• 
• Japanese
• 
• IETC's Focal Area
• Waste Management
• Publications & Tools
• Meetings & Workshops
• Global Partnership on Waste Management
• Background
• Objectives
  & Expected Outcomes
• Framework
• Sub-focal Areas
• Information Platform
• Meetings
• Participation / Membership
• Water and Sanitation
• Publications & Tools
• Meetings & Workshops
• Resources
• Publications & Tools
• About IETC
• Background and History
• Director
• Activity Reports
• Supporting Foundations
• Internship
• Contact Us

APPLICATION/SCOPE

The process of rapid urban environmental assessment (data collection, profile, and consultations) can provide an informational and consensual basis for preparing an urban environmental management strategy (EMS). The goal of the EMS is to accelerate the improvement of environmental conditions in cities, especially by integrating key aspects of urban policy and environmental management.

EMS objectives are fivefold:

1. establish long-term environmental goals for the urban region;
   
2. set interim environmental goals and objectives;
   
3. rank pollution control and other measures to improve environmental quality
   
4. identify priority sectors for channeling investments; and
  
5. recommend policy reforms, instruments, and institutional arrangements needed to implement the EMS.

The EMS process builds on existing sector and project work but emphasizes continuity in decision-making to implement agreed policies and approaches. It should provide a decision-making framework for public and private investments while recognizing that the investments will be primarily private (by households and firms). It therefore requires a participatory process among decision makers in government and the private sector, often using working groups of officials in consultation with technical specialists and key private and informal sector actors, as they agree and commit themselves to act on the policies and strategies they themselves will define.

The EMS can be developed in a number of different ways but should generally include consideration of health effects and environmental damages (costs), comparison of alternative long-term strategies to achieve environmental quality goals at the lowest economic cost to the urban region, identification of appropriate policies and instruments to implement the least-cost strategy, and an assessment of its institutional and financial feasibility. The final EMS document should summarize the following:

• A review of the environment/development issues, including a complete description of the environmental system from which it originates, the development concerns that are affected, and the stakeholders that should be involved;
  
• The agreed long-term environmental goals for the urban region;
  
• A set of interim environmental goals and objectives to guide phased investments;
  
• The ranking of pollution-control and other measures to improve environmental quality;
  
• The identification of priority sectors for channeling investments, including project profiles; and
  
• The recommended policy reform, instruments, and institutional development needed to implement the EMS

THE RUEA PROCESS

The RUEA process is depicted below as part of a strategic approach to urban environmental planning and management.

Broad-based acceptance of the resulting strategy requires participation of all stakeholders in this process, including mechanisms for negotiation and conflict resolution. The strategy would require between nine and 12 months.

Figure 1
Strategic urban environmental management process

The Urban Environmental Action Plan

The EMS provides the framework for integration and coordination to ensure consistency across environmental media and sectoral strategies. The third phase of the process is to translate issue-oriented environmental management strategies into action plans, which involves the definition of specific actions for specific actors, complete with time schedules, geographic focus, and priorities. In contrast to the EMS planning process, which is long term and goal setting, action planning is shorter term and implementation oriented. It aims to define both strategic responses with specific local government and sector policy reforms together with institutional, legal, and fiscal support programs as well as an investment program and the elaboration of initial project profiles for short-and medium-term environmental interventions. As with the EMS, action planning is a participatory process that will vary from city to city but should involve the range of relevant stakeholders.

When the strategic planning phase nears completion, the urbanwide environmental action plan (EAP) can be formulated. The action plan will comprise the set of specific actions that are needed to respond to priority environmental concerns in the city under study. Because these concerns are normally related to specific environmental media and spatial location, the action plan focuses on the coordination and timing of various actions that are needed to address critical problems. In addition to verifying that proposals are consistent with the goals and priorities of the EMS, the EAP also should account for the costs and tradeoffs of competing sector actions. The EAP should not be seen merely as the sum of individual actions taken by the different actors; it should also identify the specific cross-cutting actions required, responsibility for implementing them, and sources of funding.

The final product of this phase of the planning process will be a set of action plans organized both by priority environmental issues and by responsible actors, as well as a consolidated EAP report. The action plans include recommended projects and supporting actions. The EAP report, in addition to summarizing the agreed strategies and actions, will describe complementary cross-cutting actions and proposed investment programs. It is estimated that preparation, review, and completion of this plan would take between 12 and 24 months.

Sustained investment and institutional development program

The final phase in this simple characterization of a strategic approach is the initiation of agreed programs and projects, solidification of policy reforms and institutional arrangements, routinization of the overall process, and installation of monitoring and evaluation procedures. Depending on budget constraints and current environmental conditions, a succession of staged investments spread over 15-20 years will be needed to strive for the ultimate environmental quality goals. Success will depend on sustaining both investments and institutional development programs over the long term. The importance of continuity cannot be overemphasized, as gains obtained in the short and medium term can easily be lost by the failure to follow through with needed actions in subsequent stages. Where continuity has been observed, significant environmental improvements have been evident, as in the case of Sao Paulo. The key activities of this phase are initiating programs and projects to implement the EMS and EAP, building environmental planning and management capacities, and monitoring and evaluating progress.

Testing and Evaluating the Methodology

Rapid urban environmental assessment, although inspired by its rural and urban antecedents, does not have any methodological equivalent. Hence, it is difficult to evaluate in comparison to similar techniques because the comparators do not exist. To gauge the utility of the methodology, it was field tested and those results were evaluated against the criteria: is the approach, in fact, comprehensive, multisectoral, relatively short term, and consistent between cities?

Field testing

The case study approach was selected as the means of testing the methodology partially by default and partly because of the advantages it brings to helping identify appropriate urban environmental interventions. There is no unified theory to explain and predict the dynamics of the urban environment. Consequently, there is no rigorous, theory-driven methodology for conducting analysis in this field. Still, there is a need to collect information, describe observations, and suggest explanations for phenomena in an attempt to establish a pre-theoretical, cause-effect framework. Though second-best in comparison with the more replicable and generalizable techniques of theory-based inquiry, the case study method is a research tool in the absence of theoretical guidance.

• Brochure
• 
• 



• International Year of Forests
• 
• 



• World Environment Day
• 
• 



• UNEP Campaign
• 
•