Decision making in environmental projects is typically a complex and confusing process characterized by trade-offs between socio-political, environmental, and economic impacts. Comparative Risk Assessment (CRA) is a methodology applied to facilitate decision making when various activities compete for limited resources. CRA has become an increasingly accepted research tool and has helped to characterize environmental profiles and priorities on the regional and national level. CRA may be considered as part of the more general but as yet quite academic field of multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA). Considerable research in the area of MCDA has made available methods for applying scientific decision theoretical approaches to multi-criteria problems, but its applications, especially in environmental areas, are still limited. The papers show that the use of comparative risk assessment can provide the scientific basis for environmentally sound and cost-efficient policies, strategies, and solutions to our environmental challenges.

Inhalt
Comparative Risk Assessment: Past Experience, Current Trends and Future Directions.- Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis: A Framework for Structuring Remedial Decisions at Contaminated Sites.- Comparative Risk Assessment: Methods, Tools and Applications.- Using Comparative Exposure Analsis to Validate Low-Dose Human Health Risk Assessment: The Case of Perchlorate.- Comparison of Risks from Use of Traditional and Recycled Road Construction Materials: Accounting for Variability in Contaminant Release Estimates.- Environmental Risk Assessment of Pesticides in Nepal and Hindukush-Himalayan Region.- A Comparative Risk Approach to Assessing Point-of-Use Water treatment Systems in Developing Countries.- Risk-Based Evaluation of the Surface Cover Technology of a Red Sludge Waste Disposal Site in Hungary.- Towards a More Coherent Regional Environment Agenda in the Middle East: Exploring the Role of Comparative Risk Assessment.- Lessons from the New Jersey Comparative Risk Project.- A Proposed Framework for Multinational Comparative Risk Analysis: Pesticide Use, Impacts and Management.- Environmental Decision Making.- The Value of Information for Conflict Resolution.- Integrated Assessment Modeling.- Classification Schemes for Priority Setting and Decision Making.- Uncertainty as a Resource in Risk Comparisons.- Incorporating Habitat Characterization Into Risk-Trace Software for Spatially Explicit Exposure Assessment.- Use of GIS as a Supporting Tool for Environmental Risk Assessment and Emergency Response Plans.- Integrated Risk Analysis for Sustainable Water Resources Management.- Overcoming Uncertainties in Risk Analysis: Trade-Offs among Methods of Uncertainty Analysis.- Comparative Risk Assessment and Environmental Impact Assessment: Similarity in Quantitative Methods.- Combining Expert Judgement and Stakeholder Values with Promethee: A case Study in Contaminated Sediments.- Analysis in Support of Environmental Decision-Making.- Case Studies in Risk Assessment and Environmental Decision Making.- Water Quality Challenges Facing Egypt.- Risk Assessment of Occupational Exposure to Pesticides.- The Role of Air Pollutants and Sewage Waste in Acceleration of Degradation of the Islamic Cultural Heritage of Cairo.- Irrigation with Treated Wastewater in Israel-Assessment of Environmental Aspects.- The Environment Sector in Jordan.- Comparative Risk Assessment for Homogeneous and Nonhomogeneous Mammalian Populations Exposed to Low Level Radiation.- Risk Assessment of the Influence of Anthropogenic Factors on Human Safety and Health.- Environmental Risk Prevention and Environment Management in Lithuanian Military Lands.- Environmental Risk Management Issues in Romania Economic Information Policy in a Transition Period.- A Brief History of Risk Assessment and Management After the Seveso Accident.