Community Environmental Management
Community Environmental Management (CEM) is a system for assessing the environmental and natural resources; financial, planning, policy, and economic resources; and community needs, issues, and priorities. Many communities currently address environmental issues through a variety of plans including: open space, natural resource, flooding, transportation, water quality, comprehensive or master plans. A CEM assessment process may provide communities with additional knowledge and technical assistance for addressing non-point source pollution and other related environmental issues.
CEM is designed to work on a range of geographic scales such as a local site, community, municipality or watershed. Municipal leaders; members of conservation boards, planning boards, and water quality committees; planners; or concerned landowners, can implement it. The overall objective is to establish effective local programs for addressing specific community concerns. The assessment procedure is described below. Page numbers refer to the draft CEM guide, Community Environmental Management: An Initiative Designed to Protect and Enhance our Natural Resources and WaterQuality for use on a Watershed, Municipal, or Site-Specific Scale. For more information on CEM or for assistance in using CEM in your community, visit the Erie County Soil and Water Conservation District Web site at http://www.ecswcd.org/html/cem.html.
For CEM in Action (pdf), click here. (under construction)
For CEM Guide and Worksheets (pdf), click here.
Identifies a community’s current perception of their water quality and other natural resource problems. This is accomplished through a review of existing materials and a short worksheet and survey.
Provides a current overview of a community’s ability to address their natural resource concerns. A worksheet identifies key decision-makers, existing local regulations, regulatory infrastructure, and current enforcement and maintenance capabilities.
Individual assessment worksheets are used to evaluate the existing level of risk from concerns identified in Tier 1. These worksheets further help a community evaluate the extent of existing environmental problems along with potential strategies and management options for addressing them.
The remedial and preventive strategies and management options the community identifies for addressing each concern are then incorporated into individual plans or an overall 5 year natural resources plan for the community based on restoration and protection goals established for the assessment area.
The natural resources plan should then be incorporated into the Community’s Comprehensive Land Use Plan to provide the documentation of the importance of these resources to the community. The Master Plan will provide the legal justification that the public welfare will be adequately protected by any regulations that might be adopted to protect and preserve these resources.
Components of the natural resources plan(s) are implemented with the overall objective being to establish effective local programs for addressing specific community concerns such as loss of farmland. This tier involves practices, development and adoption of ordinances or implementation of a local public outreach program.
Tier V will provide guidance for ongoing evaluation of plan implementation to determine if goals are being met.
Agencies and organizations involved in developing CEM
• New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC)
• New York State Soil and Water Conservation Committee (NYSSWCC)
• Erie County Soil and Water Conservation District
• Dutchess County Soil and Water Conservation District
• Upper Susquehanna Coalition
• New York State Department of State (NYSDOS)
• New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH)
• Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE)
• United States Department of Agriculture – Natural Resources Conservation Service (USDA NRCS)
This page last modified 31 March 2005.
LEAPE Site last modified 31 March 2005.
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