First published in 1988. This book has grown from a research workshop that began at the University of North Carolina under the direction of Maynard Hufschmidt. Professor Hufschmidt's long-held interest in the incorporation of environmental and other social values into benefit-cost analysis led to a research project entitled, "The Role of Environmental Indicators in Water Resource Planning and Policy Development," funded by the U.S. Department of the Interior. That project brought together the authors of this volume for a two-year period during which the groundwork for this book was laid.

This handbook describes the broad aspects of risk management involving scientific policy judgment, uncertainty analysis, perception considerations, statistical insights, and strategic thinking. This book presents all the important concepts to enable the reader to "see the big picture." This ability is extremely important - it allows the decision maker or strategic environmental planner to understand and cope with a wide variety of complex and interlinked pieces of information and data. The text presents environmental problems and, whenever applicable, the methodology required to reach a successful solution. Decisions and policies are examined. The book covers numerous objective and subjective components of environmental risk decision making. It details quantitative and comparative risk, and investigates the cost and feasibility of different decisions. Social pressures, safety, and political, religious, ethical, and psychological issues are addressed. How to evaluate the potential impact on the quality of life also is discussed. Any company doing risk assessment, risk management, or risk communication, as well as those doing environmental decision making will find this reference to be invaluable. It is also suitable as a text for courses in environmental management, environmental science, and risk assessment in the areas of risk management and strategic environmental planning.

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is one of the most important tools employed in contemporary environmental management. Presenting the component activities of EIA within a coherent methodological framework, Environmental Impact Assessment: A Methodological Approach provides students and practitioners alike with a rigorous grounding in EIA theory, including biophysical, social, strategic and cumulative assessment activities, and examines the crucial role, and limitations, of the science of EIA. Deliberately designed to be relevant world-wide, the author focuses on the common skills and generic aspects of EIA that underpin all impact assessment work, independent of country or jurisdiction, such as screening and scoping, impact identification, public involvement, prediction and monitoring, evaluation, and quality control. The variety of approaches are identified along with their associated strengths and weaknesses, enabling potential, new and experienced practitioners to make informed choices and to improve their working practices through a better understanding of EIA activity. The ultimate aim of this book is to move from the notion of EIA as a technical procedure towards a concept of EIA as a particular form of problem-solving with varied methodological requirements.

This book challenges the prevailing assumption that Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) should be structured around a unitary EIA process. The book begins by identifying, through a scenario, eight recurrent problems in EIA practice. The characteristics of multiple variations of conventional EIA processes, at both the regulatory and applied levels, are then presented. The residual problems that remain after the conventional processes are described and assessed providing the springboard for a description and analysis of eight alternative EIA processes.

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.

World Bank Technical Paper No. 139. Also available: Volume 2 (ISBN 0-8213-1844-6) Stock No. 11844; Volume 3 (ISBN 0-8213-1845-4) Stock No. 11845. Provides state-of-the-art guidance and information on the procedural requirements and practical aspects of environmental assessment in various sector- and location-specific contexts. Three volumes also available in Arabic: Volume 1 (ISBN 0-8213-3523-5) Stock No. 13523; Volume 2 (ISBN 0-8213-3617-7) Stock No. 13617; Volume 3 (ISBN 0-8213-3618-5) Stock No. 13618.

Perspectives in Life Cycle Impact Assessment: A Structured Approach to Combine Models of the Technosphere, Ecosphere and Valuesphere describes the relationship between subjective and objective elements in Life Cycle Impact Assessment. It suggests a new framework which will allow people to master two of the major problems associated with LCA, the difficulty of separating subjective from objective elements and the tendency for impact assessment to record `phantoms' rather than actual damages. Perspectives in Life Cycle Impact Assessment: A Structured Approach to Combine Models of the Technosphere, Ecosphere and Valuesphere presents a proposal for a second generation framework and method for Life Cycle Impact Assessment. Many of the suggested elements are either based on other tools for environmental analysis, e.g. risk assessment, or fit in well with tools and concepts such as industrial ecology, technology assessment, or environmental impact assessment. The research presented in this book goes beyond the scope of presently used methods for Life Cycle Assessment and may stimulate new developments in a variety of areas. The book will appeal to persons from a wide range of scientific disciplines who are interested in learning more about Life Cycle Assessment. It will be especially valuable to members of SETAC and to students and researchers in the fields of environmental impact assessment, risk assessment and industrial ecology.