This book integrates decision-making and environmental science. For ecologists it will bridge the gap to economics. For practitioners in environmental economics and management it will be a major reference book. It probably contains the largest collection available of expressions and basic equations that are used in environmental sciences. Applying these expressions as "rules-of-thumb" will give participants in a decision-making process a common platform for discussion and arbitration.

To make the text comfortable to read, the book is organized in disciplines, but it also includes 13 applications that draw on all subjects in the book, and where cross-references are extensively used. The applications that range from siting of paper mills to wilderness management show how a range of topics in economics, social sciences and ecology are interrelated when decisions have to be made.

The third chapter is called "Getting started". It shows how to carry out a complete environmental screening study in one day, much like the computer manuals that get you going from the first day. We believe that raising a platform for environmental decision-making puts issues into their right perspective, it is fun, and it lets an individual contribute to society's understanding of the environment in a very short while.

This book bridges the gap between environmental management and economics. Both themes are treated with equal concern and insight, since all chapters are written in tandem by an ecologist and an economist. The book supports problem based learning and is excellent for project work. It is easy to follow the main steps in a formal decision analysis, and easy to find the material that is needed to support the analyses. The book probably offers the largest existing collection of basic equations related to environmental management. The book highlights the distinction between facts (beliefs) and preferences and shows how they come together in a decision-making process. As far as we know this is the first book on environmental decision analysis that includes chapters on ethics, aesthetics as well as life quality. By including these chapters, difficult issues that belong to the subjective environment become embedded in real decision situations.

Inhalt

From the contents

Preface.- Part 1 Environmental Decision-Making.- Part 2 The Subjective Experience.- Part 3 Ecological Principles and Processes.- Part 4 The Natural Environment.- Index.