Environmental Management
Article by: David Alexander, Department of Geosciences, Morrill Science Center, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts.
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The development of strategies to allocate and
conserve resources, with the ultimate goal of
regulating the impact of human activities on the
surrounding environment. Environmental man-
agement is a mixture of science, policy, and socio-
economic applications. It focuses on the solution to
the practical problems that humans encounter in
cohabitation with nature, exploitation of resources,
and production of waste (Fig. 1).
In a purely anthropocentric sense, the central prob-
lem is how to permit technology to evolve continu-
ously while limiting the degree to which this process
alters natural ecosystems. Environmental manage-
ment is thus intimately intertwined with questions
regarding limiting economic growth, ensuring an
equitable distribution of consumable goods, and
conserving resources for future generations. Environ-
mental management is a response to the increasing
seriousness of the human impact on natural ecosys-
tems. With a smaller global population base and a
less pervasive use of technology, the environment might be able to recuperate on its own from human misuse; however, in many
cases, it is now widely recognized that positive intervention is necessary if the environment is to recover.
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Content
• Participants
• Management techniques
• Environmental challenges
Key Concepts
• Environmental managers develop strategies to allocate and conserve resources,
with the goal of regulating the effect of human activities on the natural environment.
• Stakeholders in environmental management include governmental organizations,
research institutions, regulating agencies, businesses, financial institutions,
nongovernmental organizations, and public users of the environment.
• Techniques used in environmental management include environmental impact
analysis and environmental auditings.
Fig. 1 Environmental management seeks to provide solutions to the practical problems that humans
encounter or create, including the production of garbage and waste.
(Credit: iStock)
