meet new environmental obligations for material disposal in order to enhance organizational capabilities necessary to maintain competitive advantages in maritime commerce. Successful marine ports will anticipate and meet new societal expectations related to the environment as a condition for continued legitimacy. Collectively these changes imply that ports have moved beyond a carefully circumscribed mission of transportation and economic development to that of a prominent user of coastal space with broad obligations to the public.Innovation, organizational capabilities, and environmental values combine to determine institutional change for a major marine port. This conceptual framework is applied to the case of dredged material management for the Port of New York and New Jersey. During the century under review, the institutional setting has changed significantly with: (1) environmental considerations moving from nearly irrelevant to central: (2) the number of interests and organizations increasing; and (3) the decision processes becoming far more complex. Ultimately, the new institutional setting influences organizations and individual decisions. As a result of the changes, the practice of dredged material disposal in ocean waters has been limited based on the level of bioaccumulation of selected contaminants. In response to institutional changes, ports requiring deepened channels must rapidly innovate to meet new environmental obligations for material disposal in order to enhance organizational capabilities necessary to maintain competitive advantages in maritime commerce. Successful marine ports will anticipate and meet new societal expectations related to the environment as a condition for continued legitimacy. Collectively these changes imply that ports have moved beyond a carefully circumscribed mission of transportation and economic development to that of a prominent user of coastal space with broad obligations to the public.

Ocean dumping,: Information and policy development in the USA

This article examines the quantity, quality and value of the ocean dumping information that is gathered in the U.S. in connection with the legal requirements of the Marine Protection, Research and Sanctuaries Act of 1972. It deals with three main issues: The first concerns the comprehensiveness and accuracy of the information compiled, using these qualities to measure how well the government has fulfilled its mandate. The second examines the utility of the information in determining trends, and the question of whether those trends are consistent with policy aims. Lastly, it looks at whether changes in policy have so affected the value of existing information that the governments information collection role should be redefined.

Nonpoint sources as external threats to coastal water quality: Lessons from park service experience

Abstract Program design for nonpoint source control is considered through an analogous problem, external threats to national parks. Nonpoint sources are diffuse land activities that degrade water quality, and recent federal legislation seeks to limit them in coastal areas. External threats occur outside a park boundary but affect the purposes for or resources within the park. They have been subject to federal management for many decades. Nonpoint sources are a class of external threat. Therefore, programs to limit them should consider techniques used in park protection. These park techniques include “hard approaches,”; which rely on power, usually through legal devices, and “soft approaches,”; which utilize shared values and objectives. Among the techniques presented, a linked approach, as exemplified at the Cape Cod National Seashore, appears most promising. In a linked approach, if a soft approach fails, the manager of the protected unit is empowered to take an alternative hard action to protect the res...

Organizational change and marine environmental protection: The dredge spoil siting record

Dredge spoil siting activities are reviewed over a decade to determine whether organizational changes within the Corps of Engineers produced changes in the environmental performance of the agency. Over the period neither the total amount of marine and estuarine dredging nor the incidence of siting spoil inside the baseline declined. Therefore, internal organizational changes do not appear to have affected the above measures of agency performance concerning protection of the marine environment. Furthermore, at least 3% of the spoil is estimated to be highly contaminated. In recent years this magnitude of contaminated spoils has been equivalent to ocean-dumped sewage sludge.

Goal and Trend Assessment to Define Coastal Ecosystem Management Initiatives

Initiating ecosystem management in a coastal region is facilitated if multiple stakeholders recognise common problems. New management initiatives arise from a comparison of shared goals embodied in law and in planning documents with trends in the environment and society. Applying this approach to the Narragansett Bay ecosystem in the north-eastern US produces four types of relationships. Each relationship leads to different actions that managers and others may wish to pursue. First, when trends are consistent with goals, management activities limited to monitoring are appropriate. For example, in the Narragansett Bay ecosystem, the trend of declining metal loading is consistent with the goal of increased water quality and requires only passive observation to confirm its continuation. Second, when trends important to achieve specific goals are uncertain or unknown, applied research is an appropriate management response. Recent questions about the causes of low oxygen in selected Bay waters and about the magnitudes of different nitrogen sources call for additional applied research. Third, when known trends are inconsistent with goals, then managers and stakeholders must collaborate to devise new programmes. Fisheries decline and increasing nitrogen loading are examples where new management initiatives are mandated. The former has received important attention through changes in state legislation. Finally, the goals themselves may be uncertain, as in the case of a major port development. In this situation, managers can play an important role in clarifying goals through creating processes to enable better understanding of underlying values.