Toward Improved Environmental Decisions

A common feature of many of the current environmental issues is that the immediate impacts or risks, although considered to be small by many scientists, are uncertain and potentially widespread and significant in the long term. Thus, they are of concern to potentially affected groups. The need to formulate decisions and commit major resources in the face of these uncertainties has led to the introduction of new environmental decisionmaking frameworks. These have as central features consideration of the broader environmental context and a greater involvement of the affected parties in the process. Various research activities and case studies are described which are targeted at aiding further development of the decisionmaking frameworks into a more widely useable and effective approach.