Journal: Environmental Management Practices in industries of Brazil, Russia,

India, China and South Africa (BRICS) from 2011 to 2015

Pinto G., Pedroso B., Moraes J., Pilatti L., Picinin C., Environmental Management
Practices in industries of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) from
2011 to 2015, Journal of Cleaner Production (2018).

Due to the expansion of the bloc’s development, these countries presented a

high potential to impact the environment. Therefore, this study is relevant because it
identifies trends about the Environment Management Practices that have been followed
in industries of BRICS, increasing the theoretical allowance for discussions concerning
Environment Management Practices in these countries. Consequently, a survey on
environmental management practices was conducted using the keyword "industrial
environmental management practices" and the name of each country. Besides that, a
"second quest" was added with the term "case study" to refine the results. We found out
that China, India, South Africa and Brazil have been studying solutions for the CO2
emissions by employing different environmental management practices. In addition, in
the studies on China, India and Brazil, environmental management practices recurrently
approached topics concerning the supply and water quality, the regulatory standards of
environmental management and the practice of Green Supply Chain Management.
However, we did not find papers concerning the environmental management practices
in Russia through the employed methodology. We concluded that China, India and
Brazil tend to present papers on the issue of environmental management (in English
and in the database, from which they were gathered) because these countries show a
more sustainable development, thus publishing a higher number of researches in this
field, whereas Russia and South Africa do not follow this trend due to a weaker
environmental engagement. With regard to that, it is suggested that further studies
investigate the environmental management practices in other developing and developed
countries, which would allow to draw a comparison with other groups.
Journal: An Environmental Pollution Management Method based on Extended
Belief Rule Base and Data Envelopment Analysis under Interval Uncertainty

Ye, F-F., Yang, L-H., Wang, Y-M., Chen, L., An Environmental Pollution Management
Method based on Extended Belief Rule Base and Data Envelopment Analysis under
Interval Uncertainty, Computers & Industrial Engineering (2020).

The increasing investment in environmental pollution management urgently

needs the scientific utilization of environmental management costs. However, three
challenges must be addressed in environmental pollution management. First, the
reliability of environmental pollution data is often disregarded, which may produce
unreliable inference results. Second, there are many uncertainties in actual practice,
which are neglected in existing cost prediction and efficiency evaluation of
environmental pollution management. Third, existing research studies mainly focused
on either efficiency evaluation or cost prediction and ignored the importance of
combining both for environmental pollution management. To address these, an
extended belief rule base (EBRB) model that considers consequence reliability is
proposed to predict the interval costs, followed by an interval data envelopment analysis
(IDEA) model that considers undesirable output to evaluate interval efficiencies of
environmental pollution management. Based on these improved models, an integrated
model named as EBRB–IDEA model is further developed under interval uncertainty. To
verify its practical usage, the environmental pollution data of 29 Chinese provinces from
2004 to 2017wereused to carry out acase study. The experimental results demonstrated
that the EBRB–IDEA model did not only achieve the desired interval prediction costs
and efficiency evaluation but also effectively distinguished regional differences in the
efficiency of environmental pollution management compared with existing models.

Journal: Complementing conventional environmental impact assessments of

tourism with ecosystem service valuation: A case study of the Wulingyuan
Scenic Area, China

Chen H., Complementing conventional environmental impact assessments of tourism

with ecosystem service valuation: A case study of the Wulingyuan Scenic Area, China
(2020).

In order to assess environmental impacts from tourism in the Wulingyuan Scenic

Area, China more thoroughly this study complemented conventional environmental
impact assessments (EIAs) with ecosystem service valuation (ESV). It did so by
assessing changes in ecosystem services (ESs) and their values, based on changes in
environmental components already assessed by existing conventional EIAs. The ESV
method was benefit transfer. Tourism can enhance aesthetic and recreational ESs, but
some existing damage to vegetation reduced ES value by $1.2million/yr in the worst
situations. While reforestation that generates ES value at $1.8million/ yr can offset the
damage, the cost of existing population decline of macaque monkeys was $728 million
in 2010. Potential land encroachment would cause permanent and temporary
environmental costs at $0.5million/yr and $0.09million/yr, respectively. Nevertheless,
potentially artificial soil treatment system would increase ES values by $0.25million/yr.
Surface runoff and waste gas have negligible impacts. While complementing
conventional EIAs with ESV has limitations, doing so can assess environmental impacts
more comprehensively, link environmental impacts to human wellbeing, and improve
information. Sustainable tourism requires conserving biodiversity and culturally valuable
ecosystems.
Journal: Identification of weaknesses in the implementation of environmental
impact assessment regulations in industrial sector: A case study of some
industries in Rwanda, Africa

Harelimana V, Gao ZJ, Nyiranteziryayo E, Nwankwegu AS, Identification of weaknesses

in the implementation of environmental impact assessment regulations in industrial
sector: A case study of some industries in Rwanda, Africa, Journal of Cleaner
Production (2020).

The global environmental security and a cleaner productive ecosystem following

the increasing industrialization and urbanization largely depend on the level of
compliance with the relevant environmental impact stipulations. Consequently, this
study highlights the weaknesses in the execution of environmental impact assessment
(EIA) among the major industrial sectors of Rwanda. The study involves three industries
with EIA Certificates issued by Rwanda Development Board and Rwanda
Environmental Management Authority, the main consulting organizations. The
institutional strength and weaknesses, awareness of industrial workers, and resources
allocation in implementation of the EIA were studied by assessing compliance with the
EIA through review of EIA report, site observation, interview, and administration of
questionnaires. The study reveals unsatisfactory compliance with EIA among the
industries. These weaknesses are due to lack of institutionalization of environmental
units and environmental officers in the industries, poor status of industrial environmental
policy, poor institutional coordination, and low capacity to implement EIA. Again, the
capability of an annual environmental audit by the industries and how sufficient is the
follow-ups by responsible authorities, as well as the low awareness of the existence of
environmental management plan, and inadequate resources allocation are potential
confronting challenges. It shows that EIA process is not fully functional in Rwanda and
based on observations, it proposes possible recommendations like; the establishment of
environmental units by the industries, as well as employment of environmental officers
to oversee implementation of plans. The capacity building in the employees to
implement EIA, conduct annual environmental audits, and initiate follow-ups, as well as
regular monitoring in industries. Further, the government should strengthen institutional
coordination in the implementing of EIA and ensure real resources allocation in the
implementation.