WINTER 2012: COMPLEX SYSTEMS
Featured Articles
Systems Thinking Applied to U.S. Federal Fisheries ManagementManagement of natural resources can co-evolve with systems-based science, and legal mechanisms can aid in this evolution process.
Wind Energy in the West: Transmission, Operations, and Market Reforms
To integrate renewable energy resources to the electric grid in the West, changes must be made to the transmission system, the market structure, and the operations systems.
Renewable Agriculture: Transgenic Contamination and Patent Enforcement Threats
The organic farm is a distinct system whose very existence is threatened by patents granted for genetically modified or transgenic seeds.
Flood Control on the Red River as a Complex Environmental Decision System
Truly effective flood control in the Red River Basin may require a new form of federal coordination.
Adaptive Resource Management in Complex Systems
Adaptive resource management reduces ambiguity over time via systematic monitoring that accumulates data required to improve future management.
Building Sustainable Systems Brick by Brick: A Comparative Look at Integrated Permitting in the UK and the Potential for Sustainable Approaches in the United States
Overview of the United Kingdom’s implementation of the European Union mandated integrated regulatory scheme and several key differences between the UK and U.S. permitting systems.
Numeric Nutrient Water Quality Criteria: Lessons from Florida
Florida is embroiled in a battle over state water quality standards for nutrients—one of the oldest and most basic tools for managing fresh water ecosystems.
Fugitive Emissions: The Marcellus Shale and the Clean Air Act
Each stage of natural gas extraction, production, and delivery causes air pollution; however, many operations evade federal air permitting requirements.
Insights
Resolving Ownership of Pore Space
When the surface and mineral estates have been severed, there is a question as to which owner has the right to lease the underlying pore space.
Nanotechnology and the Environment: What's Next?
The physical properties of engineered nanomaterials may create heretofore unknown hazards to humans and ecosystems, even where non-nanoscale versions of the same substance may already be regulated.
Waste and the Waste Hierarchy in Europe
The primary aim of the waste hierarchy is waste prevention, which means keeping material out of the waste stream whenever possible.
ASTM Standard for CERCLA Continuing Obligations
The ASTM standard contains much detail, puts a gloss on some statutory provisions, and is of potential importance to any person seeking to preserve the innocent purchaser, contiguous owner, or bona fide purchaser defenses.
Gregory Mountain: A Sacred Site Protection Failure
Federal and state laws protecting sacred sites contain weak enforcement mechanisms, and state environmental or land use procedures may be applied in a way that disfavors Native American sacred site claims.
Diversity in Environmental Practice: How Are We Doing?
The legal profession is making strides to add more diverse attorneys to its ranks, but some would say that environmental practice is lagging behind others.
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