Environmental Decision Making

Download or read book Environmental Decision-Making in Context written by Chad J. McGuire and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2012-04-25 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Sustainable Values, Sustainable Change written by Bryan G. Norton and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2015-12-16 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Systematically investigates the philosophical foundations of sustainable development in the context of the history of environmental policy. . . . Compelling.” —Choice Sustainability is a nearly ubiquitous concept today, but can we ever imagine what it would be like for humans to live sustainably on earth? One of the most trafficked terms in the press, on university campuses, and in the corridors of government, sustainability has risen to prominence as a buzzword before the many parties laying claim to it have agreed on how to define it. But the term’s political currency urgently demands that we develop an understanding of this elusive concept. While economists, philosophers, and ecologists argue about what in nature is valuable, and why, in Sustainable Values, Sustainable Change, Bryan Norton offers an action-oriented, pragmatic response to the disconnect between public and academic discourse around sustainability. Looking to the arenas in which decisions are made—and the problems driving these decisions—Norton reveals that the path to sustainability cannot be guided by fixed objectives; sustainability will instead be achieved through experimentation, incremental learning, and adaptive management. Drawing inspiration from Aldo Leopold’s famed metaphor of “thinking like a mountain” for a spatially explicit, pluralistic approach to evaluating environmental change, Norton outlines a new decision-making process guided by deliberation and negotiation across science and philosophy. Looking across scales to today’s global problems, Norton urges us to learn to think like a planet. “An excellent distillation of Norton’s extensive and groundbreaking work.” —Ben Minteer, Arizona State University, author of Refounding Environmental Ethics “Engaging and important.” —Sahotra Sarkar, University of Texas at Austin, author of Environmental Philosophy: From Theory to Practice

Download or read book Making Better Environmental Decisions written by Mary O'Brien and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Decision Making for the Environment written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2005-07-01 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Structured Decision Making written by Robin Gregory and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2012-03-19 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book outlines the creative process of making environmental management decisions using the approach called Structured Decision Making. It is a short introductory guide to this popular form of decision making and is aimed at environmental managers and scientists. This is a distinctly pragmatic label given to ways for helping individuals and groups think through tough multidimensional choices characterized by uncertain science, diverse stakeholders, and difficult tradeoffs. This is the everyday reality of environmental management, yet many important decisions currently are made on an ad hoc basis that lacks a solid value-based foundation, ignores key information, and results in selection of an inferior alternative. Making progress – in a way that is rigorous, inclusive, defensible and transparent – requires combining analytical methods drawn from the decision sciences and applied ecology with deliberative insights from cognitive psychology, facilitation and negotiation. The authors review key methods and discuss case-study examples based in their experiences in communities, boardrooms, and stakeholder meetings. The goal of this book is to lay out a compelling guide that will change how you think about making environmental decisions. Visit www.wiley.com/go/gregory/ to access the figures and tables from the book.

Download or read book Environmental Decision-making written by Ronnie Harding and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Sustainability and Environmental Decision Making written by Euston Quah and published by Springer. This book was released on 2021-06-07 with total page 467 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The primary aim of this reference volume is to provide an accessible and comprehensive review of current methods used to address resource evaluation and environmental as well as climate issues, and in a manner easily understood by decision-makers and the non-economists interested in environmental policy matters. Theoretical insight and empirical observations from various countries will be presented and recommendations on sustainable environmental decision-making will be given. Natural resource managers, environmental and climate decision-makers, government policy makers, and economics scholars will all find this volume to be an essential reference.