The final passport check (and a very helpful matrix)

I'm nearly ready to take off – the basic theory is covered, well, enough to actually go a few places.

Sunrise on the Southern Alps

Today I'll cover a bit about how to do IEM. Which has been put to the test in writing the essay for this week. How do you do IEM? How do you know you're doing IEM?? What can be done to improve the IEM approach?

One method is to use the IEM matrix of Bührs (1995). I drew from this in writing my essay, which, by the way, was set in the lovely tourist Mecca of the Queenstown Lakes District.

Lake Wanaka, towards Mt Aspiring from Iron Mountain

I digress.. the very helpful matrix can be set out as follows (adapted from Bührs, 1995, by Hughey & Montgomery):

		Management
	Classification	Interpretation / analysis	Institutions / analysis	Policy / analysis	IEM
The ENVIRONMENT	Land
	Water
	Air
	Plants
	Animals
	Resources
	People
	Built environment
Techniques/issues		Disciplines, EIA, SIA, risk assessment, TBL analysis	Approaches or barriers to integration	Relationships and connections	Management

This is all very nice and concise, but still the question remains, how exactly do you do IEM?? Well, to begin with, you undertake an interpretation, institutional and policy analysis. You look, like Bardwell, for where the problem actually is. What is wrong with the current management of the environmental problem? Where has the information been lost, the institutions disconnected and the policy fragmented?

These three steps are a start:

1. Think broadly and freely: Problem definition – why are we here? Interpretation, knowledge, information required at this stage. What do we know, what do we need to know?

2. Think interdisciplinarity and co-operatively. Who is involved? What institutions exist/should exist/have existed? Watch out for gremlins! We need vertical as well as horizontal integration. Where do the agencies work and what do they work on? e.g. Kaikoura, DoC in Christchurch and in Nelson, MFish in Christchurch, no one in Kaikoura. Do “turf battles” exist?

3. Think cohesively and develop connections Where is the policy? What policy works best together, or apart? “Fragmentation” or “independence”?

But also: you must think practically. Feasibility is crucial. How far can we expect to go on the budget/time/level of need we have? What interpretation/policy/institution has/hasn't worked before? Don't reinvent the wheel!

When things come to an impasse (like Kaikoura) – revert back to step 1.

References

Buhrs, T. (1995), Integrated Environmental Management: Toward a Framework for Application, Environmental Management and Design Division, Lincoln University (unpublished).

Hughey, K. and Montgomery, R. (August 2011), Session 3 lecture notes.