Figure 1. IEM Framework
Source: Lecture
Notes of ERST 633, 2013
From the
diagram, I want to emphasize some important steps, first is that the initial
and the primary step of the whole process is defining the problem. It is a
crucial step that should be done carefully to establish the existing problem
and to determine the boundary of the problem. It is also important to know that
many environmental problems have not been determined specifically which have
led to inappropriate solution or even create a new problem. Most of those
problems have been too quickly to solve before getting an agreement on what the
real problem is (Bardwell, 1991). At this step, public or stakeholders have to
be engaged into the process as it is useful to get a comprehensive view about
the problem. Following that, an analysis of the problem in a broad way which
encompasses institutional, policy, and environmental approach is required to start
an integrated environmental management scheme (Buhrs, 1995).
In addition,
strategic reduction is essential in IEM process to ensure that each step can be
done in an integrated way. It means that because we cannot solve all problems
at the same time, strategic reduction for example in prioritizing and budgeting
programs is needed.
Finally, it is
important to ensure that monitoring and evaluation is included in
implementation step. Feedback from monitoring and evaluation is useful to
improve the whole process of IEM.
The next
postings in this blog will be about implementing this IEM framework in a case
study. I plan to go through each step in the framework above to analyze an
environmental problem from the first step of identify environmental issue until
implementation strategy. I expect that using
IEM framework to address an environmental problem is the starting point to
overcome other issues related to the environmental management.
References:
Bardwell. Lisa
V. (1991). Problem-Framing: A Perspective on Environmental Problem-Solving. In
ERST 633 Resource Book: Environmental Management. Vol 15 No 5. (pp.
603-612).
Buhrs, T.
(1995). Integrated Environmental Management: Towards a Framework for
Application. In ERST 633 Resource Book. Unpublished paper. (pp. 1 - 19)
.Environmental Management and Design Division, Lincoln University.
Lecture's Note
ERST 633. 2013
