This book is unique in identifying and presenting tools to environmental decision-makers to help them improve the quality and clarity of their work. These tools range from software to policy approaches, and from environmental databases to focus groups. Equally of value to environmental managers, and students in environmental risk, policy, economics and law.

This te×t identifies and presents tools to environmental decision-makers to help them improve the quality and clarity of their work. These tools range from software to policy approaches, and from environmental databases to focus groups.

Because of the complexity involved in understanding the environment, the choices made about environmental issues are often incomplete. In a perfect world, those who make environmental decisions would be armed with a foundation about the broad range of issues at stake when making such decisions. Offering a simple but comprehensive understanding of the critical roles science, economics, and values play in making informed environmental decisions, Environmental Decision-Making in Context: A Toolbox provides that foundation. The author highlights a primary set of intellectual tools from different disciplines and places them into an environmental context through the use of case study examples. The case studies are designed to stimulate the analytical reasoning required to employ environmental decision-making and ultimately, help in establishing a framework for pursuing and solving environmental questions, issues, and problems. They create a framework individuals from various backgrounds can use to both identify and analyze environmental issues in the context of everyday environmental problems. The book strikes a balance between being a tightly bound academic text and a loosely defined set of principles. It takes you beyond the traditional pillars of academic discipline to supply an understanding of the fundamental aspects of what is actually involved in making environmental decisions and building a set of skills for making those decisions.

With the growing number, complexity, and importance of environmental problems come demands to include a full range of intellectual disciplines and scholarly traditions to help define and eventually manage such problems more effectively. Decision Making for the Environment: Social and Behavioral Science Research Priorities is the result of a 2-year effort by 12 social and behavioral scientists, scholars, and practitioners. The report sets research priorities for the social and behavioral sciences as they relate to several different kinds of environmental problems.

Environmental applications have long been a core use of GIS. However, the effectiveness of GIS-based methods depends on the decision-making frameworks and contexts within which they are employed. GIS for Environmental Decision-Making takes an interdisciplinary look at the capacities of GIS to integrate, analyze, and display data on which decisions

This unique volume brings together key writings from experts drawn from the first ten years of the Journal of Environmental Assessment Policy and Management (JEAPM), launched in 1999 as a forum for encouraging better linkages between environmental assessment and management tools. The book is structured around four themes that focus on the characteristics of tools that influence their ability to link together effectively: The Nature of Tools; The Nature of Decision-Making and Institutional Context; The Nature of Engagement and The Nature of Sustainability. Edited and introduced by William Sheate, founding and present editor of JEAPM, the book provides an analysis of what makes for successful linking of assessment and management tools, supported by theoretical and practical examples. Key authors include Roland Clift, David Gadenne, Robert Gibson, Neils Faber, Thomas Fischer, David Lawrence, MNns Nilsson, Bronwyn Ridgway, and Frank Vanclay. Sample Chapter(s). Chapter 1: The Evolving Nature of Environmental Assessment and Management: Linking Tools to Help Deliver Sustainability (10,216 KB). Contents: The Evolving Nature of Environmental Assessment and Management: Linking Tools to Help Deliver Sustainability (W R Sheate); The Nature of Tools: Choices for EIA Process Design and Management (D P Lawrence); The Project Cycle and the Role of EIA and EMS (B Ridgway); A Framework for Tool Selection and Use in Integrated Assessment for Sustainable Development (W De Ridder et al.); The Nature of Decision-Making and Institutional Context: A Systemic Framework for Environmental Decision-Making (R Van Der Vorst et al.); Decision Making and Strategic Environmental Assessment (M Nilsson & H Dalkmann); The Nature of Engagement: In It Together: Organizational Learning Through Participation in Environmental Assessment (P Fitzpatrick); Social and Environmental NGOs as Users of Corporate Social Disclosure (L Danastas & D Gadenne); The Nature of Sustainability: Organisational Sustainability: A Case for Formulating a Tailor-Made Definition (D J Kiewiet & J F J Vos); Beyond the Pillars: Sustainability Assessment as a Framework for Effective Integration of Social, Economic and Ecological Considerations in Significant Decision-Making (R B Gibson); and other papers. Readership: Natural scientists, social scientists, engineers, businesses and consultants interested in sustainability."