Comparative Environmental Economic Assessment

Over the last decade, economists have increasingly recognized the role of meta-analysis and value transfer in synthesizing knowledge and efficiently exploiting the existing pool of knowledge. Comparative Environmental Economic Assessment explores the potential significance of using these techniques, particularly in environmental economics. Both meta-analysis and value transfer constitute major research tools which efficiently use knowledge previously acquired from other studies. The book focuses on the potential role and usefulness of these tools in environmental economic research, and goes on to address their validity, relevance and applicability. A future agenda for research is also illustrated.

Plantation forestry is the planting, managing, and harvesting of trees for the production of industrial wood. Originally published in 1983, the principal focus and contribution of the study lies in Roger Sedjo’s examination of the economic returns in twelve forest regions throughout the world. The results of the analysis strongly demonstrate the feasibility of major expansion of plantation forestry in a number of areas around the world and suggest the likelihood of major shifts in the principal supply areas. The results also have potentially important implications for countering the threats of deforestation. This title will be of interest for students of Environmental Studies.

What data is needed to complete a quantitative risk assessment for environmental and public health? How accurate does a quantitative risk assessment have to be? How confident does a risk assessor need to be when presenting risk estimates to a decision maker? Find out the answers to these questions and more with Comparative Environmental Risk Assessment, the first major commercial publication that describes the current state of the art in comparative environmental risk assessment. This book examines the problems involved in such analyses and offers ideas and thoughts for future development. The book examines major problems in this area and covers all aspects of the environment, including human and ecological health. Comparative Environmental Risk Assessment is an excellent guide for risk assessment experts, environmentalists, regulators, planners, legislators, scientists in industry, instructors, and students.

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) has become a vital management tool worldwide. EIA is a means of evaluating the likely consequences of a proposed major action which will significantly affect the environment, before that action is taken.This new edition of Wood's key text provides an authoritative, international review of environmental impact assessment, comparing systems used in the UK, USA, the Netherlands, Canada, the Commonwealth of Australia and New Zealand and South Africa.

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.

How can we value the environment, this is the crucial issue that this book debates. The critical analyses carried out within the book by such figures as Nick Hanley and Jonathan Aldred are vital to ensuring that future economic growth is not achieved at the expense of our environment.

The integration of environmental concerns into other policy areas is widely recognized as a key element to achieve sustainable development. It also represents a challenge for the environmental community, requiring not only a new approach to policy-making but also changes to existing policies and their implementation. This essential book presents a diverse set of perspectives and experiences on how to support sustainable development through the integration of environmental issues into various policy sectors. The authors examine existing research on environmental policy integration (EPI) at thre.