A Course in Environmental Planning and

Management
ARTHUR CONACHER, PATRICK ARMSTRONG, DEREK MILTON and BILL
WILSON
Department of Geography, University of Western Australia, Ned/ands, WA 6009, Australia

Summary
This paper describes a 13-weeks, third-year course in Environmental Planning and Management developed
and taught by the authors. Initiated in 1969, the course consists of a mix of lectures, seminars,
workshop/laboratory sessions and fie/d-based projects. The objectives of the course are for students: to
become aware of the need for, and the complexities of, environmental management; to be able to criticise
constructively work done by environmental agencies and consultants, managers and decision makers; and
to/earn and apply some of the methods and techniques used in environmental management.
Topics covered by the current syllabus are: concepts of 'resource' and 'environment'; constitutional
aspects; international law and the environment; Australian and Canadian environmental legislation and
agencies; human manipulation of ecosystems; energy subsidies; modification of biogeochemica/ cycles;
population dynamics and cropping; fisheries; national parks and reserves - policies in different countries;
international heritage areas; environmental assessment (including impact assessment, /and evaluation,
/and capability and /and suitability assessment); and regional, integrated land-use and environmental
planning and management. Techniques taught include: fie/c/surveys and interviewing; laboratory analysis
of selected water quality, sediment and soil parameters including nutrient concentrations, heavy metal and
pesticide residues; and for some students, applications of geographic information systems (G/S) technology
following preceding G/S courses.
A major problem is selecting the most appropriate mix between the social and natural sciences -
'appropriate" first in terms of students' heterogeneous ski/Is and backgrounds, and second, in terms of
understanding the causes of environmental problems and issues, and devising practicable solutions.
/

Introduction O b j e c t i v e s o f the C o u r s e
The purpose of this paper is to outline a third-year The explicit objectives of the course are:
course in environmental management which has "for students to become aware of the need for,
been developed over a period of 23 years in the and t h e c o m p l e x i t i e s of, e n v i r o n m e n t a l
Department of Geography at the University of management; to be able to criticise constructively
Western Australia. Emphasis is placed on the w o r k d o n e b y e n v i r o n m e n t a l a g e n c i e s and
d e v e I o p m e n t of concepts, methodologies and consultants, managers and decision makers; to
technologies, and the explicit integration of social appreciate the need for environmental management
and natural sciences. The framework of the course to be combined with integrated, regional land-use
could be d e v e l o p e d and i m p l e m e n t e d in any planning; and to learn and apply some of the
jurisdiction or location. methods used in environmental management and
planning" (from the Faculty Handbook).
Dr Arthur Conacher is Associate Professor, Drs Patrick Several needs and goals underlie the above
Armstrong and Derek Milton are Senior Lecturers, and Bill objectives:
Wilson is the Senior Technician in the Department of - First, there is the educational goal of enabling
Geography at the University of Western Australia. graduates to take their place in society with a

The Environmentalist, Volume 13, Number 3, 189-198 (1993)

 good understanding not only of some of the assessment (worth 10 percent of the overall course
world's major contemporary problems, but of grade), the paper is housed in the departmental
how these problems are being (or perhaps library so as to be available to others in the same
should be) dealt with by governments and their and future years. Examples of seminar topics
agencies. include:
- A second need is to fit graduates for employment - eutrophication processes: are they reversible?;
in the broad field of environmental assessment - sources of heavy metals in the environment, their
and protection. In this context, the course transportation to and accumulation in wetlands;
complements others available at the University - a critical evaluation of the main environmental
of Western Australia, in Botany, Zoology and Acts in Western Australia - Environmental
Soil Science in particular. The distinctively Protection, Soil Conservation, Conservation
geographical contributions of the course lie and Land Management, Planning;
both in the integration of social and natural - the role of GIS in environmental planning and
science approaches to environmental problem management;
solving, and in the acquisition of field, - world deforestation: extent, rate, causes and
laboratory and computing (GIS) skills. implications;
- Implicit in the above is the third need; that is, to - the Greenhouse Effect: myths and realities.
understand elements of both social and natural The third and fourth components of the course
s c i e n c e s in o r d e r to be an e f f e c t i v e are laboratory and field work. They are directly
environmental manager. The reason for this is related and focus on a class project. Projects vary
simple. Whilst a good understanding of natural from year to year, but they always concern an
sciences is necessary in order to appreciate the environmental problem (or issue) which requires the
functioning of disrupted ecosystems, the fact application of both social and natural science skills
remains that environmental problems and issues in the field and in the laboratory. Project topics have
(as distinct from natural hazards) are caused by included: causes of and solutions to secondary
human actions. People also have to solve the salinisation in the Western Australian wheatbelt
problems, through legislation, planning and ( C o n a c h e r , 1990); i n t e g r a t e d c a t c h m e n t
m a n a g e m e n t ; and it is in the f i e l d s of management (e.g. O ' C o n n o r , 1985), and the
administration, sociology, economics, law and pollution and management of coastal wetlands (e.g.
politics that explanations of, and workable Pedersen and Conacher, 1991).
solutions to, environmental problems and issues Laboratory work requires _three formal hours
generally have to be found. per week (and several more hours informally) for
the 13 weeks, and it usually has two distinct stages.
C o u r s e S t r u c t u r e
In the first stage, the entire class is involved in
defining the project topic and aims, and developing
In order to fulfil the above objectives, the course is the methodology. This stage includes deciding upon
structured into four components: lectures, seminars, sampling and questionnaire designs, mapping
laboratory work and field work. Concepts, ideas and techniques, the properties of water, soil or sediment
content are presented in 39 lectures over the which need to be analysed in the laboratory, and
13-weeks duration of the course. Course content identifying the most suitable and practicable
(which also incorporates material from seminars and analytical techniques to be used. The second stage
the project - refer below) is evaluated in a formal, involves application of the various laboratory
3-hour examination which accounts for 50 percent techniques, following instruction, and is carried out
of the final grade for the course. by smaller groups (of no more than four students).
Seminars comprise the second component of The same groups work together in the field for
the course. These are designed both to assist up to seven days, producing maps, conducting
students in the maturing process, and to broaden the interviews, describing soils, landforms, water
course content. Students are required to present to bodies and vegetation, and collecting samples, as
their peers, verbally, a paper selected from a list of appropriate to the project aims. Although the
provided topics. All students are expected to have students work in groups on the project, and are
read around the topic, based on an abstract and short encouraged to interact amongst themselves as much
reading list provided by the presenter one week as possible, individual reports are still required for
before the seminar presentation, and to contribute to assessment. Project reports are usually worth 40
discussion of the paper during the 2-hour session. A percent of the final grade for the course, and they
written paper is submitted for assessment one week are required to be presented, r e f e r e n c e d and
after the verbal presentation, and should incorporate i l l u s t r a t e d a c c o r d i n g to the s t a n d a r d s o f
points raised in the seminar discussion. Following internationally recognised scientific journals.

190 The Environmentalist

Seminar topics (the second c o m p o n e n t of the planning and management.
course) are often selected to c o m p l e m e n t the Techniques taught include: sampling design;
project, so that by the end of the course students laboratory analysis of selected water quality,
have both a good, practical, working knowledge of sediment and soil parameters such as nutrient
the project topic and a sound grasp of the related concentrations, heavy metals, pesticide residues,
literature. pH, electrical conductivity, particle size distribution,
Due to the intensive nature of the course, and organic matter content; air photo and map
student numbers are kept small. An ideal class size interpretation; field survey and mapping (especially
is 15-17, but numbers have ranged from 11 to 23. of vegetation and soils), and questionnaire design
and interviewing. Many students have also learnt the
Arc/Info Geographic Information System (GIS) in
C o u r s e C o n t e n t
an introductory second-year course, followed by a
As indicated in the Introduction, the course content 13-weeks, third-year course on applications of the
has evolved since 1969, when its precursor (Applied technique taught during the first half of the calendar
Geography in Rural Environments) was first taught year, and are then able to apply this skill to the
by the senior author and Mr David Murray. More environmental management project. The following
recently, the involvement of a number of academic sections elaborate on some of the above content
and technical staff of the department, including all areas.
the present authors, has ensured that students are
exposed to a wide range of ideas and techniques. Concepts of resource and environment
Thus the present content outlined below reflects: A question asked at the outset: "Why is environ-
t e a c h i n g e x p e r i e n c e g a i n e d since 1969; the mental management necessary?" is answered by
considerable changes that have taken place with c o n s i d e r i n g two c o n t r a s t i n g e n v i r o n m e n t a l
regard to societal and governmental awareness of problems and issues. The first concerns the major,
and actions concerning environmental degradation increasing problem of secondary soil salinisation in
and management (1969 was the year in which the the Western Australian wheatbelt (Conacher, 1990)
U n i t e d S t a t e s i n t r o d u c e d the w o r l d ' s first and the second, the ongoing conflict associated with
environmental impact legislation); and the vast the clearfelling of Australia's indigenous forests for
literature on environment-related topics. The course the export woodchip industry (Conacher, 1983).
will undoubtedly continue to evolve. Indeed, in This leads into a conceptual discussion of what is
1992 there was a significant change to its title meant by the terms 'resources' and 'environment',
( r e f l e c t i n g ~ c h a n g e s in c o u r s e content) f r o m ~whether they are synonymous (as implied by some
'Environmental Management' to 'Environmental of the literature), and the implications of the
Planning and Management', in recognition of the distinction between the two for environmental
need to provide graduates with the skills required to management goals and methgds (Conacher, 1978).
incorporate environmental problem-solving with It is meaningless to discuss' 'the environment' in
regional, integrated land-use planning. abstract; it must be the environment of something -
Topics covered by the current syllabus are: usually people (or, in the previous reference, what
- concepts of resource and environment; is t e r m e d ' r e s o u r c e s y s t e m s ' ) . But insects,
- legal and constitutional aspects; vertebrates and plants also have environments, and
- international law and the environment; 'the' environment always needs to be defined
- Australian and Canadian environmental unambiguously in any given context. Recognition
legislation and agencies; that 'environment' is nearly always considered
- human manipulation of ecosystems; anthropocentrically permits the ideas of 'deep
- energy subsidies; ecologists', including that of the Gaia hypothesis, to
- modification of biogeochemical cycles; be introduced and discussed briefly (Naess, 1973;
- population dynamics and cropping; Devall and Sessions, 1985; Lovelock, 1979; 1988;
- fisheries; Joseph, 1990).
- national parks and reserves - policies in A second point which also needs to be stressed
different countries; is that environments do not comprise only, or even
- international heritage areas; predominantly, the biophysical environment of
- environmental assessment (including people; there are also social, economic, cultural,
monitoring; land evaluation, land capability built and political environments which (at least in
and land suitability assessment, and impact cities) may be of greater significance than (say) air
assessment); or water pollution, and in any event certainly need
- multicriteria evaluation in physical planning; to be c o n s i d e r e d . In A u s t r a l i a , the e a r l y
- integrated, regional land-use and environmental environmental protection legislation of most States

Volume 13, Number 3 (1993) 191

defined 'environment' predominantly in biophysical means of maintaining and improving environmental
terms, which has had (and continues to have) quality (Munton, 1983). Comparisons may just as
unfortunate repercussions. It is still necessary to usefully be made with other countries, however, and
attempt to persuade governments and environmental for this purpose works such as those by Chia Lin
protection agencies to include 'social impact' in Sien (1987) and Enyedi et al. (1987) are invaluable.
their assessments, although this situation is The Canadian experience is also drawn upon to
changing. foreshadow material developed in detail later in the
course, namely: the numerous deficiencies of
Legal and constitutional aspects environmental impact assessment (EIA) as the sole
One of the principal ways in which human (that is, or major means of protecting the environment; the
cultural and social) systems interact with the significance of cumulative and social impacts; the
biophysical environment is through the legal importance of public participation for successful
process, and it is considered important that students environmental management; the need to incorporate
have a basic knowledge of legal institutions, e n v i r o n m e n t a l m a n a g e m e n t with r e g i o n a l ,
p r o c e d u r e s and doctrines. The principles of integrated land-use planning and management; the
parliamentary government, and the hierarchy of problems which the Canadians have experienced
courts are therefore explained, mainly in relation to with the regional, integrative approach, and the need
the Australian Constitution, but some comparison to find solutions to these problems (Conacher,
with other countries is offered. The legal doctrine of 1988).
precedent is discussed briefly, and students are
encouraged to refer to actual statutes (Common- Ecosystem manipulation, conservation, national
wealth and State), and to law reports of important parks and Worm Heritage Areas
cases relevant to environmental problems. For Before the nature of the human disruption of
example, the significance of The Franklin Dam Case ecosystems can be fully appreciated, the principles
in determining the extent to which the Australian that u n d e r l i e the d y n a m i c s of natural and
Commonwealth (that is, the Federal Government) near-natural ecosystems must be fully understood.
can intervene in the environmental concerns of the (Most students have studied ecosystem structure and
various States is examined (Coper, 1983). dynamics as a component of either a previous unit
Environmental problems increasingly have in geography, or courses in the biological sciences,
international dimensions, and thus students are but some brief revision of the main ideas of
given an introduction to some of the institutions and e n e r g y - f l o w and b i o l o g i c a l p r o d u c t i v i t y ,
doctrines of international law. The roles of the b i o g e o c h e m i c a l c i r c u l a t i o n and p o p u l a t i o n
United Nations and the International Court in the d y n a m i c s is i n c l u d e d in this course where
settlement of disputes are considered, and examples necessary.) The role of human activities in altering
of a range of international treaties and conventions energy-flow paths, and in disrupting nutrient
dealing with such matters as marine and air pathways is examined in some detail. The 'energy
pollution, marine resources and fisheries, wildlife subsidy' concept is used as an aid to understanding
conservation and Antarctica are mentioned (Lyster, of agro-ecosystems and other communities in which
1985). Emphasis is placed on Australia's role. humans are an important component. Similarly, the
ways in which agriculture and other types of
Australian and Canadian environmental resource use have influenced the flows of elements
legislation and agencies such as phosphorus, nitrogen and calcium are
The objective of this section of the course is to considered, and the technique of compiling nutrient
introduce students to the local legislative framework budgets briefly explained. The importance of
and agency structures within which environmental integration and variety in an ecological approach to
protection is practised, and then to broaden the land management is emphasised (Simmons, 1981;
perspective with an international comparison. A 1989).
point made at the outset is that both the common law The conservation of natural systems and
and a considerable body of existing legislation could landscapes is a topic discussed in some detail during
be used to protect the environment in Australia the course. The national parks policies of Western
given the political will to do so. Australia, other Australian States, the Australian
A t t e n t i o n is then f o c u s e d on explicitly Commonwealth and other countries (for example
environmental legislation, and Canada is selected the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and
for comparison because of its many similarities with France) are compared. Marine parks are destined to
Australia - in its size, population, history and become increasingly important, and the problems
government - and because it has what some involved in the management of the Great Barrier
consider to be amongst the world's most enlightened Reef and a number of smaller Western Australian

192 The Environmentalist

Marine Parks are discussed. and habitat assessment.
An international dimension to this part of the The framework of Herricks and Schaeffer
course is provided by consideration of World (1985) merges into another category, that of
Heritage Areas (WHA), a field in which Australia ecological approaches to environmental assessment.
has taken a lead. The procedures for the designation The perceived failure of other methods to take an
of a WHA are reviewed, and a comparison made holistic approach led to the proposals by Beanlands
between the management of such areas in Australia and Duinker (1983) for two forms of scoping to
(for example Western Tasmania, Uluru [Ayers Rock identify valued ecosystem components: a) social
and the Olgas], Kakadu and Lord Howe Island) and scoping, which identifies societal values and
elsewhere, particularly from the point of view of perceptions in order to define valued ecosystem
management practices. components, and b) ecological scoping, which
concerns the methods and degree to which the above
Environmental assessment components can be assessed. This ecological
The emphasis of this section of the course is on approach was used by Kelly et al. (1987) to develop
describing and evaluating the range of methods used the concept of strategic assessments, which form
to assess people's biophysical environment and land part of the following environmental management
use, and to show how these methods have changed hierarchy: government policies and programmes
over time. This comprises a major part of the --~ strategic assessments ---) project assessments
lectures and is therefore treated in some detail here;
---) regulatory procedures.
but the following discussion is not exhaustive.
There are many ways of assessing the human Project- or activity-specific studies: Strategic
environment, ranging from simple (or single assessment incorporates an assessment of the
property) monitoring of aspects of the biophysical biophysical environment with an assessment of
e n v i r o n m e n t , to a t t e m p t s at i n t e g r a t e d or likely cultural demands. It has a very close
comprehensive, holistic, regional-based methods. relationship with what is undoubtedly the best-
These methods can be classified into four groups: known and most commonly-used environmental
assessment technique: environmental impact
ambient/baseline studies;
assessment (EIA).
-

- ongoing environmental monitoring;

- project- or activity-specific studies, and EIA is dealt with in some detail in the course,
regional land evaluation for total area planning
-
but it is not discussed here since the method is well
and management. known and there are many excellent texts. That by
Munn (1979) has a particularly useful treatment of
Baseline studies and monitoring: Examples of these
a l t e r n a t i v e t e c h n i q u e s w i t h i n the o v e r a l l
types of assessment include toxicological/bioassay
methodology. The need to extend traditional EIA
approaches, physical/chemical monitoring, and
methods to incorporate social (CEARC, 1985) and
biomonitoring. Toxicological approaches involve
c u m u l a t i v e impacts (Beanlands et al., 1985;
the setting of tolerance levels through experimental
Cocklin etal., 1988; Cocklin, 1989), and risk
studies, which are usually laboratory-based
assessment and management~(Grima et al., 1986),
although field research is increasing. Such studies
and the means of doing so, are also discussed.
are usually species- and toxin-specific, whilst
human studies are often based on epidemiological A fundamental shortcoming of EIA as an
approaches. Physical/chemical monitoring may environmental management tool is its post hoc,
target properties derived from toxicological studies, p r o j e c t - s p e c i f i c nature, which has led to a
and are essentially field-based p r o g r a m m e s recognition in some quarters of the need for
designed to sample the occurrence of particular environmental management to be practised as an
substances. Biomonitoring (the 'canary in the coal integral part of comprehensive planning (Erckmann,
mine' method) focuses on indicator species as 1985; Marshall et al., 1985; Conacher, 1988). This
measures of environmental quality, drawing heavily approach requires reasonably comprehensive data to
on toxicology or detailed field and species' be available on an area-wide basis, and it is in this
observations in order to identify responses which context that the various approaches to 'land
are indicative of environmental change. The evaluation' become particularly relevant.
research framework of Herricks and Schaeffer Land evaluation: The land systems approach to land
(1985) increased the complexity and completeness evaluation was pioneered in Australia by Christian
of environmental assessment, and recognised and Stewart (1953; Stewart, 1968). Although
ecological principles by considering the following suitable for rapid assessment of large areas for
aspects of biotic communities: organisation; which little information is available, the method
function; state descriptors (inertia, redundancy, needed to be supplemented by much more detailed
stability, equilibrium state and recovery potential), surveys. It was also limited in its application by its

Volume 13, Number 3 (1993) 193

traditional geomorphic base (which has little and is covered by the course in some detail.
bearing on land use), its exclusive focus on the As discussed by Davidson (1980), the FAO
biophysical environment, and its restriction to approach is a framework and not a fully developed
agricultural applications. Nevertheless, a large classification method. Combining the best elements
number of surveys were conducted in Australia, the of this approach with the Siro-Plan method holds
whole of Papua New Guinea has been covered by considerable promise, as shown by the work of
land systems surveys, and very similar assessments fourth-year Honours students in the Geography
were carried out by other agencies in parts of South Department at the University of Western Australia.
A m e r i c a and A f r i c a (e.g. Tuley, 1972) - A further development has been to incorporate GIS
complementing the standard soil surveys which are methodology (discussed further below), thereby
conducted by most countries. providing an interactive planning tool (Pritchard,
Land systems surveys are no longer carried out 1991; Pedersen et al., submitted).
in Australia, but two avenues of inquiry developed
from the technique. One was research into means of The integration of environmental management
storing land data in databases (which in turn merges with regional land-use planning
into the GIS approach discussed further below). The The sections of the c o u r s e outlined above
second was the explicit addition of land use data to d e m o n s t r a t e the n e e d for e n v i r o n m e n t a l
the traditional land system coverage, in much management to be integrated with regional land-use
smaller areas and in much greater detail, in the planning. Many of the methods which are, can, or
so-called South Coast Project in New South Wales s h o u l d be u s e d in i n t e g r a t e d , r e g i o n a l ,
(Basinski, 1978). This quickly developed into a environmental and land-use planning, have already
regional land-use planning tool, named Siro-Plan been discussed. One area relatively neglected so far
(Baird, 1981; and evaluated in Davis, 1985). As is environmental economics. This part of the course
such this methodology is directly relevant to therefore first briefly considers 'multicriteria
regional land-use planning, developed later in the evaluation in physical planning' (Nijkamp et al.,
course. However, whilst Siro-Plan has been applied 1990), an economics-orientated look at multiple-
to some local authority areas in eastern Australia, objective decision-making and multiple-criteria
and to the Great Barrier Reef, it does not appear to decision analysis.
have been adopted widely. Moreover, it has a Practical examples of integrated land-use and
methodological deficiency in that its land units for environmental planning are then examined, and a
assessment are delimited according to criteria which brief consideration of the Canadian experience with
are not necessarily related to the land units' integrated, regional planning (Lang, 1986) is
suitability (for various possible uses), and the f o l l o w e d by a d i s c u s s i o n of the Australian
method is particularly deficient in its failure to experience.
involve the community, thereby almost guaranteeing The State of New South Wales has been pre-
failure of at least some planning decisions (c.f. eminent in this regard, with its Department of
Sewell and O'Riordan, 1976). Environment and Planning. Unfortunately, in 1990
There are other kinds of land evaluation which 'Environment' was dropped from the name of the
also have application for comprehensive or integ- agency, reflecting both within-agency problems and
rated r e g i o n a l p l a n n i n g . T h e y i n c l u d e the political changes; although New South Wales
assessment of land capability (Klingebiel and remains the leader within Australia in the use of the
Montgomery, 1961), carrying capacity (Stankey, legal system to resolve environmental conflicts
1972; Mitchell, 1979), landscape quality or (Conacher, 1988). The integration of environmental
aesthetics (Mitchell, 1979), and land suitability. protection with regional planning, which started
Each technique has a role in land evaluation and is promisingly with the Hunter regional plan in 1982
described and evaluated in the course; but particular (Department of Environment and Planning, 1982),
emphasis is given to land suitability assessment as also seems to have lost its momentum.
being more directly relevant to teaching methods of At the same time, Victoria and South Australia
land evaluation for regional, integrated land-use have introduced new environmental protection
planning. legislation, with the latter State in the process of
Land suitability is sometimes confused with land developing a management plan for the Mount Lofty
capability, but it is quite different (and, usually, more Ranges, which forms most of the rural-urban fringe
appropriate). Put simply, the objective is to judge the around Adelaide (Houston, 1993). A Regional
value of an area of land for defined purposes. The Management Authority is proposed to assume some
approach taken by the Food and Agriculture of the development control functions of the 21 local
Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations is government Councils in the region, and to provide
considered to be particularly valuable (FAO, 1976) advice and co-ordination for regional planning and

194 The Environmentalist

natural resources management policy. There is a procedural and any occupational health or safety
clear e m p h a s i s t o w a r d s m a n a g e m e n t on an aspects of the techniques. Written instructions
'ecologically sustainable basis'. No other State has outlining the scope, physiochemical basis, stepwise
m o v e d so far in i m p l e m e n t i n g the ideals of procedure, references and any health and safety
integrated, regional land-use and environmental issues are provided.
planning. Each technique is presented as a part of a
Surprisingly perhaps, since it has neither an structured programme with the more advanced
integrated environment and planning agency nor analyses relying on skills developed earlier in the
integrated planning and environmental protection course. In this way it is possible to accommodate
legislation, the State of Western Australia is making students with little laboratory experience. For
considerable headway with integration of the two example, students are first instructed in the analysis
activities. Four recent regional plans attest to this of orthophosphate in potable waters, a simple
activity and are evaluated in the course (State technique, but one which fosters an appreciation of
P l a n n i n g C o m m i s s i o n and D e p a r t m e n t of concepts and practices fundamental to chemical
Conservation and Land Management, 1987; State analysis such as the Beer-Lambert Law and the
Planning Commission, 1988; 1989; Department of correct use of volumetric glassware (Wetzel and
Planning and Urban Development, 1990). Yet Likens, 1979). Simple exercises such as this are
(perhaps because of legislative inadequacies - followed by more complex procedures where soils
which in turn reflect societal and agency attitudes) and sediments are analysed for total nitrogen,
there is still poor co-ordination amongst the several phosphorous and heavy metals using
agencies which have major roles in both planning s p e c t r o p h o t o m e t r i c , t i t r i m e t r i c and a t o m i c
and e n v i r o n m e n t a l m a n a g e m e n t in the State. absorption spectrometric techniques. Finally,
Further, and in marked contrast to Environment analysis of organochlorine pesticides in soil and
Canada, Western Australia has no government sediments using capillary gas chromatography is
department which plays the role of environmental presented.
advocate. Agencies which might have fulfilled such The process of using analytical protocols as
a purpose - previously the 'Wildlife' section of the vehicles to instil and reinforce f u n d a m e n t a l
old Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, and the physiochemical concepts hopefully goes some way
National Parks Board - have been incorporated in towards overcoming the 'cookbook' approach to
the D e p a r t m e n t of C o n s e r v a t i o n and L a n d environmental analysis, where methods are applied
Management which, it is widely held amongst with little or no understanding of underlying
c o n s e r v a t i o n i s t s , is m o r e p r o d u c t i o n - than rationales or assumptions. It is necessary for
conservation-orientated. environmental practitioners to appreciate that a
Within-agency structures and operations, and range of techniques can be applied to a single
i n t e r - a g e n c y c o m p e t i t i o n , p r o v i d e valuable parameter and that the nature of 'the answer' is
real-world, local e x a m p l e s of e n v i r o n m e n t a l highly method-dependent. For' example, different
protection, conflict resolution, regional planning sediment digestion systems fpr 'total' phosphorous
and politics in action. Graduates from the course are may or may not include the mineralised (apatite)
playing significant roles in the above agencies - component; or the use of copper powder to remove
roles which are enhanced by the ac/tuisition of sulphurous compounds from reduced sediment
important practical skills, some of which are extracts prior to screening for organochlorine
outlined below. Lack of space prevents field- and pesticides using GC-ECD will also breakdown any
project-work from being discussed further. heptachlor present (Chau and Afghan, 1982).
After demonstrating their ability to apply these
Laboratory component of course techniques to previously collected environmental
The objectives of the laboratory component of the materials, students are free to work on their field
course are threefold: to provide data for the class project. Instructors now provide only very general
project; to equip students with a range of analytical guidance and encourage students to use their own
and technical skills, and through the acquisition of resources and take responsibility for the quality of
these skills to engender a critical appreciation of their own data.
techniques used in environmental analysis. , Analytical methods presented in this course are
Initially, the various analytical techniques are derived from varied sources (for example, Allen,
demonstrated to small groups of students. Before 1974; K l u t e , 1986, and the Journal o f the
undertaking their field study the students are Association of Official Analytical Chemists) and
expected to apply the techniques correctly to adapted to suit local conditions and laboratory
previously collected environmental material, and to infrastructure. Attempts are made to keep up with
i n d i c a t e a t h o r o u g h u n d e r s t a n d i n g of both t e c h n o l o g i c a l i n n o v a t i o n s in the f i e l d of

Volume 13, Number 3 (1993) 195

environmental analysis, such as the growing use of background. The curriculum in the department
prepackaged columns of bonded phase sorbents in currently provides for students interested in GIS to
trace organic analysis (Van Home, 1985; Ozretich complete two courses - one introductory and the
and Schroeder, 1986). Such endeavours, however, second in the applications of the technology - before
are invariably costly and usually require appreciable embarking on this environmental management
developmental work. course. Through working in teams, the students
without GIS experience are also exposed to its
Geographic information systems potential without necessarily realising the pains of
The final but optional component of the course is building spatial data bases. The data gathered from
for students to use geographic information system their field work, and the results of their laboratory
technology. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) analyses, can be incorporated readily into the GIS
are becoming more widely used since the first systems available in the department. The danger
national GIS was built in Canada in the 1960s for here lies in organising the workload within the
land-use evaluation. Rapid developments in both different teams such that certain members are not
software and hardware, particularly since 1985, overloaded or compromised by not completing
have both placed the technology on the 'desktop' other, equally important parts of the course.
and made it more readily usable in an increasing The GIS facilities in the department are more
number of disciplines. Amongst the merits of the than adequate. There is a GIS laboratory comprising
c u r r e n t G I S s are i m p r o v e d g e o p r o c e s s i n g ten PC 386 microcomputers and eight Workstations.
functionality and more open database structures into The PCs are available to all GIS students whereas
w h i c h a v a r i e t y of textual databases, field the Workstations are generally reserved for senior
observations and laboratory results can readily be students' and staff research. The main GIS software
incorporated. If these can be tied to spatial is ESRI's ARC INFO but there is also OSU Map.
co-ordinates then a variety of avenues for the The department also has Image Analysis software.
integration of data are opened. Furthermore, Techniques have been developed for linking data in
pertinent map data may be digitised or obtained if the GIS to various statistical packages available
already in a digital format (Tomlinson, 1987; either on the PCs or over the University's local area
Newton et al., 1988). network (LAN). The laboratory is staffed by a senior
Having 'built' a digital spatial database, then a lecturer and a programme/systems manager.
range of geoprocessing functions may be employed The GIS c o m p o n e n t of the c o u r s e was
to identify simple spatial associations or model more introduced in 1990. Although it is too early to
complex spatial processes. The GIS provides the comment on its merits to the course, it appears to be
opportunity to explore various hypotheses in a sound addition in that students are made aware of
environmental management or the impacts of y e t a n o t h e r tool f o r a s s e s s i n g i s s u e s in
alternative planning strategies on the environment. environmental management. Success will depend on
In Western Australia there is a reasonable array the ready availability of digital, spatial databases,
of digital, spatial databases for various parts of the for there is nothing that will kill students' interest
State. These i n c l u d e soils, vegetation, land and enthusiasm more rapidly than having to spend
capability, land-use zoning, the legal cadastre and hours digitising map information. The selection of
corresponding property ownership, and census data projects needs to incorporate this consideration if
of demographic and socio-economic values. In the GIS component is to be adopted enthusiastically
addition the State has a very active Remote Sensing by students.
and Image Analysis community which provides
other sources of spatial, digital information.
Most of the readily available digital data sets Conclusion
reside in various government agencies. These data
sets can be made available to students through This paper has briefly outlined an intensive,
co-operative and mutually beneficial projects; 13-weeks course in environmental management,
otherwise data have to be purchased, which can lead consisting of 39 lectures, 13 x 2-hour seminars,
to excessive costs. Early experience is indicating 13 x 3-hour formal workshop/laboratory sessions,
that g o v e r n m e n t a g e n c i e s w e l c o m e the co- and seven days of field work. It is hoped that some
o p e r a t i o n , but the a r r a n g e m e n t s and the idea of the flavour of the course will have emerged.
participating students have to be monitored very Two important points need to be made in
closely so as not to overwhelm or disappoint the conclusion. One is that the students find the course
co-operating partner through generating inflated enjoyable, interesting and challenging, largely
expectations of outcomes. because it deals with real-world problems, people,
Not all students in the course have a GIS issues, agencies, attitudes and political realities. The

196 The Environmentalist

course makes a positive contribution towards Research Organisation Australia, Land Resources
solving environmental problems. The course is also Series No. 1, Melbourne.
useful, and good graduates - especially if they Chia Lin Sien (ed.). 1987. Environmental
continue to an Honours year - have little difficulty Management in South-east Asia. Faculty of
finding employment. The second point, which was Science, National University of Singapore.
also made at the outset, is that the course is in a Cocklin, C. 1989. Methodological Approaches to the
continual state of flux because the real world and its Assessment of Cumulative Environmental
problems, and knowledge ,about them, continually Change. Environmental Science Occasional
change. A glance through the list of references Publication CEC-02, University of Auckland.
i n d i c a t e s j u s t h o w m u c h an e n v i r o n m e n t a l Cocklin, C., Hay, J. and Fenn, A. 1988. The Concept
management course in the 1990s will differ from of Cumulative Environmental Change.
one in the 1980s and 70s, let alone the 60s. The Environmental Science Occasional Publication
reference list also indicates that, despite rather too CEC-01, University of Auckland.
much e v i d e n c e of c o n t i n u i n g e n v i r o n m e n t a l Conacher, A.J. 1978. Resources and environmental
degradation and conflict, a great deal is being done management: some fundamental concepts and
definitions. Search, 9(12), 437-441.
by researchers and practitioners to solve the
Conacher, A.J. 1983. Environmental management
problems.
implications of intensive forestry practices in an
indigenous forest ecosystem: a case study from
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198 The Environmentalist