Understanding the Concept of Environmental Values and the Factors That Lead to Contradictions and Conflicts in Environmental Planning and Management

Introduction

In this present era, economists and environmental planners are faced with tough decisions on rethinking and redesigning plans to satisfy the basic fundamental right to live healthily and cleanly. This book chapter focuses on providing new insight into environmental planning and management from a global perspective. Environmental planning and management is a broad term used in many textbooks and articles. Some scholars define it as planning and maintaining ecosystems, but in this chapter, it is defined in an extremely specific way. Environmental planning and management are strategic challenges confronting planners and stakeholders in the 21^st century. The safety, security and health of both the natural environment and its people have become a litmus test for good citizenry. In environmental planning, aims or goals are formulated that will be accomplished by taking a particular course of action. In particular, the program's objective is to influence the environment in a positive way so that we can live better today and tomorrow. By contrast, environmental management involves controlling and caring for the environment. It is not simply science that causes environmental problems; some of the major ones stem from poor planning and management, as well as the inability of planners to involve people in the decision-making process. Historically, intensive environmental planning and management was introduced due to the industrial revolution centuries ago (Sarraf & McGuire, 2020Steg & De Groot, 2012; Peng, Li, Zhou & Sadowski, 2021).

During the industrial revolution, man's lifestyle became more complex due to an increase in population and poor living conditions in cities. Having more space to live and farming to provide food for an expanding population resulted in the cutting down of trees and coal burning became a complex worldwide issue. For example, in 1948, air pollution caused by smog killed 20 people and 8,000 animals in the United States, i.e., Pennsylvania. Also, about 7,000 people who were affected by smog pollution contracted different respiratory diseases and asthma. Atomic energy was founded as a threat to the environment after World War II because it emits deadly radiation. Another major environmental tragedy occurred in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1960 when oil slicks and debris caught fire in the Cuyahoga River. Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine continues to violate human rights and claim lives. All of these and many more environmental catastrophes, including land and identity conflicts, continue to threaten human rights throughout the world, thereby inspiring environmental movements and the need to plan.

Since 1972, the United Nations has hosted a series of conventions to help advance its mission of planning and managing the environment. For instance, the 1987 Montreal Protocol was finalized by 36 countries, adopted by law in 1989 and entered into force; the 1992 “United Nations Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro”, the first United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP-1) in 1995, and the recent COP-26 held in the United Kingdom are global initiatives aimed at strengthening the efforts of world leaders and governments to manage our planet earth. Despite these efforts, contradictions and conflicts persist in the management and planning of the environment. To mitigate the factors that lead to contradictions and conflicts, a robust policy perspective is required for environmental planning and management (EPM). Further, many readers are unfamiliar with their specifics, in some cases, its application varies between countries and regions due to geopolitical jurisdictions. The EPM's application model appears to be based on semi-scientific ideas gathered from a wide range of scientific fields. There is only a general description of its practical applications in government policy documents, which is insufficient for thoroughly scholarly analysis. In all parts of the world, the protection and improvement of the human environment has a significant impact on the quality of life and the economic development of society. Hence, everyone has a duty to understand and participate in environmental planning and management in order to serve the people of the world. This book chapter is structured to provide a thorough understanding of the concept of environmental values and the factors that lead to contradictions and conflicts in environmental planning and management from a global perspective.