Making Better Environmental Decisions PDF Download
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Author: Mary O'Brien
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262650533
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 310
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Book Description
This work recommends a simple yet profound shift to another decision-making technique: alternatives assessment. Instead of asking how much of a hazardous activity is safe, alternatives assessment asks how we can avoid or minimize damage.
Author: Mary O'Brien
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262650533
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 310
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Book Description
This work recommends a simple yet profound shift to another decision-making technique: alternatives assessment. Instead of asking how much of a hazardous activity is safe, alternatives assessment asks how we can avoid or minimize damage.
Author: Frans H. J. M. Coenen
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 140209325X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 212
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Book Description
Public Participation and Better Environmental Decisions is about a specific ‘promise’ that participation holds for environmental decision-making. Many of the arguments for public participation in (inter)national environmental policy documents are functional, that is to say they see public participation as a means to an end. Sound solutions to environmental problems require participation beyond experts and political elites. Neglecting information from the public leads to legitimacy questions and potential conflicts. There is a discourse in the literature and in policy practice as to whether decision-making improves in quality as additional relevant information by the public is considered. The promise that public participation holds has to be weighed against the limitations of public participation in terms of costs and interest conflicts. The question that Public Participation and Better Environmental Decisions seeks to answer for academics, planners and civil servants in all environmental relevant policy fields is: What restricts and what enables information to hold the ‘promise’ that public participation lead to better environmental decision-making and better outcomes?
Author: Chad J. McGuire
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1439885753
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 221
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Book Description
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.
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 030909318X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 291
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Book Description
Nutrient recycling, habitat for plants and animals, flood control, and water supply are among the many beneficial services provided by aquatic ecosystems. In making decisions about human activities, such as draining a wetland for a housing development, it is essential to consider both the value of the development and the value of the ecosystem services that could be lost. Despite a growing recognition of the importance of ecosystem services, their value is often overlooked in environmental decision-making. This report identifies methods for assigning economic value to ecosystem servicesâ€"even intangible onesâ€"and calls for greater collaboration between ecologists and economists in such efforts.
Author: Ronnie Harding
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 420
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Book Description
Contemporary environmental decisions are made within the context of sustainability aimed at meeting integrated ecological, economic and social goals. Most involve a complex mix of actors and institutions - differing values and differing interests. Choices are difficult and often controversial, and decision-making processes and contexts provide crucial influences on outcomes.This book explores these processes and context and the influences which affect them. For example:How do different value systems influence what environmental issues come onto the public agenda, and their management? What institutions and actors are involved in the processes and how? What tools are available and what are their limitations? How should we deal with uncertainty and risk? How do we incorporate relevant but very different forms of knowledge, and how do we manage the information 'explosion'? The authors take a multidisciplinary approach and engage in themes from political science, law, economics, philosophy, natural sciences, geography, engineering and sociology. Their book is rich with practical examples, including three extensive case studies that illustrate the complexities and contestations of environmental decision-making..The book is aimed at the ever-widening range of people who are, or are hoping to become, environmental professionals, whether from the scientific, technical or social science fields. It is also relevant for interested members of the public.
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309095409
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 297
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Book Description
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.
Author: Virginia H. Dale
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1461214181
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 357
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Book Description
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.
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 2
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Book Description
Author: Mary O'Brien
Publisher: Mit Press
ISBN: 9780262150514
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 286
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Book Description
For the past quarter-century, government and the private sector have relied heavily on risk assessment for making decisions, allowing widespread environmental deterioration. In this book, Mary O'Brien recommends a simple yet profound shift to another decision-making technique: "alternatives assessment." Instead of asking how much of a hazardous activity is safe (which translates into how much damage the environment can tolerate), alternatives assessment asks how we can avoid or minimize damage while achieving society's goals. Alternatives assessment is a simple, commonsense alternative to risk assessment. It is based on the premise that it is not acceptable to damage human and nonhuman health or the environment if there are reasonable alternatives. The approach calls for taking precautionary measures even if some cause-and-effect relationships have not been fully established scientifically. The process must involve an examination of the full range of alternatives, including no action at all. Equally important, it must be democratic and include potentially affected parties. O'Brien not only makes a persuasive case for alternative assessment; she tells how to implement it. She also shows how this technique has profound implications for public health, for our stewardship of the environment, and for a truly democratic government. Published in association with the Environmental Research Foundation.
Author: Institute of Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309290236
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 280
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Book Description
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is one of several federal agencies responsible for protecting Americans against significant risks to human health and the environment. As part of that mission, EPA estimates the nature, magnitude, and likelihood of risks to human health and the environment; identifies the potential regulatory actions that will mitigate those risks and protect public health1 and the environment; and uses that information to decide on appropriate regulatory action. Uncertainties, both qualitative and quantitative, in the data and analyses on which these decisions are based enter into the process at each step. As a result, the informed identification and use of the uncertainties inherent in the process is an essential feature of environmental decision making. EPA requested that the Institute of Medicine (IOM) convene a committee to provide guidance to its decision makers and their partners in states and localities on approaches to managing risk in different contexts when uncertainty is present. It also sought guidance on how information on uncertainty should be presented to help risk managers make sound decisions and to increase transparency in its communications with the public about those decisions. Given that its charge is not limited to human health risk assessment and includes broad questions about managing risks and decision making, in this report the committee examines the analysis of uncertainty in those other areas in addition to human health risks. Environmental Decisions in the Face of Uncertainty explains the statement of task and summarizes the findings of the committee.
