Forest sampling techniques in different types of vegetation applying plot sampling, non-plot sampling, and remote sensing

Forest inventory and management requirements are changing rapidly in the context of an increasingly complex set of economic, environmental, and social policy objectives. Advanced remote sensing technologies provide data to assist in addressing these escalating information needs and to support the subsequent development and parameterization of models for an even broader range of information needs. This special issue contains papers that use a variety of remote sensing technologies to derive forest inventory or inventory-related information. Herein, we review the potential of 4 advanced remote sensing technologies, which we posit as having the greatest potential to influence forest inventories designed to characterize forest resource information for strategic, tactical, and operational planning: airborne laser scanning (ALS), terrestrial laser scanning (TLS), digital aerial photogrammetry (DAP), and high spatial resolution (HSR)/very high spatial resolution (VHSR) satellite optical imagery. ALS, in particular, has proven to be a transformative technology, offering forest inventories the required spatial detail and accuracy across large areas and a diverse range of forest types. The coupling of DAP with ALS technologies will likely have the greatest impact on forest inventory practices in the next decade, providing capacity for a broader suite of attributes, as well as for monitoring growth over time.

Shifts from government to governance in the environmental policy domain have been observed by many authors. However, the question arises as to whether these shifts are apparent in all environmental policy sub-domains. And which explanations are to be given for observed differences in specific sub-domains? In this article we introduce insights from policy science literature on drivers of and barriers to shifts towards governance, providing an analytical framework to illustrate and explain the changes in environmental policy in general, and in noise policy specifically. Dutch environmental policy in general has changed distinctly from previous decades: from high profile execution by public institutions and the use of coercive policy instruments into an increasing reliance on dialogue, networks and social inclusion. Dutch noise policy, however, is still state dominated and its legislative approach seems to better fit the dominant style of government. In this paper, we show that while shifts in governance and a changing role of the state are evident for environmental policy, as a whole, similar shifts are not seen in noise policy. The main barriers to such a shift are actors with a vested interest in maintaining the current policy arrangements and the institutional settings which are not considered problematic in achieving national and municipal goals. In addition, drivers for change such as severe incidents which have resulted in shifts in environmental governance, were largely absent from the noise policy domain.

A holistic approach to managing palm oil mill effluent (POME): Biotechnological advances in the sustainable reuse of POME

Hahn’s statement about the role played by environmental economists in the design of environmental policy practice seems to present the perfect introduction to this chapter. It deals with the in?uence of economic and other scientists as policy actors on environmental policy. In the opinion of environmental economists, policy-makers all too often choose inefficient command-and-control instruments instead of applying market-based instruments. A certain frustration can therefore be observed amongst economists due to their lack of in?uence on policy practice. Environmental economists commonly explain this lack of market-based instruments in environmental policy by choosing the public choice approach: the ‘homo oeconomicus’ impedes an efficient environmental policy. This chapter aims to show that this interpretation is too simplistic. Not only do policy actors’ short-term interests impede policy change in environmental policy, but environmental economic advice cannot be applied, since economists fail to consider the following equally important questions adequately: How can in?uence be exerted over the political process through new scientific knowledge? How can it become widely accepted? Which determinants may hinder the use of scientific knowledge in the policy process? Which kinds of actor are able to spread new scientific knowledge in the policy process?

In this survey we review the literature that studies the relationship between environmental policy and technical change. We divide the literature in two broad areas of research. First, we look at the studies that evaluate the impact of environmental regulation on technological change after the implementation of environmental policy ( ex-post ). Second, we introduce the studies that assess the impact of environmental regulation on innovation dynamics before the implementation of environmental policy ( ex-ante ). While the first group is dominated by econometric work, in the second group we find the fast growing literature based on Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs) created to study the policies to limit global warming. Both ex-post and ex-ante studies corroborate the hypothesis that environmental policy plays an important role in inducing innovation and in increasing the adoption as well as the diffusion of new technologies. Policy experiments carried out using Integrated Assessment Models highlight that the size and the direction of the inducement effect depend on at least three elements. First, relative prices play an important role, but also scale and market size effects are relevant in shaping incentives to innovate. Second, the inducement effect can vary across different R&D programs and with the degree of policy stringency. Third, nearly all studies stress the role of substitution in terms of flexibility, either within the energy sector, between energy and other inputs such as labour or capital, or between final sectors with different energy intensities. A relevant lesson that should be communicated to policy makers is the importance of combining efficiently policies to address the environmental and the knowledge externalities. Areas in which there is room for more research are mentioned throughout the survey. They include the need of exploiting better cross-country dimension of recent panel data sets, launching a new comprehensive assessment of the determinants of eco-friendly innovation in developing countries, assessing the interactions between clean and dirty R&D, testing whether firms are operating at the frontier of efficiency or not.

This article investigates how “policy frames” have shaped the way European Community actors perceive the policy linkage between market integration and environmental policy. The article contends that there are three Community policy frames: conditional, classic, and sustainability. They form alternative “packages” of policy ideas defining the relationship between economic and environmental policy. The article provides an analysis of how actors embed these frames in the Community's institutional framework.To illustrate the general impact of policy frames on the environmental arena, the article explores two cases: waste management policy, and the integration of environmental concerns into the Community's agricultural policy. The article concludes by highlighting the different factors that promote and undermine the formation of “thick” institutional structures likely to integrate environmental and economic policy objectives.

This paper evaluates the remediation potential of a salinized coastal aquifer by utilizing a scenario simulation. Therefore, the numerical model OpenGeoSys is first validated against analytical and experimental data to represent transient groundwater level development and variable density saline intrusion. Afterwards, a regional scale model with a three-dimensional, heterogeneous hydrogeology is calibrated for a transient state and used to simulate a best-case scenario. Water balances are evaluated in both the transient calibration and scenario run. Visualization techniques help to assess the complex model output providing valuable insight in the occurring density-driven flow processes. Furthermore, modeling and visualization results give information on the time scale for remediation activities and, due to limitations in data quality and quantity reveal potential for model improvement.

Evaluating sustainability of biofuels feedstocks: A multi-objective framework for supporting decision making

This paper highlights the difficulties involved in implementing changes in environmental policy in the former Soviet Union. By using Soviet data we show that environmental disruption is considerable but that official attention to environmental problems has increased. Accordingly, we have seen many administrative and legal changes. However, as long as the legal system does not function, respect for laws and regulations remains arbitrary. Similarly, the so-called “economic incentives ” that have been introduced are not likely to be effective until the whole economy is built on the basis of economic incentives.

Scenario analysis was used to assess consistent sets of future circumstances in Dutch dairy farming. The fields of interest were technical and institutional change. Technical change included improvement in fodder and milk production. Institutional change included changes in environmental policy and in market and price policy. All key factors were historically analysed and forecasts were made for the year 2005 which were grouped into 4 scenarios. The scenarios were governed by environmental policy and the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Moderate and severe variants were distinguished for environmental policy; and for the CAP, price support and 2-price variants were identified.

Purpose - This study explored how recent policy environment changes influenced the structural role of Busan’s maritime MICE and conceptually interpreted maritime MICE as a policy-based platform.Design, data, and methodology - The study adopted a conceptual qualitative design using publicly available secondary data. Policy documents, academic literature, and materials from maritime- and policy-related events published between 2022 and mid-2025 were collected and qualitatively analyzed using a five-dimensional analytical framework.Result - The findings indicated that policy changes enabled maritime MICE to function as intermediary platforms linking policy agendas, industrial actors, and urban capacities, while underscoring the relevance of integrated event structures and risk and ESG considerations.Conclusions - The study concluded that policy environment changes facilitated a structural transformation toward a policy-based maritime MICE model and contributed to the conceptual advancement of MICE research.

Whether pursuing the breadth of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals or delivering joined-up approaches within a single environmental domain, policy objectives, policy design and policy implementation should cohere vertically and horizontally. However, policy coherence remains a challenge to implement. The limited empirical scholarship on policy coherence tends to focus on policy documentation and/or the outcomes, with little attention to individual agency or social processes involved. Furthermore, there is little discussion of the normative dimensions of policy coherence and the political aspects of individual agency, indicating the need for political ecology. We conducted an empirical study within four UK catchment (watershed) partnerships, using critical interpretive policy analysis to enrich the interface between political ecology and environmental policy. We explored who practices policy coherence and how; what motivates those investing their energy into these practices; their constraints and the contradictions arising. We found that the appetite and ability to support policy coherence depends on individual agency as much as partnership structures, which are themselves situated in technocratic regimes of policy implementation. Within these regimes, agents presented as apolitical and enabling, making it challenging to research the political and social processes of policy coherence. A political ecology lens highlights how power is involved in these voluntary initiatives, potentially shoring up existing privilege inscribed into riparian habitats and their resources. Our contribution therefore responds to and amplifies the critique of traditional presentations of integrated water resource management devoid of politics.

Policies have the potential to affect human–wildlife coexistence. However, despite consequences being evident beforehand or emerging soon after their implementation, potential conflicts between policies and biodiversity conservation are not always easy to predict. Wolves feeding on anthropogenic food sources (AFS) usually fall into conflict with humans, mainly due to predation on livestock. But the availability of AFS can be influenced by different policies leading to diet shifts, which could trigger new conflicts or exacerbate existing ones. Here, we show a long-term shift in the diet of wolves in northwestern Iberia over the last three decades and discuss its potential connection to changes in sanitary, environmental, and socioeconomic policies. Wolves persisted for a long time due to the activity of humans with AFS accounting for >94 % of their diet. Our results suggest a connection between a diet shift in wolves and changes in policies, from a broad diet including more feedlot (pigs, chickens) and medium-sized (goats and dogs) species, mainly in the form of carrion, to a more narrow diet based primarily on large domestic ungulates (cattle and horses). We discuss the potential implications of the observed shift in the diet of wolves on human–wolf conflicts. We also call attention on the pressing need to integrate policies into biodiversity conservation to anticipate future conservation and management dilemmas.

Assessing the Effect of Changes in Environmental Policy on the ESG Index of the Stock Market

Against a backdrop of environmental crisis, attributed to the impact of tourism and the practices of rural populations, Nepal has created protected areas with a view to preserving the Himalayan environment and promoting sustainable tourism in the regions concerned. Given the conflicts between conservation needs and development needs, local communities are now being given a bigger role in the governance of these protected areas. Yet the measures being taken simply accompany and guide well-established tourism dynamics that operate on a much greater scale. Trekking is thus a tourism system largely in the hands of the country’s mountain communities and is an activity that has enabled these communities to improve their living conditions while at the same time limiting environmental impacts. In this sense it is very much in line with the principles of sustainable development.