Ecological risk assessment and problem formulation for Lake Uluabat, a Ramsar state in Turkey
Date
2004-06
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Springer
Abstract
Unlike the United States and the European Union, developing countries do not have sufficiently structured legal and institutional systems to apply certain environmental management tools such as ecological risk assessment. However, it is important for countries with valuable environmental and ecological resources to have appropriate tools and to strengthen their environmental management capabilities and capacities for the sake of those resources. The case study described in this paper attempts to be a case study towards developing environmental management plans, especially in developing countries. The problem formulation step of Ecological Risk Assessment applied in this study contributed to the basic elements of an environmental management plan including the following: the partnership-building process, prioritization of the problems and issues of the ecosystem, and development of the action plan. Based on the information provided by participants from a series of workshops held to develop an environmental management plan for Uluabat Lake, ecosystem risks were ranked and an action plan was formed. The results obtained with the aid of fuzzy set theory provided a base for identification of the action steps by allowing scientific information to be included in the process. The degree to which Uluabat Lake's problem formulation fits into the existing legal framework of Turkey is also analyzed in this paper.
Description
Keywords
Environmental sciences & ecology, Problem formulation, Uluabat Lake, Environmental management, Risk prioritization, Bursa [Turkey], Eurasia, Turkey, Developing countries, Ecosystems, Environmental impact, Lakes, Partnership development, Problem formulation, Assessment method, Ecosystem management, Partnership approach, Risk assessment, Ecology
Citation
Salihoğlu, G. ve Karaer, F. (2004). “Ecological risk assessment and problem formulation for Lake Uluabat, a Ramsar state in Turkey”. Environmental Management, 33(6), 899-910.