While ecosystem management requires looking beyond specific jurisdiction and focusing on broad spatial scales, most planning decisions particularly in the USA, are made at local level. By looking at land-use planning in Florida, this volume recognizes the need for planners and resource managers to address ecosystem problems at local and community levels. The factors causing ecosystem decline, such as rapid urban development and habitat fragmentation occur at the local level and are generated by local land use policies. This book argues that understanding how local jurisdictions can capture and implement the principles of managing natural systems will lead to more sustainable levels of environmental planning in the future.

This book is unique in identifying and presenting tools to environmental decision-makers to help them improve the quality and clarity of their work. These tools range from software to policy approaches, and from environmental databases to focus groups. Equally of value to environmental managers, and students in environmental risk, policy, economics and law.

Chosen by Choice Magazine as an Outstanding Academic Title for 2003 Ecological planning is the process of understanding, evaluating, and providing options for the use of landscape to ensure a better fit with human habitation. In this ambitious analysis, Forster Ndubisi provides a succinct historical and comparative account of the various approaches to this process. He then reveals how each of these approaches offers different and uniquely useful perspectives for understanding the dialogue between human and environmental processes. Ndubisi begins by examining the philosophies behind and major contributors to ecological thinking during the past 150 years, as well as the paradigm shift in planning that occurred in recent decades as a result of a growing global ecological awareness. He then turns to landscape suitability analysis and discusses alternative approaches to ecological planning, such as applied human ecology, applied landscape ecology, and others. Finally, he offers a comparative synthesis of the approaches in order to reveal the theoretical and methodological assumptions inherent when planners choose one approach over the other. Ndubisi concludes that no one approach can by itself adequately address the whole spectrum of ecological planning issues. For this reason he offers guidance as to when it may be appropriate for landscape architects and planners to emphasize one approach rather than another.

The report reviews a U.S. Department of the Interior research program, finding that it provides key information to support the restoration of the Florida Everglades and to better assess the impact of hydrologic change on the ecosystem. However, the program needs more funding, better management and broader distribution of its findings. The report suggests that strategic investments in Everglades research will increase the chances of reaching restoration goals while reducing overall costs.

Water is the common lifeline for the natural and built environments in South Florida. Engineered flood control and water distribution systems, agriculture, growth, and development have disrupted the region's water quality, quantity, timing, and distribution (i.e., the hydropattern). Agricultural runoff and urban stormwater have introduced high levels of phosphorus, mercury, and other contaminants into the water system, polluting lakes, rivers, estuaries and the Everglades.

Winner of an Outstanding Academic Title Award from CHOICE Magazine Encyclopedia of Environmental Management gives a comprehensive overview of environmental problems, their sources, their assessment, and their solutions. Through in-depth entries and a topical table of contents, readers will quickly find answers to questions about specific pollution and management issues. Edited by the esteemed Sven Erik Jørgensen and an advisory board of renowned specialists, this four-volume set shares insights from more than 500 contributors—all experts in their fields. The encyclopedia provides basic knowledge for an integrated and ecologically sound management system. Nearly 400 alphabetical entries cover everything from air, soil, and water pollution to agriculture, energy, global pollution, toxic substances, and general pollution problems. Using a topical table of contents, readers can also search for entries according to the type of problem and the methodology. This allows readers to see the overall picture at a glance and find answers to the core questions: What is the pollution problem, and what are its sources? What is the "big picture," or what background knowledge do we need? How can we diagnose the problem, both qualitatively and quantitatively, using monitoring and ecological models, indicators, and services? How can we solve the problem with environmental technology, ecotechnology, cleaner technology, and environmental legislation? How do we address the problem as part of an integrated management strategy? This accessible encyclopedia examines the entire spectrum of tools available for environmental management. An indispensable resource, it guides environmental managers to find the best possible solutions to the myriad pollution problems they face. Also Available Online This Taylor & Francis encyclopedia is also available through online subscription, offering a variety of extra benefits for researchers, students, and librarians, including: Citation tracking and alerts Active reference linking Saved searches and marked lists HTML and PDF format options Contact us to inquire about subscription options and print/online combination packages. US: (Tel) 1.888.318.2367 / (email) e-reference@taylorandfrancis.com International: (Tel) +44 (0) 20 7017 6062 / (email) online.sales@tandf.co.uk

As the ecosystem-based trend in fisheries management continues to be implemented worldwide, a thorough background of this new management approach and resulting implementation strategies is needed. Ecosystem-Based Fisheries Management in the Western Pacific presents a full picture of the process changes used in switching from target species based management to EBFM, using a region that is at the forefront of this widely accepted movement. Ecosystem-Based Fisheries Management in the Western Pacific is the outgrowth of a series of three workshops convened by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management council. The book follows the logical approach of each workshop, beginning with an assessment of the current state of fisheries management, transitioning through the data sources and modeling systems used to advance EBFM, and ending with practical methodologies for more thorough global implementation in the future. Contributed by experts from the Pacific regions as well as the UK and Non-pacific States, this book is one of the first available compendiums on this important movement and will be applicable to fisheries scientists and researchers, fisheries managers, policy makers, and social scientists worldwide