Because of the uncertainties and irreversibilities that are often inherent in environmental degradation, its prevention, and its economic consequences, environmental policy design can involve important problems of timing. I use a simple two-period model to illustrate these optimal timing problems and their implications for environmental policy. I then lay out and solve a continuous-time model o...

Two papers of Pindyck (2000, 2002) that modeled the control of stock pollutants as optimal stopping problems contained closed form solutions that are incorrect. This paper discusses a subtle error in the derivation and demonstrates how solutions to these and related problems can be obtained numerically. The numerical solutions are contrasted with the ones contained in Pindyck’s original papers....

Popular parameter estimation methods, including least squares, maximum likelihood, and maximum a posteriori (MAP), solve an optimization problem to obtain a central value (or best estimate) followed by an approximate evaluation of the spread (or covariance matrix). A different approach is the Monte Carlo (MC) method, and particularly Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods, which allow sampling...

In this paper we present new ideas and applications to environmental problems of an innovative tetrahedral mesh generator which was introduced in [1,2]. A local refinement/derefinement algorithm for nested triangulations [3] and a simultaneous untangling and smoothing procedure [4] are the main involved techniques. The mesh generator can be applied to 3-D complex domains whose boundaries are pr...

mitigate known exposures, extrapolate environmental remediation knowledge, and share lessons of effective risk communication from industrialized countries with less developed areas of the world. To facilitate this process, global health concerns resulting from environmental exposures need to be addressed universally. Additionally, the global scientific community must commit to working together ...

Generation expansion planning problems should take into account not only satisfaction of future demand but also environmental constraints, such as government imposed limits on pollution produced by coal based power plants. For a vertically integrated system of power plants, we model those features as a two-stage stochastic programming problem with recourse that can be solved by decomposition me...

The combination of a nonthermal, atmospheric plasma with a catalyst is investigated as a means of destroying pollutants in waste gas streams. Using the examples of dichloromethane (DCM) and toluene in air streams, it is shown that the destruction of the pollutant can be increased whilst lowering the operating temperature, giving increasing energy efficiency. Unwanted by-products can also be red...

Mathematical models can be useful in decision-making processes whenever the amount of data and relations are too complex to be analyzed based solely on experience and/or intuition. Models, when properly developed and maintained, and equipped with proper tools for their analysis can integrate relevant knowledge available from various disciplines and sources. Most environmental decision problems ...

A standard result in the literature on environmental economics is that efficient environmental policies regulating transboundary pollution will be adopted only if there is interjurisdictional coordination. Efficient policies can be adopted as a result of interregional treaties or mandated by a central authority. The present paper demonstrates that if there is perfect population mobility between...

In this paper we discuss three rather special characteristics shared by many environmental problems. Namely, that (i) the environmental variables in which we are most interested constitute a stochastic process; (ii) the long-term or limiting behavior and the short-term or transient behavior are often both important; and (iii) the underlying probability distributions are likely to be influenced ...