Most publications on heavy metals and the environment have focused on environmental pathways and risks. The present book establishes a link between the environmental risks of heavy metals and the societal causes of the risks. Economic models, substance flow models and environmental fate and risk assessment models have been integrated into a single analytical framework that has been used to trace and understand the routes by which four heavy metals enter the economy, through to their final destination in the environment. The long-term impacts of the current metals management regime in the Netherlands have been used as a case study by which to assess the effectiveness of certain policy measures.
Readership: Environmental scientists, especially those practising in the areas of ecological economics, industrial ecology, materials flow accounting and integrated environmental assessment. Environmental policy makers will also find the book an invaluable aid in their deliberations.

Inhalt
I.1 General Introduction.- I.2 Basic concepts and approaches.- II.1 General modelling issues for economic and substance flow models.- II.2 FLUX, a tool for substance flow analysis.- II.3 Economic analysis of Material-Product Chains.- II.4 Heavy-metal balances of agricultural soils.- II.5 Dynabox: A dynamic multi-media fate model for the case of heavy metals.- II.6 Sustainability indicators for the case of heavy metals.- II.7 Combining SFA and economic models.- III.1 Metals in the Netherlands: application of FLUX, Dynabox and the indicators.- III.2 Applications of Material-Product Chain analysis.- III.3 Applications of dynamic balances in agricultural systems.- IV.1 Introduction.- IV.2 The generation of solutions for the environmental problems related to zinc and copper in the Netherlands.- IV.3 Results of the scenario calculations.- IV.4 Discussion and conclusions.- V.1 Summary of results.- V.2 Conclusions.- V.3 Recommendations.