Integrated Environmental Management - IEM

Image Source: 100% Pure New Zealand An IEM approach is meant to be a strategic process that integrates various principles to arrive at a ‘meta-theory’ that can broaden perspectives to inform analysis of the problems (Buhrs, 1995). Multi-institutional, legislative and policy approaches must then be incorporated into the decision-making for environmental problems. Identifying and assessing sticking points and core problem causes is essential to effective IEM (Buhrs 1995). The previous blog introduced the documentary, Hot Air by Alister Barry which investigated the pitfalls for policymakers that attempted to implement measures to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) outputs in New Zealand. The changes that took place for the New Zealand government as a result of neoliberal economic ideals during the 1980s, 90s and 2000s transformed policy approaches.  Alister Barry investigates this topic in his documentary Someone Else's Country .  There was a distinct shift from being a highly regulato...

Te Waikoropupu Springs (the springs) situated in Mohua / Golden Bay is the largest and clearest  freshwaters sources  in New Zealand. The springs is sacred (tapu) for local iwi ( Ngati Tama ) therefore, iwi and others want to protect it from pollution. Since the 1990s, dairy farming around New Zealand has more than doubled in size, this has been the case in the Takaka Valley which is in the upper water catchment of the springs. As a result, freshwater use for dairy farming has increased and degradation of waterways has declined in low-land areas around New Zealand. The film Milked highlights many of the compounding factors that industrialised dairy farming has for people, animals and the environment. The barriers for improved environmental and sociocultural outcomes for waterway health (including Te Waikoropupu) stem from New Zealand's government's biased approach to managing natural resources. They and other regulatory authorities are caught in a colo...

The Matrix. Source: Warner Bros. Entertainment Ton Buhrs (1995) poses ideas and ideals for an IEM approach, to integrate various principles developed through a range of philosophies and sciences, to arrive at a ‘meta-theory’ that can broaden perspectives to inform analysis of the problems and incorporate multi-institutional, legislative and policy approaches for environmental problems. The diagram I made and shown below illustrates how an IEM needs to begin with research and analysis.   It's important to select the boundaries for analysis.  Nate Hagens  (2022) suggests that narrow boundaries of analysis will reduce the scope of how an environmental problem can be accounted for and managed. Alternatively, wider boundaries seek to include broad-scale and compounding long term effects.  A  strategic aspect of an IEM plan might be to educate a local community and involve schools as an approach. The tactics and tools are devices that enable the plan, for example, usi...

                                 Image Source: The Vane 2015. A holistic approach of IEM aims to confront complexities within human and environmental systems that interconnect. It is no easy task to define the various moving parts that are constantly changing. Calculating the changes within the economic, political, social, ecological and planetary systems is complex. If something changes at one point, what will happen at another? The question must be posed, what are the short and long-term effects, and how will those effects impact on other interconnected moving parts?   Buhrs (1995) highlights this complex process for IEM and explains the environment as being an invisible system that if one aspect is influenced, then feedback from the change feeds onto other components of the system. An IEM approach can include an array of techniques such as policy and planning adjustments, systemic...

  Image Source: Our Wold in Data A Plethora of Unsolved Environmental Problems There are so many unsolved environmental problems because those in power want to keep us on track for eternal economic growth. And, oddly the adverse environmental effects from economic activities are not really accounted for. Since 1800, the human population has increased in number (from one billion to almost 8 billion today), we have increased the use of fossil fuels for products and energy consumption. We as a species have become a super-organism and now the ecosystems that support us are under excessive stress. It has been predicted that many ecosystems will collapse if we continue on our current trajectory.  Environmental – what does this mean? In the context Integrated Environmental Management (IEM), the environment refers to the natural environment which encompasses the biophysical elements and systems that maintain life on this planet, for example, air, water, soil. However, there are many...

  The Beehive, Wellington NZ. Image source: Rod Barker Many of the issues we face in industrialised society are influenced by an array of political, economic and social factors. The ideals and strivings for improvements often become the very things that create the issues we seek to overcome.  Within this blog over the course of my study of integrated environmental management (IEM) , I aim to describe and analyse a range of integrated environmental management issues. It's important firstly for me to understand what IEM is before I confuse myself and others.  According to  European Communities  (2007), IEM seeks solutions, is future focused, goal oriented,  finds integrated approaches for environmental management that can include strategic and systems thinking that incorporate policies, town planning, economic measures, social and environmental measures. It makes sense that attention must be paid to the inputs and outputs from human activities. For instance...