Structured Decision Making

Structured Decision Making

Author: Robin Gregory

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2012-03-19

Total Pages: 315

ISBN-13: 1444333410

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This book outlines the creative process of making environmental management decisions using the approach called Structured Decision Making. It is a short introductory guide to this popular form of decision making and is aimed at environmental managers and scientists. This is a distinctly pragmatic label given to ways for helping individuals and groups think through tough multidimensional choices characterized by uncertain science, diverse stakeholders, and difficult tradeoffs. This is the everyday reality of environmental management, yet many important decisions currently are made on an ad hoc basis that lacks a solid value-based foundation, ignores key information, and results in selection of an inferior alternative. Making progress – in a way that is rigorous, inclusive, defensible and transparent – requires combining analytical methods drawn from the decision sciences and applied ecology with deliberative insights from cognitive psychology, facilitation and negotiation. The authors review key methods and discuss case-study examples based in their experiences in communities, boardrooms, and stakeholder meetings. The goal of this book is to lay out a compelling guide that will change how you think about making environmental decisions. Visit www.wiley.com/go/gregory/ to access the figures and tables from the book.


Decision Support Systems for Ecosystem Management

Decision Support Systems for Ecosystem Management

Author: H. Todd Mowrer

Publisher: DIANE Publishing

Published: 1997

Total Pages: 159

ISBN-13: 0788171925

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Decision support system evaluations; ArcForest; ARGIS; CRBSUM; EMDS; FireBGC; FVS; GypsES; IMPLAN; INFORMS: KLEMS; LANDIS: LOKI: MAGIS: NED: RELMdss; SARA; SIMPPLLE; SNAP; SPECTRUM; TEAMS; Terra vision; UPEST; UTOOLS; Woodstock.


Decision Support for Forest Management

Decision Support for Forest Management

Author: Annika Kangas

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2015-10-27

Total Pages: 310

ISBN-13: 3319235222

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This updated and expanded second edition adds the most recent advances in participatory planning approaches and methods, giving special emphasis to decision support tools usable under uncertainty. The new edition places emphasis on the selection of criteria and creating alternatives in practical multi-criteria decision making problems.


Making Transparent Environmental Management Decisions

Making Transparent Environmental Management Decisions

Author: Keith M. Reynolds

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2014-03-10

Total Pages: 344

ISBN-13: 3642320007

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Since 1997, the Ecosystem Management Decision Support (EMDS) system has been used around the world to support environmental analysis and planning in many different application areas, and it has been applied over a wide range of geographic scales, from forest stands to entire countries. An extensive sampling of this diversity of applications is presented in section 2, in which EMDS application developers describe the varied uses of the system. These accounts, together with the requisite background in section 1, provide valuable practical insights into how the system can be applied in the general domain of environmental management.


Ecosystem Management

Ecosystem Management

Author: Gary Meffe

Publisher: Island Press

Published: 2012-08-31

Total Pages: 333

ISBN-13: 1597267899

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Today's natural resource managers must be able to navigate among the complicated interactions and conflicting interests of diverse stakeholders and decisionmakers. Technical and scientific knowledge, though necessary, are not sufficient. Science is merely one component in a multifaceted world of decision making. And while the demands of resource management have changed greatly, natural resource education and textbooks have not. Until now. Ecosystem Management represents a different kind of textbook for a different kind of course. It offers a new and exciting approach that engages students in active problem solving by using detailed landscape scenarios that reflect the complex issues and conflicting interests that face today's resource managers and scientists. Focusing on the application of the sciences of ecology and conservation biology to real-world concerns, it emphasizes the intricate ecological, socioeconomic, and institutional matrix in which natural resource management functions, and illustrates how to be more effective in that challenging arena. Each chapter is rich with exercises to help facilitate problem-based learning. The main text is supplemented by boxes and figures that provide examples, perspectives, definitions, summaries, and learning tools, along with a variety of essays written by practitioners with on-the-ground experience in applying the principles of ecosystem management. Accompanying the textbook is an instructor's manual that provides a detailed overview of the book and specific guidance on designing a course around it. Download the manual here. Ecosystem Management grew out of a training course developed and presented by the authors for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at its National Training Center in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. In 20 offerings to more than 600 natural resource professionals, the authors learned a great deal about what is needed to function successfully as a professional resource manager. The book offers important insights and a unique perspective dervied from that invaluable experience.


A Guidebook for Integrated Ecological Assessments

A Guidebook for Integrated Ecological Assessments

Author: Mark E. Jensen

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-09-07

Total Pages: 540

ISBN-13: 1441986200

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A rich set of protocols for the process of assessing the ecological make-up of the land so as to guide environmental decision-making.


Coastal Zones Ecosystem Services

Coastal Zones Ecosystem Services

Author: R. Kerry Turner

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2015-06-10

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13: 331917214X

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This book applies the ‘ecosystem services’ framework to coastal environments, showing how it could facilitate an adaptive management strategy. The contributors describe a decision support system (DSS) based on the 3 Ps – pluralism, pragmatism and precaution – that leads to a more flexible, ‘learn by doing’ approach to the stewardship of coastal environments. The book lays out a “Balance Sheets Approach” to formatting, interrogating and presenting data and findings. The opening chapter defines coastal zones, their characteristics and natural resources, and describes their complex and dynamic nature. The chapter shows that large-scale trends and pressures have led to a global loss of 50% of marshes, leading to significant declines in biodiversity and habitat. Part I presents a conceptual framework, describes natural science techniques for coastal and shelf modeling, and describes valuation of ecosystem services. Part II outlines practical ecosystem indicators for coastal and marine ecosystem services, reviews literature on valuation of coastal and marine ecosystem services, explores scenarios, outlines marine and coastal ecosystem services data and offers tools for incorporating data into decision-making. PART III offers case studies including one linking the ecosystem services of Marine Protected Areas to benefits in human wellbeing; and another on valuing blue carbon captured by oceans and coastal ecosystems. Also included are a study of managed realignments and the English coastline and their value estimate transferability; and studies of the impact of jellyfish blooms on recreation in the UK and on fisheries in Italy.