Improving the Urban Environment by Implementing Appropriate UEM Policies

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Improving the Urban Environment by Implementing
Appropriate UEM Policies

• by
• A.T.M. Nurul Amin
• Professor
• Urban Environmental Management
• School of Environment, Resources and Development
• Asian Institute of Technology

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• It is worth starting by reminding ourselves two
  words policy and strategy that we commonly
  use in the context of policy and its
  implementation
• Policy Policy is a means controlled by an
  authority for changing the behavior of people
  (e.g., consumers and producers) who are target of
  a policy.

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• Strategy Economists and planners have borrowed
  the notion of a strategy from military writers to
  refer to a
• Package of specific policies
• Directed at large issues and at major economic
  variables and
• Intended to operate over relatively long
  time-span
• A strategy in turn is transferred into policy
  specifics. It takes an overall view.

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What are UEM Policies?
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Figure 1 Three Key Words in UEM Signifying Three
Major Contemporary Development Issues
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Figure 2 UEM Policies Multidisciplinary Content
as Derived from UEM Education and Research at AIT

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• UEM policies can be broadly defined to include
  those set of public policy (note that we are
  avoiding to use government intervention or
  policy intervention because of the negative
  connotation that has been ascribed by some to
  intervention) public action

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• (this phrase seeks to capture the role of NGOs,
  CBOs, civil societies, etc. so that only public
  or government policies will not be counted upon
  for pursuing the goal of improving the urban
  environment) that seek to improve the working and
  living condition in urban areas in general and
  large cities in particular.

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• These policies are to correspond to well-defined
  and well-targeted urban environmental problems.
• For example, in terms of spatial scale, urban
  environmental problems are experienced at the
  level of

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• Residence/home (the indoor environment)
• Workplace (the work environment)
• Neighborhood (the neighborhood)
• City (the city environment)
• Region (rural, regional, even global).

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• Some of the widely observed and experienced urban
  environmental problems are
• Toxic/hazardous waste
• Export of toxic waste or polluting industries
• Water pollution
• Waste collection and disposal
• Air pollution
• Natural and human induced hazards
• Noise pollution
• Land degradation

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• In understanding, formulating and implementing
  UEM policies it is very important to distinguish
  between urban environmental management problems
  and urban environmental problems.
• The latter refers to the problems in their
  physical dimensions, whereas the former refers to
  the problems associated with management of these
  problems

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Three Major Urban Environmental Problems

• (in their physical dimensions)
• Increasing air pollution
• Inadequate water supply and sanitation
• Insufficient solid waste recycling, collection
  and disposal.

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Problems Associated with Management of these
Problems

• Inadequate proactive action (planning)
• Unimaginative and unrealistic planning
• Not making use of the available, affordable and
  appropriate technology
• Lack of democratic decision-making, lack of good
  governance and appropriate institutions

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• Lack of innovative methods in financing urban
  environmental infrastructure and service
  provisions and non-adoption of cost-recovery
  methods
• Setting unaffordable standards with respect to
  various urban and environmental service needs

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• Lack of proper need assessment and absence of
  prioritizing the infrastructure investment.

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• UEM policies, similar to other environmental
  policies, involve making use of the generic
  policy instruments of
• Regulatory instruments (RIs)
• Economic instruments (EIs)
• Suasive instruments (SIs)
• (which together can be referred as Environmental
  Management Measures - EMM).

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Environmental Management Measures (EMM)

• Although (a) economic instruments (EIs) are quite
  a powerful set of policy instruments (also known
  as market-based incentives MBIs), it is
  important to note that EIs per se are not
  adequate to protect and manage the environmental
  resources and improve its quality.

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• Key complementary needs are (b) regulatory
  instruments (RIs), also referred as Command and
  Control Approach (CAC), and (c) environmental
  education and awareness, often referred as moral
  suasion or suasive measures.

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• These instruments (i.e., RIs, EIs, Sis or EMM as
  a whole) are used by many cities for improving
  the air quality, sanitation and solid waste
  management.

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• Use of these policy instruments bear better
  result when they are
• Well-targeted (e.g., sector or subsector
  specific)
• Applied at various levels as needed (e.g., city
  level, district/zonal level, neighborhood/country
  level in some instances national level too)
• Distinguished by time span (short-term,
  medium-term, long-term)

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• Some policies are to be enacted at the national
  level, e.g., those involving standards, fiscal
  and pricing policies.
• Developing city-specific policies and strategies
  that respond to the circumstances of individual
  cities.

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Figure 3 An Illustration of Environmental Media
for EMM Application
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Figure 4 An Illustration of Spatial Scale for
EMM Application
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Figure 5 An Illustration of Economic Sphere for
EMM Application
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What makes UEM policy appropriate and
inappropriate

• Elements that Make UEM Policies Appropriate and
  Yield Expected Results
• Target-specificity
• Making use of multidisciplinary insights and
  expertise (science and technology, economics and
  finance, planning and management, governance and
  public administration) in policy foundation and
  implementation.

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• Building appropriate/ necessary institutions for
  implementing the policies
• Building necessary human capability for
  implementing UEM policies
• Making people understand the potential gains from
  the policies
• Demonstrating the potential results from
  implementation of a policy.

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• Elements that Make UEM Policies Inappropriate or
  Cause Their Failures
• Assuming that cities are place of a group of
  homogenous people who are affected equally by
  various environmental problems
• Setting standards without considering the level
  of development

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• Not making policies without proper analysis of
  the problems to be addressed or not adopting a
  scientific approach to policy formulation
• Not prioritizing necessary public policy and
  actions
• Not prioritizing investment decisions

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• Lack of skill and commitment (of those whose role
  matters politicians, bureaucrats, technocrats,
  intellectuals, policy implementers)
• Lack of financial resources
• Lack of adequate human capability.

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Examples of UEM Policy by Policy Goal, Policy
Target, Policy Instruments

• Air Quality Management
• Policy Goal
• Reducing vehicular air pollution
• Policy Target
• Vehicle targeted policy
• Policy Instruments
• RIs Tightening the emission standards from each
  vehicle setting strict schedule of inspection
  restricting the allowed use time.

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• EIs Incentives for using environmentally sound
  vehicles (e.g., LPG, CNG, electricity-propelled
  vehicles incentive/disincentive for the
  automobile manufactories to research, produce and
  sell high quality vehicles grant or subsidy for
  installing emission control devices subsidy for
  phasing out low quality and old vehicles.
• MS Raising of concerns, through leaflets and
  mass media, about inspection and maintenance
  activities encourage buying and using more
  environmental sound vehicles environmental
  labeling.

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• Policy Goal
• Reducing vehicular air pollution
• Policy Target
• Fuel targeted EMM
• Policy Instruments
• RIs Revising the current fuel standards with the
  purpose to reduce the toxic substance content
  (e.g., sulfur and benzene) in gasoline and
  diesel setting up new standards for alternative
  fuels restriction on importing, producing and
  distributing poor quality fuels.

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• EIs Taxation policy and grant incentive for
  producing and distributing cleaner and
  alternative fuels.
• MS Publicize research findings on impact of high
  sulfur content in diesel that harm and reduce
  lifetime of vehicle and catalytic converter
  implementing several public campaigns to switch
  to cleaner and alternative fuels.

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• Wastewater Management
• Policy Goal
• Improving wastewater management
• Policy Target
• Generators of wastewater
• Policy Instruments
• RIs Setting effluent standards

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• EIs Charging fees for wastewater treatment/
  management
• MS Demonstration of relative merits of
  decentralized wastewater management and benefits
  using of alternative technologies (e.g.,
  duckweed-based technologies)

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• Solid Waste Management
• Policy Goal
• Improving solid waste management
• Policy Target
• Storage System
• Policy Instruments
• RIs Standard storage bins to separate waste

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• Policy Target
• Collection and transportation
• Policy Instruments
• RIs Standard for communal placements of bins
  standard for vehicles and waste collection
  time/frequency permits and licensing for
  collection permits and licenses for private
  sector operation, etc.
• EIs Waste collection fee to waste generators
  accounting to volume of waste.

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• Policy Target
• Composting
• Policy Instruments
• RIs Permit and licenses for installing
  small-scale composting plant permit and licenses
  for private sector involvement.
• EIs Incentives to composting firm disincentive
  to chemical fertilizers market creation for
  composting.

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• Policy Target
• Landfill (disposal)
• Policy Instruments
• RIs Standard for waste disposal site permit and
  licenses for safe disposal permit and licenses
  for private sector.
• EIs Levying waste disposal change to waste
  generators.

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• Policy Target
• Recycling
• Policy Instruments
• RIs Setting standard of waste minimization and
  recycling
• EIs Introducing deposit-refund system
  incentives to the waste-pickers soft loan
  arrangements for recycling industries and private
  enterprises tax incentives for recycling
  industries market creation for recycled
  products.

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• Policy Target
• Overall
• Policy Instruments
• RIs Solid waste management plan integrating the
  regulatory instruments and economic instruments
  as specified above plus a clearly drawn
  regulatory framework.
• EIs Use of economic instruments at each stage of
  waste collection, reuse and disposal.
• MS Education and awareness campaign for each
  state.

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Thank you for your attention