When it comes to decision making in the field of environmental policy, there is still a lack of useful decision aid methods. This paper intends to show how multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) as an useful decision aid method could help to reduce inefficiencies in macro-related environmentaleconomic-social decision making. MCDA methods differ from conventional methods as they are taking into...

Accurate conceptualization and measurement of age-friendly community characteristics would help to reduce barriers to documenting the effects on elders of interventions to create such communities. This article contributes to the measurement of age-friendly communities through an exploratory factor analysis of items reflecting an existing US Environmental Protection Agency policy framework. From...

River rehabilitation decisions, like other decisions in environmental management, are often taken by authorities without sufficient transparency about how different goals, outcomes, and concerns were considered during the decision making process. This can lead to lack of acceptance or even opposition by stakeholders. In this paper, a concept is outlined for the use of techniques of decision ana...

In their day-to-day lives, human beings are quite comfortable making decisions based on uncertain information. However, in using decision-support tools, natural resource management is conducted based upon the most likely or “average” outcome of a given event. While this is appropriate over a long time period and/or large area, it is not appropriate for individual events. This paper argues that ...

The Regional Superfund Ground Water Forum is a group of EPA professionals representing EPA’s Regional Superfund Offices, committed to the identification and the resolution of ground water issues impacting the remediation of Superfund sites. The Forum is supported by and advises the Superfund Technical Support Project. Dense nonaqueous phase liquids is an issue identified by the Forum as a conce...

Since September 11, 2001, awareness of potential terrorist targets has increased greatly. Industrial chemicals, either in storage or transport, are now considered dangerously accessible materials that could be used to cause substantial harm. In response to this new threat, emergency organizations are beginning to plan for such possible chemical releases. Currently there is no tool that allows a...

Local governments attempting to respond to environmental change face an array of challenges. To better understand policy responses and factors influencing local government capacity to respond to environmental change, we studied three environmental issues affecting rural or peri-urban towns in different regions of New York State: climate change in the Adirondacks (n = 63 towns), loss of open spa...

The presentation gives an overview of present major changes in the environmental strategies and external premises for industrial environmental performance. Such changes are discussed in the lights of increasing waste and resource problems, the shift from environmental control to avoidance technologies, long-term perspectives and systems thinking, and the understanding of fundamental thermodynam...

Agricultural systems continuously evolve and are forced to change as a result of a range of global and local driving forces. Agricultural and environmental policies are increasingly designed to contribute to the sustainability of agricultural systems and to enhance contributions of agricultural systems to sustainable development at large. The effectiveness and efficiency of such polices in real...

Although the air we breathe is necessary for life, certain factors may make this same air detrimental to our health. For instance, a seemingly endless list of compounds can be toxic at certain concentrations, and inhaling such compounds may lead to damage in different parts of the body. To investigate the particular effects of inhaled toxicants, the NIEHS developed the Respiratory Toxicology Gr...