AN INTEGRATED ENVIRONMENTAL MATRIX FOR A SOCIAL UNIT

An integrated network is conceived that qualitatively relates environm ental actors and environmental systems within a social unit such as a town, an industrial district or the like. The resulting matrix shows t he flow of decisions and information between its active vector represe nting the environmental objectives, and its passive vector representin g the environmental achievements. By way of three additional vectors, the properties of environmental systems are determined and compared to the expectations created by provisions of the environmental actors. T he result is a set of residuals that define the living comfort in the social unit. The network motivates interested parties such as administ rations, schools or individuals to go through the exercise of finding the causes of the residuals. In order to eliminate them, definite resp onsibilities have to be assigned to community members. The study prete nds to involve all citizens in the flow of information, facts and deci sions, and to help them identify themselves in the matrix. It is antic ipated that as a result of this educational exercise, individual and c ollective responsibilities become apparent and are accepted and practi ced. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.