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Environmental Law

Vanderbilt University Law School

Ecosystem services

Articles 1 - 9 of 9

Full-Text Articles in Law

Connecting Ecosystem Services Science And Policy In The Field, J. B. Ruhl, James Salzman, Craig A. Arnold, Robin Craig, Keith Hirokawa, Lydia Olander, Margaret Palmer, Taylor H. Ricketts Jan 2021

Connecting Ecosystem Services Science And Policy In The Field, J. B. Ruhl, James Salzman, Craig A. Arnold, Robin Craig, Keith Hirokawa, Lydia Olander, Margaret Palmer, Taylor H. Ricketts

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Conservation and provision of ecosystem services (ES) have been adopted as high-level policy in many countries, yet there has been surprisingly little application of these broad policies in the field; for example, ES are rarely considered in permit issuance or other discrete agency actions. This large implementation gap arises in part because the science that drove general policy interest in ES differs from the science needed for practical application. A better understanding of the environmental policy toolkit can guide more effective research to support agency decisions. Here, we outline the framework used to teach environmental policy instruments through the “Five …


Beyond Green Infrastructure--Integrating The Ecosystem Services Framework Into Urban Planning Law And Policy, J. B. Ruhl Jan 2020

Beyond Green Infrastructure--Integrating The Ecosystem Services Framework Into Urban Planning Law And Policy, J. B. Ruhl

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Despite the heavy emphasis in legal scholarship on federal and state governance of environmental policy, cities have had their champions as well. Legal scholars who stand out as having defined a position for local governance in the environmental domain include John Nolan, Jamison Colburn, Keith Hirokawa, Tony Arnold, and, on any such list, Julian Juergensmeyer. Indeed, in the United States and many other nations, cities have been leaders in many of the looming issues of environmental policy, including those with global dimensions, like climate change mitigation, and surely those with local focus, like climate change adaptation. In the United States, …


A Global Assessment Of The Law And Policy, J. B. Ruhl, J. Salzman Jan 2020

A Global Assessment Of The Law And Policy, J. B. Ruhl, J. Salzman

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Through building waves of legal scholarship and litigation, a group of legal academics and practitioners is advancing a theory of the public trust doctrine styled as the “atmospheric trust.” The atmospheric trust would require the federal and state governments to regulate public and private actors to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to abate climate change.


Adaptive Management For Ecosystem Services, J. B. Ruhl, Robin Kundis Craig Jan 2020

Adaptive Management For Ecosystem Services, J. B. Ruhl, Robin Kundis Craig

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Managing the wildland-urban interface (WUI) is a widely-recognized land use problem plagued by a fractured geography of land parcels, management jurisdictions, and governance mandates and objectives. People who work in this field have suggested a variety of approaches to managing this interface, from informal governance to contracting to insurance. To date, however, none of these scholars has fully embraced the dynamism, uncertainty, and complexity of the WUI—that is, its status as a complex adaptive system. In focusing almost exclusively on the management of this interface to control wildfire, this scholarship largely ignores the fact that rampant wildfire is itself the …


Ecosystem Services And Federal Public Lands: Start-Up Policy Questions And Research Needs, J.B. Ruhl Jan 2010

Ecosystem Services And Federal Public Lands: Start-Up Policy Questions And Research Needs, J.B. Ruhl

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.


Making Nuisance Ecological, J.B. Ruhl Jan 2008

Making Nuisance Ecological, J.B. Ruhl

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Common law nuisance doctrine has the reputation of having provided much of the strength and content of environmental law prior to the rise of federal statutory regimes in the 1970s, but since then has taken a back seat to regulatory law with respect to the environment. In particular, whereas nuisance doctrine has been criticized - many say too harshly - as being inadequate for dealing with the demands of modern pollution control, it has never been considered as having much at all to do with management of ecological concerns. Yet nuisance law evolves with changed circumstances and new knowledge. This …


The Law And Policy Beginnings Of Ecosystem Services, J.B. Ruhl, James Salzman Jan 2007

The Law And Policy Beginnings Of Ecosystem Services, J.B. Ruhl, James Salzman

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Over the past decade, there has been an explosion of interest in ecosystem services from scientists, economists, government officials, entrepreneurs, and the media. This article traces the development of the ecosystem services concept in law and policy. We prepared it in connection with a symposium held at Florida State University in April 2006. The presentations at the symposium, which then developed into the articles in a special issue of the Journal of Land Use and Environmental Law (volume 22, issue 2), approached the topic of ecosystem services and the law from two perspectives. One set of presentations focused on the …


Monetizing The Benefits Of Risk And Environmental Regulation, W. Kip Viscusi Jan 2006

Monetizing The Benefits Of Risk And Environmental Regulation, W. Kip Viscusi

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Should the benefits of risk and environmental regulations be monetized? For economists, this question is not controversial. Benefits of government policies have a value given by society's willingness to pay for these benefits, which by its very nature poses the valuation issue in monetary terms. Government agencies have likewise not shied away from monetizing these benefits. A contrary school of thought, however, has recently emerged, as reflected in the book by Frank Ackerman and Lisa Heinzerling, Priceless: On Knowing the Price of Everything and the Value of Nothing. As the title of the book suggests, the authors oppose economists' attempts …


Equitable Apportionment Of Ecosystem Services: New Water Law For A New Water Age, J.B. Ruhl Jan 2003

Equitable Apportionment Of Ecosystem Services: New Water Law For A New Water Age, J.B. Ruhl

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This article examines the interstate water controversy between Florida, Georgia, and Alabama regarding allocation of water in the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River Basin (ACF). The three states have been unable after 20 years of negotiation to resolve conflicts between urbanization in Atlanta, commercial uses in Alabama, and ecological protection in Florida. This article proposes that, were the states to seek apportionment of water by the Supreme Court under the Court's doctrine of equitable apportionment, the ecosystem services flowing within the ACF should be an integral allocation factor in deciding the flow regime Georgia and Alabama must ensure enters the Florida portion of …