Suchergebnisse

Surveys the role of human geography in the study of environmental questions. Describes three key characteristics of the geographical approach, then looks at the geographical treatment of resource endowment and utilisation, the impact of resource development, the environment's ability to sustain development, attitudes to the environment, and environmental management. (CP)

In this paper a recently developed framework designed to facilitate the expression, interpretation, and communication of imperfect quantitative information is adapted in order to elucidate the quality and significance of recently published measures of UK energy efficiency (MONERGY) need and performance. The analysis in the paper uncovers a considerable variability in the quality of the publicised measures; this in turn provides crucial pointers to the way they should be interpreted, and in some cases indicates ground for possible improvement.

Aspects of the publicly acknowledged assessment of risk in siting-decisions in Scotland for potentially hazardous North Sea gas processing-installations are considered. Safety issues were of concern to the respective local authority councils and planning departments, the Health and Safety Executive, the developers seeking planning permission, and, in various instances, port authorities, Secretaries of State, and public-interest groups. The assessment of potential risk to the public by each of these main agencies is analysed and evaluated, illustrating key features from a decade which has seen significant changes in the art of risk assessment in the United Kingdom and elsewhere in the world, and related, though rather more modest, changes in practice.