Analyze the organizational changes inside local authorities necessary to meet environmental challenges. In particular, to identify new jobs and professions, and/or the emergence of new jobs at local authority level in the field of environmental management and to evaluate the education and training needs accompanying these processes.

The study refers to jobs and professions in local authorities only. It is premised upon hypothesis that jobs and professions dealing with environmental issues combine two features, technical expertise and mediation.

The study comprises :

i) an international comparison starting from EEC directives on the environment and, with a top-down approach examines how these regulations are implemented and what are the organizational changes required at local authority level in relation with groups and categories within the general public concerned with the management of the environment;

ii) in each country (Belgium, France, Germany, United Kingdom and Portugal) a detailed analysis of selected cases explores the working of these processes providing a summary description of governmental structures relating to the management of the environment and an analysis of the way in wich a number of european directives already incorporated within national legislations are interpreted and applied.