Next-generation environmental enforcement strategies for next-generation compliance monitoring technologies

Catching non-compliance is essential for enforcing environmental policies. However, inadequate enforcement resources are a major constraint for compliance monitoring in developing as well as developed countries. New... [ view full abstract ]

Catching non-compliance is essential for enforcing environmental policies. However, inadequate enforcement resources are a major constraint for compliance monitoring in developing as well as developed countries. New technologies are evolving rapidly with varying accuracy in catching non-compliance and diverging efficiency in utilizing enforcement resources, including various sensors, remote sensing as well as civil monitoring in the category of Big Data. These next-generation monitoring technologies generally have much lower costs on each polluting source, but also significantly lower accuracy to provide inconclusive evidences for issuing legal and administrative penalties. The technological development creates opportunities to design next-generation enforcement strategies for their better integration into environmental governance, enhance the overall effectiveness, and guide the further improvement of these technologies. Building upon the understanding of environmental enforcement and compliance decisions, this paper constructs a computable model to simulate the impacts of major factors. Under the constraint of enforcement resources, the tradeoff between costs and accuracy is examined in detail. Alternative enforcement strategies are found to allow the better utilization of these new technologies and improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the overall compliance monitoring system. This paper further applies the findings to, as an example, redesign environmental enforcement short-term campaigns for their long-lasting positive impacts on compliance.