Natural Resources Management and Policy Commons^™

Roger Williams Park Edible Forest Garden, Mark S. Scialla

Senior Honors Projects

An edible forest garden is a low-maintenance system that uses edible native and regionally-adapted plants arranged in beneficial relationships to meet human, wildlife and ecosystem needs. The forest garden in Roger Williams Park will transform underutilized urban land into a highly productive parcel producing market-viable fruits, nuts, vegetables, medicine and fiber. Forest gardens mimic natural forest systems in architecture and complexity. The design follows ecological principles to create a system that promotes biodiversity and enhances the surrounding ecosystem. This project also demonstrates the potential to grow food and create land-based livelihoods in the city.

Located on the edge of a …

An Environmental And Economic Analysis Of The Printing Practices Of Periodicals And Publications By The University Of Rhode Island And Similar Universities Nationwide, Matthew B. Cotton

Senior Honors Projects

An Environmental and Economic Analysis of the Printing Practices of Periodicals and Publications by the University of Rhode Island and Similar Universities Nationwide

Matthew Cotton

Faculty Sponsor: Thomas Husband, Natural Resources Science

Being environmentally-friendly, or “Going Green”, is a relatively new way of thinking that provides both immediate and long term benefits for the environment and the planet while also creating new and exciting business and marketing opportunities. To tap into this movement requires a great deal of commitment, acceptance to change, and selflessness. It means altering one’s perception of the world and their place in it, along with the …

Does Self Management In Fisheries Enhance Profitability? Examination Of Korea’S Coastal Fisheries, Hirotsugu Uchida, Emi Uchida, Jung-Sam Lee, Jeong-Gon Ryu, Dae-Young Kim

Environmental and Natural Resource Economics Faculty Publications

Self management of natural resources has started to gain increasing attention as an alternative tool to command-and-control and market-based tools, but the fundamental question remains: is self management economically beneficial such that it should be promoted in the first place? This article uses a unique set of survey data from South Korea and applies an empirical strategy to provide some of the first quantitative evidence that self management is benefiting the fishermen. We find that positive benefits of fishery self management—an increase in fishery revenue and reduction in cost—are perceived by member fishermen, which is a good start considering the …

Traditional Natural Resource Use And Development In Northeast Thailand, Christie Moulton

Senior Honors Projects

This paper explores the effects of development projects on traditional natural resource use in three communities in Northeast Thailand, a region known as Isan. I interviewed villagers in each community and asked them to describe their environmental perceptions, management practices and livelihood strategies. Participants described several subsistence livelihoods that have traditionally been present in Isan. These include rice farming, fishing, community forestry, and wetland use. Residents from the three communities all described various cultural activities, knowledge systems, and religious ceremonies that are closely tied to their local resources. Raising silk worms, making clay pots, and performing rituals for a spirit …

The Evolution Of International Fisheries Management In The North Pacific Ocean And Prospects For The Future, Paul Augustus Flynn

Theses and Major Papers

The abundant resources of the North Pacific Ocean have been the subject of international disputes and negotiations through the 20th century. The management of species which range throughout this vast area, are not under the jurisdiction of a single state. That fact has required the establishment of a framework in which allocation and conservation measures can be researched and agreed upon. This has been accomplished through various multilateral and bilateral agreements. From the voluntary Japanese suspension of a directed salmon fishery off the coast of Alaska in 1938 to recently completed multilateral treaties, significant advances have been made in Pacific …

A Policy Analysis Of The Commercial Fishing Industry Vessel Safety Act Of 1988, Peter Decola

Theses and Major Papers

During the mid-1980's, the crisis in marine insurance and growing concern over fishing vessel safety combined to stimulate passage of the Commercial Fishing Industry Vessel Safety Act of 1988. This law was enacted with the goal of improving the overall safety of commercial fishing industry vessels. However, the Act as passed by Congress contained no provisions for marine insurance reform. As a result, the commercial Fishing Industry Vessel Safety Act offered little incentive for the industry to improve upon its dubious safety record. With the exception of self-insurance clubs, the vast burden of implementing the Act has fallen upon the …

The Influence Of Sea Power Upon Oceanography: A Historical And Policy Analysis Of Governmental Support For Marine Science, Daniel Stuart Schwartz

Theses and Major Papers

In a time of austere funding for national ocean science R & D programs and Congressional balanced budget constraints, marine science investigators and program managers must increasingly ponder how committed to the support of oceanography our government will continue to be. The questions might better be phrased as how, in the absence of a credible open-ocean naval threat (the traditional focus of both basic and applied research), will policy makers justify the expenditure of scarce public revenues on marine science programs? Sea Power-as broadly defined in the works of Alfred Thayer Mahan and Sergei Gorshkov-has driven, and will continue to …

A Partnership For Coral Reef Protection: A Case Study Of The International Coral Reef Initiative, Karla M. Boreri

Theses and Major Papers

Coral reef are considered the most biologically diverse marine ecosystems on earth. They are a world-wide symbol of the economic and ecological importance of all types of coastal environments. The International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI) was developed in 1994 to increase the awareness of the human and anthropogenic threats facing reefs. Initially a U.S.-focused initiative, ICRI now includes over 70 like-minded governments and a growing list of UN organizations, science and academic organizations, non-governmental organizations and the private sector as its partners. This qualitative case study was developed based on actual participation in the initiative and hundreds of pages of …

The Cumulative Impacts Of Management Decisions On Nitrogen Loading To The Rhode Island Salt Ponds, Laura M. Ernst

Theses and Major Papers

Calculations and measurements of nitrogen in groundwater, stream flow and atmospheric deposition were used to see if the cumulative impacts of management decisions over a fifteen year period of time resulted in measurable changes in nitrogen loading to six of the salt ponds on the south shore of Rhode Island. The changes in the source and transmission of nitrogen were tested by comparing calculated and measured nitrogen data from 1980 and 1995. The calculated method included a nitrogen budget based on land-use and literature values for nitrogen loss to groundwater. The second method compared concentrations of nitrogen in groundwater taken …

The Use Of Targeting In Port State Control, Mary E. Landry

Theses and Major Papers

This study will examine two separate, but related matters; (1) expansion of port State control through new treaties and international practice, and (2) the port State's use of targeting to focus its attention on substandard performance. It will also outline and clarify the practice of targeting which has been employed under several regional port State control agreements throughout the world. This study will examine targeting as an economic sanction; in essence, a coercive measure using financial disincentives to discourage substandard performance in the maritime community. Targeting was designed or developed as an economic sanction. Rather, it was marketed as a …

An Assessment Of The Safety Of Navigation: The Malaysian Perspective In The Straits Of Malacca, Amir Bin Murad

Theses and Major Papers

The traffic movements in the Straits of Malacca (SOM) have been ever increasing over the past few years resulting in numerous marine casualties that have caused serious concern to the Government of Malaysia. Current characteristics of navigation in the SOM present a potential major catastrophe. The first hypothesis is that there is a positive relationship between traffic movement and the number of marine casualties. Thus, an increase in traffic movement will result in an increased risk of marine casualties. The second hypothesis is that the Traffic Separation Scheme (TSS) did not change the overall trend of marine casualties that occurred …

Managine For Effectiveness And Efficiency In Oil Spill Response, Peter A. Tebeau

Theses and Major Papers

Responding to oil spills, even spills of moderate proportion, requires the commitment of substantial manpower and equipment on the part of the responsible party or the federal government. Throughout the response operation, successful spill management entails choosing the most effective and efficient countermeasures and cleanup techniques to remove or neutralize oil in the environment, minimize overall environmental damages from the spill, and insure that the objectives and expectations of government agencies, responsible parties, and the public are met. As the response progresses, effective and efficient management requires determining when response operations should be terminated. In making this decision, the On-Scene …

The Rhode Island Marine Fisheries Council: Stewardship In Need Of Goals And Objectives, Robert Censabella

Theses and Major Papers

In the State of Rhode Island, marine fisheries are managed through the Marine Fisheries Council, a citizen-based regulatory body of nine members from either the commercial or recreational fishing industries or experienced with the conservation and management of fisheries resources. To ostensibly help this group make informed decisions, biological data and scientific advice are provided by the State Division of Fish and Wildlife. This thesis examines the decision-making process of this Council. More specifically, it provides a case study of how this body has attempted to manage the State's winter flounder stocks-an economically-valuable species which confines its life cycle mostly …

Community Participation In The Management Of Pulau Seribu National Marine Park, Indonesia, Darmawan

Theses and Major Papers

The purpose of this thesis is to examine an approach for improving management in Pulau Seribu National Marine Park based on better relations between managers, local government and communities. It includes: a description of the Pulau Seribu National Marine Park, a literature review on community participation, a description of the national governance of marine conservation in Indonesia, and a proposed mechanism for community participation in park management. In an effort to manage its marine resources, Indonesia has established a well-structured institutional framework and body of environmental legislation. However, this administrative structure does not as yet include a mechanism for accommodating …

Implementation Of Harbor Management Plans: The Next Generation Of Mooring Management Incorporates Gps And Gis, Tracy E. Lang

Theses and Major Papers

This paper describes the development of a spatial decision-support and management system to be used for improved coastal and harbor management. The design combines two separate systems, one is the use of Global Positioning Systems (GPS), and the other is the use of a Geographic Information (GIS) (ARCVIEW II). This pilot project specifically examined the use of GPS and GIS to identify, map, and monitor individual mooring buoys in one recreational harbor in Narragansett, Rhode Island. GPS was used for collection of positional information and was compared to one traditional marine positioning device, Loran-C, and the variations between each method …

Rapid Rural Appraisal Of Household Adaptations To The Coastal Zone Of Ecuador, Jennifer A. Pereira

Theses and Major Papers

It has become clear to those interested in development that the household is an integral institution linking the individual to the society and the environment. Understanding the functioning of this institution will facilitate improvements in planning, evaluation, and output of development projects. Development projects suffer from a lack of efficient research methods for collecting socioeconomic information regarding the household. It has been proposed that Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA), a method of field work that is timely, flexible, and places an emphasis on local participation, may be an appropriate method for collecting these types of data. RRA was originally developed for …

Port Development At Port Canaveral, Florida, Sergio A. Cartaya

Theses and Major Papers

The restrictions and goals influencing port development today, differ from those that prompted development in the very recent past. In the 1960s, innovations in the transport of cargo and passengers drastically changed maritime transport. In the 1970s, a new awareness of the environment demanded, and through the decade implemented, new changes in coastal development. Port development today is no longer a transaction between the port authority and the Army Corps of Engineers, new federal agencies, with strict developmental guidelines, and the general public are now involved. The outcome of this new way of doing business has been that the lead-time …

The Evolving "Takings" Doctrine: The Supreme Court Poses A Challenge For Coastal Zone Management, Catherine L. Chase

Theses and Major Papers

There is an increasingly powerful and vocal group coalescing in society today, sometimes described as anti-environmentalists or Property Firsters, who feel that the government has exceeded its authority in interfering with individual rights for the purpose of protecting natural resources. Regardless of any personal convictions regarding this often emotionally-charged issue, people involved in coastal management and planning should be aware of the changes in legal doctrines which have come about as a result of "property first" challenges to regulatory or zoning statutes. These challenges have been pursued successfully in the courts by characterizing state and local land use ordinances as …

Base Realignment And Closure - 93: Impacts On Western Aquidneck Island An Opportunity For Enrichment, Frank W. Garcia Jr.

Theses and Major Papers

This paper will develop a conceptual Use/Resource model which may be of use in analyzing coastal zone conflicts. The use/Resource model will be applied to provide an outline for a cooperative enrichment plan for Western Aquidneck Island, Rhode Island. Future studies of Western Aquidneck Island or other coastal communities may be able to use the model to quantify the level of Use/Resource cooperation. Heuristic application of the Model along Western Aquidneck may highlight the level of conflict or cooperation in working towards an enrichment plan. The focus of the enrichment plan will be to improve the quality of life in …

Fresh Water To Arabia By Vlcc-Fact Or Folly?, Joseph P. Power

Theses and Major Papers

Population growth, industrial development and the esoteric goals of national self-sufficiency in water and food propels the arid nations of Arabia in a voracious scavenge for alternative resources of fresh water as depletion and contamination of the natural aquifers have reached critical proportions. Desalination of sea water is currently the preferred alternative source of fresh water. Recent misgivings concerning the antroprogenic discharge of desalination effluent (i.e. high temperature and high saline water) into the semi-enclosed, epicontinental waters of the Arabian Gulf question the sustainability of this process. Demonstrable deleterious affects of such a process on the marine ecosystem of the …

The Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy: A Comparison With The Approach Of The Unep Regional Seas Programme, Vinton Valentine

Theses and Major Papers

In the past two decades, there has been a rise in the number of multilateral regional agreements for marine environmental protection. A large proportion of these regional agreements are the result of the United Nations Environment Programme's (UNEP) Regional Seas Programme. While there are thirteen regional seas under the Programme, the Arctic Ocean is not, and never was, one of them. In describing concerns regarding the Arctic environment and approaches to handle them, a number of commentators have proposed the application of UNEP Regional Seas Programme approach to the Arctic region. However, despite an attempt from the Inuit Circumpolar Conference …

Conservation And Management Of Sri Lanka's Coastal Resources Through The Experience Of Other Countries, K.W.P. Thilakaratna

Theses and Major Papers

After Sri Lanka's independence in 1948, the economic importance of the coastal areas had intensified due to development of commercial and fishery harbors, transportation, communication, and recreational facilities. Opportunities in the public administration, industry, and education sectors were other main attractions. With the introduction of international tourism in 1970, economic development of coastal areas increased further. In addition to the job opportunities provided by the industrial and commercial sectors, many people were engaged in other activities depending on coastal resources, including fishing and mining activities. Prior to 1978, there was no proper authority or mechanism to address coastal issues. legislation …

A Marina Leasing Proposal For The State Of Rhode Island, William A. Archambault

Theses and Major Papers

This thesis examines whether Rhode Island has the authority to lease marinas their submerged lands, and if so, is the fee structure of the CRMC's proposed plan equitable to marinas in the State? The thesis determined that under the powers of the Public Trust Doctrine, Rhode Island has the right to implement a marina leasing program, but implementation of a program may prove to be problematic for the State. The thesis identified that the CRMC's proposed lease rate would be inequitable to marinas in Rhode Island. Marinas subject to the CRMC program would pay the same lease fee per slip, …

State Imposed Anchorage Laws: Legitimate Practice, Or Unconstitutional Restriction Of Navigation?, George Yatrakis

Theses and Major Papers

In recent times, there has been a proliferation of laws enacted by individual states and townships which restrict the ability of mariners to anchor within navigable waters of the United States. These laws have been enacted in many of the coastal states, but are most prevalent in California, Florida and Hawaii. Uncertainty as to whether anchoring is an act of navigation, thereby being a constitutional right, has resulted in confusion among boaters, legal authorities and policy makers. In an attempt to clarify the uncertainty surrounding this issue, a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of anchoring laws within the State of Hawaii …

Applications Of Gaming Techniques To Coastal Zone Problems, Robert Adam Drews

Theses and Major Papers

The boundary between sea and land is an area which presents enormous management challenges. It is an area of fragile ecology, dense and growing population, multiple competing demands for resource use, a multitude of regulatory agencies, and far from complete scientific understanding. Given these difficulties, planning for coastal zone management frequently suffers from incomplete data, lack of consensus among users, and lack of support from government authorities. This paper proposes gaming as a tool for assisting in the information gathering, education, consensus building, and communications elements of planning. This is achieved by developing a planning game which is designed to …

The Dilemma Of Dredging And Dredged Material Disposal In The Aquatic Waters Of Rhode Island And Its Impact On The Regional Marina Industry, Darryl J. Keith

Theses and Major Papers

Since the closures, in 1971, of the Prudence Island and Brenton Reef disposal sites, water-related industries have not had aquatic disposal of dredged sediments as a management option. The marina industry in Rhode Island has been especially impacted as natural sedimentation processes have reduced the water depths at many of these locations and have resulted in the loss of business as operators have been unable to operate their marinas to their fullest potential. The elimination of this option is based on political and environmental concerns over declines in local commercial fisheries which are alleged to be the result of the …

Towards A Regional Coastal Zone Management Program In The Oecs, Keith E. Nichols

Theses and Major Papers

The Islands of the Lesser Antilles are described as "truly archipelagic, enjoying the characteristic features of both oceanic and coastal islands." Once considered pristine and far removed from the influences of pollution from coastal areas, they are now faced with the realities of their own solid waste problems, resource degradation and over-exploitation, as well as human health impacts from contaminated rivers and coastal areas. Each of these territories can be considered packages of economic, political and cultural networks, attempting to provide for individual and nationwide needs while seeking economic growth and self-sufficiency. If developed properly and used in tandem with …

Five Marine Resource Management Programs: Innovations And Common Themes, Louisa Rand Moore

Theses and Major Papers

This paper investigates essential elements of marine resource management programs, particularly how they are initiated and what is needed for their success. The focus of this paper is on management planning for sites where marine resources are still largely intact as opposed to those which are severely disturbed. Planning is aimed at determining carrying capacity of the marine systems and limiting disturbances accordingly. Question for this inquiry were developed from research of a bay in eastern Maine where marine resources have not been severely disturbed, but are vulnerable to over-exploitation due to lack of coordinated management. Using these questions, five …

Linking Management And Markets: The Northwest Atlantic Sea Herring Industry And The Case For "Regional" Quotas, Peter Jessup Moore

Theses and Major Papers

This review and characterization of the U.S. Atlantic sea herring fishery and industry analyzes opportunities for and constraints to developing the herring resource more fully. Chapter 1 describes the herring resource, the existing fishery, and reviews current research into the international transboundary migrations of the Atlantic sea herring. Chapters 2 and 3 describe the development of the herring fishery management plan in the context of the global herring market and the management complications that arise from the transboundary migrations of the stocks. Examples of successful linkages between fisheries management and market development are described in Chapter 4 to illustrate the …

Shipping Conferences: Their Future In The Face Of Political And Technological Changes, Timothy J. Helbling

Theses and Major Papers

Shipping conferences developed more than a century ago because a means was required to regulate the intense competition in the international shipping industry. This competition, which is natural, was intensified because of technological innovation, high capital investment, and overtonnage. This study is undertaken to show, through a discussion of the development of conferences, tools available for their use, and current political and technological environment in which they operate, that similar conditions still exist, and although the nature of the shipping industry has been experiencing major changes in technology and operations, the conference system still offers a viable forum for negotiating, …