Environmental Modeling for Sustainable Regional Development: System Approaches and Advanced Methods

Environmental Modeling for Sustainable Regional Development: System Approaches and Advanced Methods PDF

Author: Olej, Vladim¡r

Publisher: IGI Global

Published: 2010-11-30

Total Pages: 492

ISBN-13: 1609601580

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Understanding the advancement of sustainable development is critical to managing human activities to avoid the overexploitation of resources and pollution of the environment beyond tolerable levels. Sustainable development involves not only preservation and care of the environment, but also recognition of the complex relations between economic, social and living systems. Environmental Modeling for Sustainable Regional Development: System Approaches and Advanced Methods presents processing methods and their applications, which are practical for decision making and task management at the regional level as well as for scientific studies in sustainable development assessment. This book serves as a reference guide for post-graduate students in the field of management as well as a critical guide for managers, government officials, and information professionals.

Models in Environmental Regulatory Decision Making

Models in Environmental Regulatory Decision Making PDF

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2007-08-25

Total Pages: 286

ISBN-13: 0309110009

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Many regulations issued by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are based on the results of computer models. Models help EPA explain environmental phenomena in settings where direct observations are limited or unavailable, and anticipate the effects of agency policies on the environment, human health and the economy. Given the critical role played by models, the EPA asked the National Research Council to assess scientific issues related to the agency's selection and use of models in its decisions. The book recommends a series of guidelines and principles for improving agency models and decision-making processes. The centerpiece of the book's recommended vision is a life-cycle approach to model evaluation which includes peer review, corroboration of results, and other activities. This will enhance the agency's ability to respond to requirements from a 2001 law on information quality and improve policy development and implementation.

Integrated Environmental Modelling: Design and Tools

Integrated Environmental Modelling: Design and Tools PDF

Author: F.M. Brouwer

Publisher: Springer

Published: 1987-06-30

Total Pages: 246

ISBN-13:

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Regional economic modelling; Environmental issues in regional economic modelling; Integrated environmental modelling; Outile of the study; Introduction to integrated environmental modelling: a survey and an evaluation; Integrated environmental models: a survey; Multi-objective ontrol of nutrient loadings into a lake; Simulation of regional development and fishery activities; Policy analysis of water management for the Netherlands; Policy analysis to protect an estuary from floods; Economic-environemntal-ecological impact analysis of flood plain models; An economic-ecological model for land-marine integrated development; An environmental ecosystem quality management model; A triple layer approach to a national-regional economic-environmental-employment model; Systems approach of economic-environmental-energy analysis; Simulation of the impacts of herbicides on the environment and agriculture; Economic-ecological analysis by simulation and optimization; Urbanization and environmental planning and design; An integrated regional environmental model for physical planning; Interactions between economic-social-ecological systems in a region of intense agriculture; Concluding remarks; Evaluation of integrated environmental modelling approaches; The objective of study and the objective of analysis; The modules and the mathematical tools; Dimensions of space and time in integrated environmental models; Methodology and tools to operationalize an integrated environmental model; A systems approach to an integrated environmental model; Systems theory; Two designs of integration; Statistical and econometric tools to operationalize and integrated environmental model; Systems with binary, qualitative and quantitative information; Statistical models with qualitative and quantitative data; Multivariate analysis for non-metric data; An integrated environmental modelling approach; Towards an integrated environmental model for the biesboch area; Design of an integrated systems model and the treatment of key phenomena; Causality analysis of an integrated environmental model; Outdoor recreation in the biesboch area; A spatial characterization of outdoor recreation; The multivariate nature of outdoor recreation; Path analysis and recreation activities; Reflection of the study; Outlook of the study.

Urban, Regional and National Planning (UNRENAP)

Urban, Regional and National Planning (UNRENAP) PDF

Author: T. Hasegawa

Publisher: Elsevier

Published: 2014-05-18

Total Pages: 247

ISBN-13: 1483145778

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Urban, Regional and National Planning (UNRENAP): Environmental Aspects contains the proceedings of a Workshop on Urban, Regional and National Planning held in Kyoto, Japan, on August 5-6, 1977 under the auspices of the International Federation of Automatic Control. The workshop provided an opportunity to address the environmental aspects of urban, regional, and national planning. The discussions are organized around the themes of modeling, evaluation, simulation, and optimization. Comprised of 34 chapters, this book begins by outlining an alternative approach to environmental modeling in which comprehensive models are replaced by a network of simpler models, focused on specific aspects of the reality and sponsored by corresponding decision-making organizations. The reader is then introduced to some socio-economic aspects of health care planning; structural modeling in a class of systems by fuzzy sets theory; and the role of legal measures in the orientation of urban growth. Subsequent chapters deal with the use of Environmental Assessment Scale as a technique for environmental evaluation; computer simulation of economy management systems; and optimal control models of regional economies. A model for pollution reduction and control is also described. This monograph will be of interest to urban planners and environmental policymakers.

Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics

Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics PDF

Author: P. Nijkamp

Publisher: Elsevier

Published: 1986

Total Pages: 728

ISBN-13: 9780444879691

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This second volume of the Handbook presents professional surveys of all the important topics in urban economics. The first section contains 6 surveys on locational analysis, the second, 5 surveys of specific urban markets, and the third part presents 5 surveys of government policy issues. The book brings together exhaustive research by distinguished scholars from many countries. It is the only complete survey volume of urban economics and should serve as a reference volume to scholars and graduate students for many years. For more information on the Handbooks in Economics series, please see our home page on http://www.elsevier.nl/locate/hes--

Multicriteria Optimization in Engineering and in the Sciences

Multicriteria Optimization in Engineering and in the Sciences PDF

Author: Wolfram Stadler

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2013-12-14

Total Pages: 413

ISBN-13: 148993734X

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We are rarely asked to. make decisions based on only one criterion; most often, decisions are based on several usually confticting, criteria. In nature, if the design of a system evolves to some final, optimal state, then it must include a balance for the interaction of the system with its surroundings certainly a design based on a variety of criteria. Furthermore, the diversity of nature's designs suggests an infinity of such optimal states. In another sense, decisions simultaneously optimize a finite number of criteria, while there is usually an infinity of optimal solutions. Multicriteria optimization provides the mathematical framework to accommodate these demands. Multicriteria optimization has its roots in mathematical economics, in particular, in consumer economics as considered by Edgeworth and Pareto. The critical question in an exchange economy concerns the "equilibrium point" at which each of N consumers has achieved the best possible deal for hirnself or herself. Ultimately, this is a collective decision in which any further gain by one consumer can occur only at the expense of at least one other consumer. Such an equilibrium concept was first introduced by Edgeworth in 1881 in his book on mathematical psychics. Today, such an optimum is variously called "Pareto optimum" (after the Italian-French welfare economist who continued and expanded Edgeworth's work), "effi. cient," "nondominated," and so on.

Economics of the Environment

Economics of the Environment PDF

Author: Horst Siebert

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2013-03-09

Total Pages: 306

ISBN-13: 3662031272

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"The labor of nature is paid, not because she does much, but because she does little. In proportion as she becomes niggardly in her gifts, she exacts a greater price for her work. Where she is munificently benefi cent, she always works gratis." David Ricardo * This book interprets nature and the environment as a scarce resource. Whereas in the past people lived in a paradise of environmental superabundance, at pre sent environmental goods and services are no longer in ample supply. The envi ronment fulfills many functions for the economy: it serves as a public-con sumption good, as a provider of natural resources, and as receptacle of waste. These different functions compete with each other. Releasing more pollutants into the environment reduces environmental quality, and a better environmen tal quality implies that the environment's use as a receptacle of waste has to be restrained. Consequently, environmental disruption and environmental use are by nature allocation problems. This is the basic message of this book.

Multicriteria Evaluation in Physical Planning

Multicriteria Evaluation in Physical Planning PDF

Author: P. Nijkamp

Publisher: Elsevier

Published: 2013-10-22

Total Pages: 232

ISBN-13: 1483290824

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The aim of this book on the use of multiple criteria analysis in physical planning is to synthesize most of the relevant work in this field. Its first objective is to provide a concise and systematic overview of the state of the art in the area of multiple criteria analysis, with a strong emphasis on practical use and planning. Secondly, this book attempts to show the wealth of potential applications of multiple criteria analysis by providing a presentation and discussion of various real-world uses of multiple criteria decision-making in the practice of physical planning.The book is mainly intended as a textbook for practitioners in the field and for students in the areas of (physical) planning, regional and urban economics, geography, transportation science and environmental management.