The environmental task and work at local level
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Date
1999
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AESOP
Abstract
This study is a part of the research project »The Municipality and the Territory» (Asplund et al 1997), and will result in a licentiate degree. The theme for my project is the development of the environmental task within the Swedish local administration, with focus on the profession of environmental and health officers. The aim is to create a base for understanding of the way the environmental work at this level has been performed until today, and to find mechanisms and prerequisite for change, or in other words to uncover what I will call breaking points. Today »planning for sustainability» has become a concept (see for example Orrskog 1993). However, the link between environmental and health protection and planning is not new. Planning is, and has been, seen as an instrument for prevention of environmental and health problems, caused by the built environment (Törnqvist 1961).
The environmental field has its origin in the beginning of the 19th century and the work to stop epidemics, for instance cholera. About 1850, this work come to be linked to hygienic issues and sanitary problems through new findings in the bacteriologic field of medicine. Human health was threatened by bad living conditions, and diseases were to a great extent spread by drinking water, sewage and waste. During the last 150 years technical systems for distribution of water and care - taking of waste and sewage have been built up and developed continuously, as well as the development of knowledge and methods for control and reduction of pollution. The field has also its roots around 1900, when discussions about saving »nature» for recreational, cultural and scientific reasons started. During the last century, technical development and industrialisation have led to considerable changes in life-styles and consumption, and new problem areas as for example pollution from cars have appeared.
Description
Book of abstracts : AESOP PhD workshop 1999, Finse, Depertment of Geography Univeristy of Bergen, Norway
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CC-BY