
Timothy O'RiordanUniversity of East Anglia | UEA · School of Environmental Sciences
Timothy O'Riordan
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Publications (263)
This article favors a progressive policy and management shift in the establishment and implementation of biosphere reserves (BRs). In the new era of the Anthropocene, BRs will need to pursue the implementation of sustainable development goals as their central purpose and interpret them even further toward more integrated and consequent forms of sus...
This paper adopts two perspectives. The first is a framing process aimed at defining and examining the conditions for adopting adaptive coastal governance. The second applies to relevant themes of changing coastal policy, central to the testing of adaptive coastal governance, namely cooperative science, risk-sensitive planning, socially fair insura...
A scenario of increased risks due to climate change and coastal erosion, coupled with a stringent economic recession, is threatening the Portuguese coast. Three particular locations are the focus of CHANGE Changing Coasts, Changing Climate, Changing Communities, a 3-year study (2010-2013) that aims to understand social perceptions about coastal ris...
The Portuguese coastline is increasingly vulnerable to flooding and erosion. Changes in rivers and estuaries due to dredging and damming, and stronger storms and rising tides are continually removing sand from beaches. Yet 80 per cent of the Portuguese population lives on the coast, so there is expensive property development such as ports, roads, h...
Environmental education (EE) emerged in Portugal as an organized field of collective action about 30 years ago. At this time of the return to democracy, major social and environmental changes had begun to occur. Yet, after 30 years of EE, together with significant improvements in the education system and curricula, the real impacts of these mostly...
This paper investigates the implementation of governance for sustainable landscapes, based on a catchment case study in lowland England. A participatory research process, spanning six and a half years, employed formal and informal in-depth interviews, focus group work and workshop techniques with 71 stakeholders representative of a wide range of in...
This book tells the story of an unprecedented experiment in public participation: the government-sponsored debate on the possible commercialization of 'GM' crops in the UK. Giving a unique and systematic account of the debate process, this revealing volume sets it within its political and intellectual contexts, and examines the practical implicatio...
If there is a strong argument in favour of multifunctional forest management, there is also controversy regarding the types of multifunctionality able to instil virtuous circles across landscapes. Managing forests in such a way that user groups, sustainability practitioners and forestry institutions all agree to, is not easy. For any reliable conse...
This paper makes the case for advancing sustainability science partnerships (SSPs) both within universities and through innovative means of integrating universities with external public-private and civil sectors. It links the basic principles of sustainable development with an emerging science of cooperative learning that connects researchers to a...
The soft coastline of eastern England is dynamic, with much of it subject to the risk of erosion or flooding. A number of internationally important coastal nature conservation sites are under threat. This paper explores the character and reasoning behind changing coastal management policies and governance practices in England. It reveals how Natura...
The most recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) presents unequivocal evidence of climate change. Coastal areas are projected to be exposed to increased risks of coastal erosion and flooding due to greater storminess and sea level rise. One challenge is to work out how coasts may alter in terms of flood and erosion ris...
The mobile nature of soft coasts means that coastal communities face uncertainty in their property values and peace of mind when the existing coastal defense is lowered or removed. The acceptance by the U.K. government that coastal realignment in areas of low population density and limited ecological value is unavoidable means that the current stat...
Environmental protection nowadays is a major issue of policy and administration. It is well recognized that an effective approach to pollution control requires it to be integrated, but UK governments have been slow to respond to this need. The creation of a new unified pollution inspectorate in England and Wales must be set in the context of a gene...
The current fascination with risk acceptability, risk benefit analysis and other devices for relating risk to social gain is a manifestation of the loss of faith amongst certain groups in modern western society with the honesty and competence of those who assess and finally make judgements about public safety. The problem lies as much in a suspicio...
Different aspects of institutional and capacity requirements need to be considered to effectively put the Water Framework
Directive (WFD) in place. This chapter tries to find the most effective way of managing the river coast continuum, to ensure
an appropriate role for public participation, EU (‘Brussels’) policymakers and catchment managers. We f...
Inclusive and community participation applies to negotiating procedures that are designed to encompass a wide and representative
range of interested parties to guide environmental management. For such a democratic procedure to prove effective, the participatory
procedures need to be accepted by policymakers and those responsible for delivery. These...
This group report gives an overview of applications of and issues in integrated assessment (IA) applied in the coastal zone
area in Europe. We conclude that there are various reasons why IA is sometimes not successful. For instance, integrated assessment
tends to be highly specific, dialogues are seldom an integral part and environmental thresholds...
Please note that Tyndall working papers are "work in progress". Whilst they are commented on by Tyndall researchers, they have not been subject to a full peer review. This research was co-funded by English Nature, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the North Norfolk District Council (NNDC). However, the responsibilit...
This research aims to assess the benefits, limitations and implications of multi-landowner whole- landscape management of surface water catchments in the UK. A whole-landscape ecosystem approach is fundamental to the management of multi-owner agricultural landscapes. The potential for adopting a whole-landscape approach to planned countryside manag...
For at least the past decade, policy decisions regarding genetically modified (GM) crops have been hotly debated in many countries around the world, with GM science and public concerns over the technology often at odds with each other. The United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand each developed a different mechanism to bring the discussion to the...
Managed realignment—the deliberate process of realigning river, estuary or coastal defences—is increasingly seen as a key element to sustainable long term flood and coastal management in the UK and other parts of the world, given current trends of sea level rise, and increasing costs of flood and coastal defence. This paper presents results of an e...
In recent years, the debate on corporate responsibility has shifted from a focus on environmental management towards a broader concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR). This article examines the chemical industry's approach to CSR from the perspective of two emerging economies: Mexico and South Africa. The global chemical industry was one o...
Research evidence and pleas that humans are undermining their own survival on a robust and unforgiving planet seem to be falling on deaf ears. The drive for economic and military security remains more powerful than the evidence that both of these objectives are being undermined by environmental damage, social disruption, unjust treatment and forced...
Organisations thrive on personality andlead ership. Academic analysis sometimes does not give sufficient attention to the role of individual people in policy making. Yet, the headof a non governmental organisa- tion can be just as influential as the chief executive of a major corporation, or a minister, in establishing a 'personality style' for the...
Different aspects of institutional and capacity requirements need to be considered to effectively put the Water Framework Directive (WFD) in place. This chapter tries to find the most effective way of managing the river coast continuum, to ensure an appropriate role for public participation, EU ('Brussels') policymakers and catchment managers. We f...
Losses in biodiversity are becoming alarming. To safeguard what is left means placing priority on the protection of species and habitats. Ideally, this should be a goal in its own right. In practice, people have to see a direct gain. However, participation is by no means guaranteed to ensure adequate safeguard. However, participation as a prelude t...
Biodiversity is the key indicator of a healthy planet and healthy society. Losses of biodiversity have now become widespread and current rates are potentially catastrophic for species and habitat integrity. Biodiversity, Sustainability and Human Communities, first published in 2002, advocates both the preservation of the best remaining habitats and...
A whole landscape approach is critical to ensuring conservation and enhancement of biodiversity in farmed landscapes. Although existing agri-environmental schemes are constrained by property boundaries and voluntary take up, the potential for adopting a whole landscape approach to planned countryside management is currently favoured by a number of...
Various studies of public opinion regarding the causes and consequences of climate change reveal both a deep reservoir of concern, yet also a muddle over causes, consequences and appropriate policy measures for mitigation. The technique adopted here, namely integrated assessment (IA) focus groups, in which groups of randomly selected individuals in...
Meeting fundamental human needs while preserving Earth's life support systems will require an accelerated transition toward sustainability. A new field of sustainability science is emerging that seeks to understand the fundamental character of interactions between nature and society and to encourage those interactions along more sustainable traject...
In the wake of the public controversy over genetically modified crops, organic production is sometimes hailed as the true “sustainable agriculture”. Its advocates claim that it enriches biodiversity, increases soil “health” and provides more nutritious foods. This paper summarises the results of a three year, multi-disciplinary study of one major u...
Policy makers are beginning to intensify their search for policies that assist society to adapt to the unfolding impacts of climate change at the local level. This paper forms the second part of two part a examination of the potential for using scenarios in adaptation and vulnerability assessment. Part I explained how climate change and socio-econo...
The South African Constitution was framed in the context of attempting to promote citizen empowerment and the transition to sustainability. This article looks carefully at the provisions in the Constitution as they might apply to the transition to sustainability, notably the changing patterns of rights for citizens. The paper also examines the form...
Ever since the 1992 Earth Summit at Rio de Janeiro, the concept of sustainable development has supposed to guide the future pattern of economies, societies and environmental well-being. Over the years, the notion of sustainability as a process of transition towards a more caring future for people and the planet, while enterprise flourishes, has gai...
Climate change policies currently pay disproportionately greater attention to the mitigation of climate change through emission reductions strategies than to adaptation measures. Realising that the world is already committed to some global warming, policy makers are beginning to turn their attention to the challenge of preparing society to adapt to...
The CAP's evolving Rural Development Plans may offer packages of agri-environmental measures across whole landscapes. Virtual reality modelling can help farmers visualise how whole landscapes may look and more readily appreciate their role in the creation of an integrated totality.
In the current debate about the future of food quality, the merits of organic agriculture are frequently championed, but few studies have sought to integrate the changes in soil conditions, biodiversity and socio-economic welfare linked to the conversion from non-organic to organic production. This article aims to undertake this approach with respe...
Psychometric data on risk perceptions are often collected using the method developed by Slovic, Fischhoff, and Lichtenstein, where an array of risk issues are evaluated with respect to a number of risk characteristics, such as how dreadful, catastrophic or involuntary exposure to each risk is. The analysis of these data has often been carried out a...
Psychometric data on risk perceptions are often collected using the method developed by Slovic, Fischhoff, and Lichtenstein, where an array of risk issues are evaluated with respect to a number of risk characteristics, such as how dreadful, catastrophic or involuntary exposure to each risk is. The analysis of these data has often been carried out a...
With the advent of Agenda 21, the blueprint for the transition to sustainable development for every nation on the globe, the issue of what exactly is sustainable agriculture is now being addressed, certainly throughout Europe. The food chain as a whole is the ultimate framework for a scrutiny of sustainability. However, this review looks only at th...
Restoring lakes from a degraded state is a costly and risky enterprise. It is costly partly because rewinding the cycles of degradation involves great scientific uncertainties. Therefore, the only way forward is by careful, expensive monitoring, and much adaptation of treatment as the evidence unfolds. This process requires much patience and politi...
Environmentalism is giving way to sustainability in a process that is aided by complementary shifts in economic, social and political arenas. Environmentalism was always a necessary first step. The shift towards sustainability is beginning to take place because the mood of the times is now ready to promote its early stages. However, as we contempla...
In its restless metamorphosis, the environmental movement captures ideas and transforms them into principles, guidelines and points of leverage. Sustainability is one such idea, now being reinterpreted in the aftermath of the 1992 Rio Conference. So too is the precautionary principle. Like sustainability, the precautionary principle is neither a we...
This paper seeks to compare two frameworks which have been proposed to explain risk perceptions, namely, cultural theory and the psychometric paradigm. A structured questionnaire which incorporated elements from both approaches was administered to 129 residents of Norwich, England. The qualitative risk characteristics generated by the psychometric...
This paper seeks to compare two frameworks which have been proposed to explain risk perceptions, namely, cultural theory and the psychometric paradigm. A structured questionnaire which incorporated elements from both approaches was administered to 129 residents of Norwich, England. The qualitative risk characteristics generated by the psychometric...
Sustainable development tends to be regarded in the North as a luxury item, whose time may come, but not necessarily yet. In the South, for the most part, survival and the maintenance of social order seem to be the prime motives, and sustainable development, being regarded as essentially a northern agenda, continues to receive short shrift from pol...
This article canvasses the arguments in favour of a more active and conciliatory approach to consultation than is generally the case for resource allocation and environmental decision-making in the UK. It looks at the experience of consultation in shoreline management and flood defence decision-making in East Anglia, England. It concludes that ther...
The "psychometric paradigm" developed by Slovic, Fischhoff, and Lichtenstein was a landmark in research about public attitudes toward risks. One problem with work, however, was that (at least initially) it did not attempt to distinguish between individuals or groups of people, except "experts" vs. "lay people." This paradigm produced a "cognitive m...
Nature is the international weekly journal of science: a magazine style journal that publishes full-length research papers in all disciplines of science, as well as News and Views, reviews, news, features, commentaries, web focuses and more, covering all branches of science and how science impacts upon all aspects of society and life.
The authors would like to thank Steve Rayner, Ian Langford and Neil Adger for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper. Responsibility for remaining errors and omissions rests entirely with the authors. Institutions are the multitude of means for holding society together, for giving it a sense of purpose, and for enabling it to adapt....
This new column will become a regular feature in Global Environmental Change. The aim is to track the formation and progress of various institutional arrangements that have emerged following the UN Conference on Environment and Development at Rio de Janeiro in 1992, and to assess their significance in the management of global environmental change....