Call for Submissions

INTEGRATED ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT IN URBAN EVOLUTION:
CREATING TOMORROW'S CITIES TODAY

"Over a third of Africa's 1 billion inhabitants currently live in urban areas, but by 2030 that proportion will have risen to a half. According to a recent report from UN-HABITAT, the United Nations agency for human settlements, the population of some cities is set to swell by up to 85% in the next 15 years." - The Economist, 13 December 2010.

South Africa is no exception, with 62% of our total population living in cities in 2010 and a predicted urbanisation rate of 1.2% per annum.

Food and water shortages, poor infrastructure, lack of housing, pollution and waste are among the environmental challenges faced by governments during such rapid urbanisation. The Integrated Environmental Management sector is faced with both a challenge and opportunity to contribute significantly to environmentally sustainable solutions for our cities for the future. This conference aims to identify those opportunities and to equip and inspire our sector to rise to this challenge.

  1. Creating Tomorrow’s Cities Today
    This sub-theme will focus on two of the key elements of urban structure, namely, buildings and transportation. The role of Local Government in environmentally sustainable urbanisation will be explored, including a show-case of some of the initiatives in the City of Cape Town.

    A green building is a building which is energy efficient, resource efficient and environmentally responsible. This theme will explore how design, construction and operational practices can reduce or eliminate the negative impact of development on the environment and occupants. Papers addressing the link with the pressing issues facing local authorities today, such as electricity shortages, water shortages, the lack of solid waste disposal sites, transportation issues and many others are also encouraged.

    The concept of sustainable transport has evolved from the debate surrounding sustainable development. Essentially, sustainable transport is not about having less transport than we do today, but rather about a different transport system for the future, including a focus on public transport.

  2. Resource Planning and Management
    The role of natural resources in providing ecological goods and services within urban areas is becoming progressively more critical. Ecological goods and services can be seen as those life-giving functions that the natural systems provide, such as flood attenuation, carbon sequestration, reduction of  heat islands in cities, purification of air, provision of water, as well as providing a sense of place and identity and contributing to overall human well-being. This sub-theme will explore the provision of energy, water and food into the future as well as the management of waste, pollution and agriculture.

    The sub-theme will also explore the status quo of Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) in Southern Africa and best practice examples of mainstreaming the environment with policies, plans and programmes. Questions like: Where is the impact assessment part of SEA? What methodologies are in use? What about stakeholder involvement in SEA processes? And, since the law requires an SEA for a Spatial Development Framework  (SDF) why are planners undertaking these assessments and not Environmental Assessment Practitioners (EAPs)? can be addressed.

  3. Climate Change Mitigation and Adaption
    The fact that global climate change is impacting the world that we live in is widely accepted. As Environmental Assessment Practitioners we are being challenged to include innovative mitigation and adaptive measures in our work. This includes the focus on biodiversity, carbon footprints and disaster management as well as the global financial mechanisms in place to manage them. This sub-theme explores the responses and contributions that our sector is making to address these issues.

    In a future where urban areas will likely grow in size and density, this sub-theme examines the management of biodiversity in the urban environment as well as in the hinterland that services our urban areas. How can environmental planning and management contribute towards adapting our settlements, and build resilience in our production sectors in the face of climate change, through strategically planned and managed networks of natural lands, working landscapes and other open spaces? What is required to ensure a flow of ecosystem benefits to society?

  4. Integrating the environment into national development planning
    The major drives of environmental change in South Africa are population growth, economic activities, governance and levels of technology and innovation (DEAT, 2006). The pressures to develop are increasing and the goods and resources consumed will impact on the environment. This sub-theme explores aspects of the development process related to sustainability criteria, integration, effective stakeholder participation, the National Development Plan and the Green Economy.

    Papers encouraging improved integration between the impact assessment process and other planning and authorization processes, between different disciplines and stakeholders in the impact assessment process at different levels are encouraged. At present, many regulatory systems are very mechanistic, ‘tick-box’ and procedure-driven, and governance arrangements inappropriate to facilitate the flexibility and integration between sectors and departments / ministries that is needed to improve the effectiveness of impact assessment. The sub-theme will promote innovative approaches by governments to the regulation of impact assessment at strategic and project levels, and its integration with other planning and authorization / permitting processes. Improving engagement with, and empowering of, stakeholders in the impact assessment process, to enable more effective participation in planning and decision-making will also be included.

    If the National Planning Commission’s (NPC)  National Development Plan Vision 2030 is implemented it will have a significant impact on development, including infrastructure development, in South Africa. Infrastructure development impacts on the state of the environment and in the South African legal context is dependent on environmental inputs (e.g. authorisations). IAIAsa as the leading network on best practice in the use of impact assessment for informed decision-making as regards policies, programmes, plans and projects, needs to take cognisance of this document and consider how it could impact the practice of our profession in South Africa. We also need to consider if, what and how the IEM profession should respond and/or contribute towards its sustainable successful implementation.

    The emergence of a green economy is included in IPAP 2, addressing key issues associated with South Africa’s energy future. It seeks to grow economic activity (which leads to investment, jobs and competitiveness) in the green industry sector; and bring about a shift in the economy as a whole towards cleaner industries and sectors with a low environmental impact compared to its socio-economic impact.

  5. Compliance monitoring
    This sub-theme explores improving the implementation of development, monitoring and evaluation and audits of the effectiveness of environmental management, to enable and direct adaptive and improved management. It will specifically focus on the status, role and ways to raise the bar for the Environmental Control Officer sector of our business. The programme will make provision for work sessions to debate these issues and plan a way forward.

PERSPECTIVES ARE SOUGHT FROM

Professionals engaged in environmental assessment and management, planning, green design and architecture, environmental law, people in the governmental, inter-governmental, public and private sectors who are involved in planning and project development, policy-making and implementation — all the IEM professional fields.

HOW YOU CAN PARTICIPATE

As a session organiser (Submit résumés by 28th April 2012)
Each session will be chaired by a recognised leader in the field. The session organiser will also assist the conference committee in planning and organising the session programme, including reviewing abstracts. Leading professionals interested in planning and chairing one of the conference sessions are invited to submit a brief résumé of their experience and current involvement in the relevant conference topic. A session is a block of time, typically 90 minutes long, during which discussion centres on a particular topic. The conference will hold concurrent sessions. Sessions may utilise different presentation formats.

Present an academic paper   (Submit abstracts by 28th April 2012)
Abstracts for academic paper presentations must be concise and a maximum of 300 words, and include the author/s first names and surnames, organisational affiliation of each author, email address for the corresponding author, an appealing title and state the conference topic relevant to the paper. In a paper session, authors will orally present their prepared papers. Paper sessions will allow 4 presentations of 20 minutes each, including time for questions. Time for open discussion following the presentations will be allocated. Each paper session will be chaired.

Offer a topic for a discussion session   (Submit topics for discussion by 28th April 2012)
The conference sessions will involve panel and world café discussions, debates, indabas and a moot court. You are invited to participate in the formulation of the session programmes by submitting your ideas on topics for discussion at the conference. This submission must include the discussion topic title, a 100 word abstract of the topic and whether a panel, world café, indaba or moot court is best suited for addressing the topic.

Panel discussion: Panel speakers are invited. The panel is facilitated by a chair. Panel members each give a brief 15 minute prepared presentation, presenting a different view on a topic, followed by debate amongst the speakers and questions from the audience.
World café: A world café comprises progressive rounds of conversation among groups of participants. Each round lasts 20 minutes, after which participants are invited to form new groups and continue the conversation drawing in ideas and comments from earlier discussions. The session concludes with a whole-group discussion.
Debate: The debate topic is a clearly defined question, with one side presenting the affirmative case and the other the negative case. Each side is made up of 3 or 4 participants. The audience is given an opportunity to ask questions and to take a vote at the end of the debate.
Indaba: A moderated forum in which conference delegates are able discuss an important issue. Indaba time will be set aside for issues that delegates wish to pursue through open discussion.
Moot court: This will entail participants taking part in a simulated environmental law moot which will focus on an issue from a recent environmental litigation case in South Africa.

Offer pre-conference training   (Submit training proposals by 28th April 2012)
IAIAsa 2012 plans to offer high quality one day training courses as part of the pre-conference programme. We are inviting proposals for training courses to be delivered in support of the conference topics. The proposal should provide an overview and the objectives of the training course, the learning outcome, an outline of the course and training material provided, résumés of the course instructor/s and a fee proposal. These training courses are an important element of IAIAsa's continuing effort to promote and advance professional development.

Arrange a pre-conference technical visit   (Submit technical visit abstracts by 28h April 2012)
A one-day package of technical visits will be offered as part of the pre-conference programme. The technical visits aim to showcase best practice or lessons learned in IEM in Cape Town and surrounds. You are invited to submit a 300 word abstract and four photographs of the project for selection in the technical visits programme.

Take an exhibition stand   (Submit exhibition applications by 28th April 2012)
Companies or individuals interested in demonstrating their products and services at the IAIAsa 2012 conference are invited to submit a product or service brochure for review by organising committee. Exhibitors’ applications must be relevant to the conference topics. Exhibition space will be provided at the main conference venue for products and services that enhance practitioners’ professional service. Costs of exhibiting will be sent on application.

PLEASE NOTE:

  • All abstracts will be published in the Conference Programme and Abstracts document.
  • The submission of full papers is not obligatory, but presenters may submit full papers for possible publication later this year in the envisaged new IAIAsa journal. Further excellent papers for publication will be sought at the conference.
  • Authors must register for the conference by 31st July otherwise their presentations will be removed from the programme.
  • No last minute substitution of author/s will be accepted.
  • Papers previously published will not be accepted.

KEY DATES

28 April  2012
Submission of:

  • Session organiser résumés
  • Academic paper abstracts
  • Topics for discussion
  • Pre-conference training proposals
  • Technical visit abstracts
  • Expo exhibition applications

5 – 12 May 2012
Secretariat will send out acceptance notices to authors, presenters and exhibitors

31 July 2012
Deadline for presenter registration

10 August 2012
Receipt of PowerPoint presentations

IAIAsa 2012 Conference Submissions

You are not currently logged in. You will need a user account to complete the call for submissions form.