ENVIRONMENTAL DISCIPLINARITY
12th-December 2007

BACK GROUND

Environmental discipline scientific research works have formed basis for attempts to solve environmental problems, but despite some positive results, such as reduction of air and water point source pollution, major environmental issues (e.g. climate change, biodiversity loss, air pollution, eutrophication, chemicalisation) need more research and practical applications derived from research results. Typically, modern environmental problems have multiple and cascading effects. Study of such multidimensional environmental problems requires cooperation between different research fields and traditions. However, understanding the complex effects of various human actions on the environment is just the first step in the process to resolve them.
After a breakthrough of environmental social science (Policy making), nature has been understood as an integral and essential part of the society. This means that questions concerning environment can be also seen as problems of the multi-discipline sciences of the environment including: political decision-making, economical development, societal planning, social conflicts, environment economics and jurisdiction. Thus, to succeed in resolving an environmental problem after the identification and basic studies of the issue, environmental social research has to integrate the results with the society in a way that they serve as a basis for political decisions and steer further actions. Encouraging high-quality and multidisciplinary environmental research with possibilities for applications in the society

1.0 INTRODUCTION

The environmental discipline encompasses a number of fields and is harmony with other disciplines such as environmental geology, hydrogeology, mining and remediation, toxicology, risk assessment, microbiology and bioremediation, and environmental-metallurgical engineering. This discipline also is involved in corrosion studies and related failure analysis, and in health and safety-related issues. The environmental field is multi-disciplinary by nature and, for maximum effectiveness we shall divide environmental discipline as follows;
1. Environmental policy
2. Environmental sustainable development

Environmental policy is any (course of) action deliberately taken (or not taken) to manage human activities with a view to prevent, reduce or mitigate harmful effects on nature and natural resources, and ensuring that man-made changes to the environment do not have harmful effects on humans.

Environmental policy can be sub-grouped into the following environmental themes:
Air, biotechnology, chemicals, civil protection and environmental accidents, climate change, environmental economics, enlargement and neighboring countries, health, industry and technology, international issues, land use, nature and biodiversity, noise, soil, sustainable development, waste, and water. These can be generally categorized under a broader environmental discipline, or they can be studied each separately, in this reported we tried the first option.
Successful environmental policy depends on the ability of its makers to bring together scientific information, analytical thinking and an awareness of the legal, social and political realities of environmental regulation. Its objective is to develop in its students the capacity to identify environmental problems, assess their nature and scale and provide solutions. For example, de-gazetting forests for commercial plantation like sugar cane or palm oil trees is a problem due to our political leaders’ corrupt activities like undermining the forestry-environmental policy. There fore we need some legal intervention from policy makers and scholars of environmental science.
Practitioners of environmental policy need to master suitable analytical and quantitative skills which are sensitive to the social and political context of environmental regulation. The discipline usually includes; studying rural environment, urban environment, and public environmental policy, plus environmental planning in institutions of development.
The discipline studies the social values, institutions and processes through which society arrives at choices about environmental policy. A core question is how environmental ethics, environmental politics and alternative approaches to environmental economics can help inform environmental valuation and policy decisions.

Environmental sustainable development
The objectives of environmental sustainable development can be separated into three objectives – economic, social and ecological - these are different disciplines that relate to very wide field of environment disciplinarity, each with its own theoretical and methodological perspective: Almost all disciplines have something to contribute to the study of environment disciplinarity and there is need to seek comment on all of them.
 Economics (biotechnology, chemicals, industry and technology)
Is concerned with human beings interacting with each other as decision-makers, with the emphasis on the individual entity; nature is typically treated as a material resource/constraint.
 Anthropology or sociology (civil protection, neighboring countries, health, international issues, nature and biodiversity, and noise)
Sociology is thus concerned with human beings interacting with each other not only as decision-makers but also as meaning-makers, with the emphasis on the collective requirement. Nature is regarded both as a resource/constraint and as a locus of meaning.
 Ecology (Air, climate change, soil, waste, and water)
These are concerned with human beings as a species, interacting as biological beings, both with their own and other species and with the inorganic environment, the emphasis is on the whole as an eco-system.

2.0 DISCIPLINES INTERACTION (inter-disciplinarity)

Environmental economics and ecological economics.
The environmental economics is a well-established and reputed sub-discipline of economics and ecological economics is a hybrid rather than a sub-discipline, not well-established, and viewed with some suspicion by both economists and ecologists.

Environmental anthropology (or sociology) and socio-biology.

The environmental anthropology is a well-established sub-discipline of anthropology, while socio-biology is either a hybrid or a sub-discipline of biology. It (socio-biology) is viewed with suspicion by most anthropologists, and mixed views by biologists. One in particular, geography, has, with some justification, claimed that it alone brings together the key disciplines within a single sphere. Other hybrids may also be found within some of the cells of the matrix. It now increasingly appears to be a variant of psychology.

Comparing the three disciplines: economics has been particularly powerful (some say imperialistic). Thus the perspective of economics has been applied to different fields of environmental study - notably, here, the ecology and society have been the least powerful. As a result, the environment has been the object of suffering from politics and poverty, but the associated perspective (ecology) has been undermined.
The significance of economics that becomes apparent from this brief analysis for example of the large populations of historian Member of Parliament (environmental policy-makers) relates also to the power of different disciplines to influence policy.

4.0 ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMICS

This includes many activities of man in his environment and some of these are;
1. Mining & Mineral Resources

The mining and mineral resources disciplines involve a number of activities ranging from developing or reviewing mineral exploration programs for potential financial investors through developing mining plans to environmental permitting. For example the oil mining project in the mid-west (Lake Albert) region of Uganda.
Other discipline activities may range from economic analysis of the ore reserves, the projected product-flow, mine dewatering, water-power supply development or protection, and mine environmental impact assessments and environmental geology.
Causes for litigation often focus on the highly subjective or potentially ambiguous aspects of the projects, such as ore-reserve assessments, cash-flow realizations, and cost estimates to meet environmental regulations. Disagreements in methods, interpretation of drilling data, chemical analyses, and geophysical surveys often result in litigation. Any of the above activities, analyses, evaluations, or assessments may have be conducted in a biased manner, by inadequate methods, or by personnel without appropriate training and experience and the associated professional geological certifications and/or state licenses.

2. Mineral exploration and environmental investigations

These two have many common characteristics, both require a familiarity with the geologic literature and both involve drilling, sampling, and analyzing for anomalous compounds present at or near the surface of the earth. Mineral exploration involves the search and evaluation of concentrations of economic metals and other elements found in naturally-occurring deposits at or near the surface of the earth (For example the Kilembe copper deposits). Value is created by mining a mineral or commodity for use by society in making a product of value to society. Successful mining projects consist of multi-disciplinary activities, such as in heap-leach, precious metal projects for example, and require a careful blend and balance of geological, chemical, geotechnical, engineering, financial, environmental and managerial expertise.
4.1 Impact of environmental economics to the environment

In the process of making a product, waste and by-products are produced which have historically been improperly handled and disposed off at locations that often threaten the health and well being of humans and the environment. For example the green house gases that cause ozone layer depletion and thus leads to global warming. There fore environmental investigations involving the search and evaluation of concentrations of anthropogenic waste or by-products such as metals, hydrocarbons, solvents, pesticides, herbicides, and other industrial compounds found in and around industrial centers, should report concentrations considered, in many cases, to be potentially dangerous to human health and the environment, i.e., to other fauna, flora and other natural resources and not to be corrupt.

4.2 Use economics in environmental policy
The main reason of using environmental economics is that in our society the environment has become a scarce resource. Since economics is about how to tackle scarce resources, it can often be useful when dealing with environmental problems. One way of using economics is to ensure that the costs and the benefits of environmental measures are well balanced. Although it is difficult to estimate costs and benefits, there is an increasing demand that this is done before new environmental policy is decided on Ugandan level. With the use of market-based instruments, environmental goals can sometimes be reached more efficiently than with traditional command and control regulations. For example, mining and mineral resources are directly linked to the environmental field, Thus through mining as the first stage of supplying society with its building blocks and the mineral resources as the last stage of cleaning up after society's needs have been met, society will learn to produce the products it needs in more environmentally-friendly ways by reducing waste and improving handling techniques.

5.0 ANTHROPOLOGY (or SOCIOLOGY)

Environmental sociology is essentially the science of identifying and measuring the amount of species interactions in the environment, natural or man-influenced. It also includes the study of the fate and effects of these interactions in the environment. It includes such tasks as defining the intended use of analytical data, preparing sampling plans to satisfy the intended use, selecting appropriate analytical methods, advising on the collection of samples in the field, interpreting laboratory analytical results, and assuring the validity and legal defensibility of analytical results. As indicated, any of the above activities can be involved in litigation, inappropriate or misrepresented data or methods are, in many instances, the basis of litigation involving activities conducted within the discipline involved, practiced in some cases by unqualified individuals not having appropriate training and experience and the associated professional sociological certifications and/or state licenses. For example suppose some one wants to harvest honey combs, will it be professional to kill all worker bees plus the mother bees? Or if some one wanted to make an industrial park will it be appropriate to site it in Queen Elizabeth Park to interrupt wild life conservation?

5.1 Impact of environmental anthropology (or sociology) to the environment

Over populated social groups for example of wild beasts in the Tsavo national game park in Kenya, as been reported to be stressing the environment through over grazing on plants, making open patches due to trampling.
Over population of people in slum areas of urban environments has led to ethic and moral degeneration. Contamination of water sources due to poor disposal of human sewage and other solid wastes.
Health-wise; today, there is evidence that factors such as particulate matter in the air, noise and ground-level ozone damage the health of thousands of people every year. Environmental pollutants, including pesticides, endocrine disruptors, dioxins and PCBs persist in the environment, accumulating over time and we do not know enough about their long-term effect on our health. A range of specific policy actions are being taken to address the issues, and many acute environment and health related problems have been solved. However, there are areas which require more investigation, in particular with respect to the health implication of chronic exposures, as reported by organisations such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and a number of Uganda national organisations (such as NEMA). The effect of the environment on health is a major concern of the Ugandan public.

5.2 Purpose of the environmental anthropology (or sociology)

This increased security to members living in groups, for example mother elephants are able to guard their calves from predation by lions, and protect their feeding territories with the help from alpha-males.
Togetherness of living species is linked to development of strong and distinct cultures.

6.0 ENVIRONMENTAL ECOLOGY

This also includes many activities of man in his environment including interactions to biotic and abiotic spheres, some of these are;
1. Climate change

Climate change is one of the greatest environmental, social and economic threats facing the planet. The warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident from observations of increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising global mean sea level. The Earth's average surface temperature has risen by 0.76° C since 1850. Most of the warming that has occurred over the last 50 years is very likely to have been caused by human activities. In its Fourth Assessment Report (AR4), published on 2 February 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) projects that, without further action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the global average surface temperature is likely to rise by a further 1.8-4.0°C this century.
Impacts of climate change that have already been observed

Glaciers are melting in many places across the world. Regional climate change is already affecting many natural systems. For instance, it is increasingly being observed that Rwenzori (mountains of the moon) ice are melting and frozen ground is thawing, hydrological and biological systems are changing and in some cases being disrupted, migrations are starting earlier, and species' geographic ranges are shifting towards the poles.

2. Environmental Geology

The environmental geology discipline, often a part of engineering geology, it involves studies, investigations, and reviews that often include:
a) Environmental site assessments (ESAs) for real-estate transfers, mergers, or of the impact of long-term production of oil and gas or injection well operations.
b) Environmental hazard investigations of growth faults in urban areas, water-well failures, hillside slumping, landslides, subsidence, etc.
c) Soil contamination investigations resulting from leaks from sewage and oil at service stations, and other industrial sources of leaks, spills, and accidents.
d) Remediation studies (including bioremediation) of ground-water contamination and,
e) Other subsurface investigations requiring sampling, interpretation and assessment of hydro-geologic data and hydro-chemical and soil analyses.

3. Hydrogeology

The hydrogeology discipline involves field investigations and reviews of the following typical activities:
a) Analysis and assessment of subsurface conditions by geotechnical drilling, geophysical surveys or other subsurface sampling methods,
b) Evaluation and determination of the direction and rate of ground-water flow,
c) Modeling of contaminant fate and transport in shallow, subsurface sediments and ground-water systems,
d) Assessment of contaminant impact on ground- water supplies,
e) Evaluation and assessment of human exposure and risk assessment relating to contaminated soil and ground water for example the out break of Cholera infections in Uganda’s populations today
f) Development and assessment of ground-water remediation system design, operation and effectiveness,
g) Forensic investigations, such as in evaluating likely sources causing illness or death to humans and animals for example Ebola, and
h) A number of other aspects in the field of hydrogeology.

 Water:
Water is life! It is a precondition for human, animal and plant life as well as an indispensable resource for the economy. Water also plays a fundamental role in the climate regulation cycle. Protection of water resources, of fresh and salt water ecosystems and of the water we drink and bathe in is therefore one of the cornerstones of environmental protection in Africa. The stakes are high and the issues transcend national boundaries and concerted action at the level of the UN (WHO) is necessary to ensure an effective protection.
Impact of water that has already been observed

Not always that water is life, especially in Uganda which as just recovered from a series of flooded Teso region and more recently Zana on Entebbe road sparing to talk about Bwaise a tradition flooded plain and the likely places. It is important for Uganda to prevent the advent of floods and to protect areas which are likely to be affected by such events. It is also vital to prepare Ugandan citizens to cope with the potential occurrence of floods. This will be important if new legislation obligating the nation to assess flood risks, to inform citizens in potentially affected areas and to involve them in the planning process in lobbied. There fore although floods can play a natural role in revitalizing the functioning of ecosystems, they can also cause widespread environmental damage. Pollution transported via flood waters can spread to areas where drinking water is extracted and extreme floods can wreak havoc with delicate ecosystems.

7.0 CONCLUSION
By assessing innovation induced discipline sciences on environment policy, Eco-innovation was found to be a key element in the quest for sustainable development. Environmental technologies (like use of cleaner-production technology) have the potential to sidestep the classic dilemma between economic growth and environmental improvement. In the past, numerous new technologies have been introduced in the Uganda that have contributed to pollution prevention, environmental clean-up, and the conservation of energy and resources (for example Bio-filtration by the Nakivubo effluent channel). But this and many others have not led to reductions in costs and/or reinforced the competitive strength of Uganda industry, as ‘clean’ technologies that were developed in Europe and are successful export products on the world market.
Uganda government also needs to put in structure environmental policy instruments. These are tools used by governments to implement their environmental policies; they may use a number of different types of instruments. For example, economic incentives and market-based instruments such as taxes and tax exemptions, tradable permits, and fees can be very effective to encourage compliance with environmental policy.