Innovations in Collaborative Modeling

Innovations in Collaborative Modeling
Author: Laura Schmitt-Olabisi
Publisher: MSU Press
Total Pages: 559
Release: 2020-05-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1628953918

Collaborative applications of a variety of modeling methodologies have multiplied in recent decades due to widespread recognition of the power of models to integrate information from multiple sources, test assumptions about policy and management choices, and forecast the future states of complex systems. However, information about these modeling efforts often is segregated by both discipline and modeling approach, preventing modelers from learning from one another. This volume addresses the need for cross-disciplinary and cross-methodological communication about collaborative modeling. To enhance a shared understanding of systems problems, scientists and stakeholders need strategies for integrating information from their respective fields, dealing with issues of scale and focus, and rigorously investigating assumptions. The chapters in this volume first explore modeling methodologies for enhanced collaboration, then offer case studies of collaborative modeling across different complex systems problems. The volume will be useful for experienced and beginning modelers as well as scientists and stakeholders who work with modelers.

Planning Support Systems Best Practice and New Methods

Planning Support Systems Best Practice and New Methods
Author: Stan Geertman
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 465
Release: 2009-05-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 140208952X

Planning Support Systems: Retrospect and Prospect It has been nearly twenty years since the term ‘planning support systems’ (PSS) first appeared in an article by Britton Harris (Harris 1989) and more than ten years since the concept was more broadly introduced in the academic literature (Harris and Batty 1993; Batty 1995; Klosterman 1997). As a result, the publication of a new book on PSS provides an excellent opportunity to assess past progress in the field and speculate on future developments. PSS have clearly become very popular in the academic world. This is the fourth edited book devoted to the topic following Brail and Klosterman (2001), Geertman and Stillwell (2003), and a third by Brail (2008). Papers devoted to PSS have been published in the leading planning journals and the topic has become a regular theme at academic conferences around the world; it has even spawned intellectual o- spring such as spatial planning and decision support systems (SPDSS) and public participation planning support systems (PP-PSS). However, as Geertman and Stillwell point out in their introductory chapter, the experience with PSS in the world of professional practice has been disappointing. A substantial number of PSS have been developed but most of them are academic p- totypes or ‘one off’ professional applications that have not been adopted elsewhere.

Water for the Future

Water for the Future
Author: U.S. National Academy of Sciences
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 243
Release: 1999-03-09
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 030906421X

This book is the result of a joint research effort led by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and involving the Royal Scientific Society of Jordan, the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, and the Palestine Health Council. It discusses opportunities for enhancement of water supplies and avoidance of overexploitation of water resources in the Middle East. Based on the concept that ecosystem goods and services are essential to maintaining water quality and quantity, the book emphasizes conservation, improved use of current technologies, and water management approaches that are compatible with environmental quality.

Science, Policy and Stakeholders in Water Management

Science, Policy and Stakeholders in Water Management
Author: Geoffrey D. Gooch
Publisher: Earthscan
Total Pages: 185
Release: 2010
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 184977515X

One of the major problems facing practitioners and scientists working with water management is how to integrate knowledge and experiences from scientific, policy and stakeholder perspectives. In this book this science-policy-stakeholder interface (SPSI) is examined both analytically and through the description of practical experiences from river basins in Europe, India and South-East Asia. These include the Tungabhadra (India), Sesan (Vietnam/Cambodia), Tagus (Spain/Portugal) and Glomma (Norway), which particularly highlight issues associated with pollution, severely altered river flows and transboundary conflicts. Following two chapters which lay the framework for the book the authors describe how SPSI was managed in the case study basins and how stakeholder participation and scenarios were used to integrate different perspectives, and to facilitate the communication of different forms of knowledge. Four important aspects of water management and SPSI are then discussed; these are water pollution, land and water interaction, environmental flow and transboundary water regimes. Short descriptions of the case study rivers are provided together with analyses of how SPSI was managed in water management in these basins and policy recommendations for the basins. The book concludes by providing a series of recommendations for improving the science-policy-stakeholder interface in water management. It represents a major step forward in our understanding of how to implement integrated water resources management.

Safe Water From Every Tap

Safe Water From Every Tap
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 228
Release: 1996-12-30
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 0309175437

Small communities violate federal requirements for safe drinking water as much as three times more often than cities. Yet these communities often cannot afford to improve their water service. Safe Water From Every Tap reviews the risks of violating drinking water standards and discusses options for improving water service in small communities. Included are detailed reviews of a wide range of technologies appropriate for treating drinking water in small communities. The book also presents a variety of institutional options for improving the management efficiency and financial stability of water systems.

Policy Integration for Complex Environmental Problems

Policy Integration for Complex Environmental Problems
Author: Helen Briassoulis
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 246
Release: 2017-07-05
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 1351910515

The quest for policy integration crystallized in the 1990s as awareness was growing that the current supply of narrow, sectoral, and little coordinated, or even overlapping and conflicting, policies could not cope efficiently and effectively with contemporary complex, cross-cutting and interdependent socio-environmental problems. Combining and coordinating policies properly promises to address this institutional misfit, "add value" to policies, support planning at national and sub-national levels, and facilitate the transition to sustainable development more generally. This book proposes a comprehensive conceptualization of policy integration and negotiates pertinent theoretical, methodological and applied issues from the perspective of selected EU policies - rural development, regional development, transport, social, economic, environmental, water resources, and biodiversity policy. Mediterranean desertification, an exceptionally complex socio-environmental problem, is used as an illustrative example as the idea for this book transpired while researching the topic of policy making to combat desertification in the context of MEDACTION, an EU-funded research project.

Sustainability in Transition

Sustainability in Transition
Author: Travis Gliedt
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 498
Release: 2018-06-25
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1134990030

Sustainability in Transition: Principles for Developing Solutions offers the first in-depth education-focused treatment of how to address sustainability in a comprehensive manner. The textbook is structured as a learning-centered approach to walk students through the process of linking sustainable behavior and decision-making to green innovation systems and triple-bottom-line economic development practices, in order to achieve sustainable change in incremental to transformational ways. All chapters combine theory and practice with the help of global case study and research study examples to illustrate barriers and best practices. Each chapter begins with learning objectives and ends with a check-on-learning section that ties the main points back to the core themes of the book. Chapters include a section focused on measuring progress and a box comparing international research or case studies to the North American focus of the chapter. A list of additional academic sources for students that complement each chapter are included. Building sustainability tools, techniques and competencies cumulatively with the help of problem- and project-based learning modules, Sustainability in Transition: Principles for Developing Solutions is a comprehensive resource for learning sustainability theory and doing sustainability practice. It will be essential reading for advanced undergraduate and graduate level students who have already completed introductory sustainability classes.

Sustainable Water Management

Sustainable Water Management
Author: Daniel H. Chen
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 316
Release: 2016-10-14
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1315356317

While the world’s population continues to grow, the availability of water remains constant. Facing the looming water crisis, society needs to tackle strategic management issues as an integrated part of the solution toward water sustainability. The first volume in the two-volume set Sustainable Water Management and Technologies offers readers a practical and comprehensive look at such key water management topics as water resource planning and governance, water infrastructure planning and adaption, proper regulations, and water scarcity and inequality. It discusses best management practices for water resource allocation, ground water protection, and water quality assurance, especially for rural, arid, and underdeveloped regions of the world. Timely topics such as drought, ecosystem sustainability, climate change, and water management for shale oil and gas development are presented. Discusses best practices for water resource allocation, ground water protection, and water quality assurance. Offers chapters on urban, rural, arid, and underdeveloped regions of the world. Describes timely topics such as drought, ecosystem sustainability, climate change, and water management for shale oil and gas development. Covers water resource planning and governance, water infrastructure planning and adaptation, proper regulations, and water scarcity and inequality Discusses water resource monitoring, efficiency, and quality management.