Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Valuing Ecological Systems And Services, Robert Costanza, Ida Kubiszewski, David E. Ervin, Randall Bluffstone, Darrell Brown, Heejun Chang, Veronica Dujon, Elise F. Granek, Stephen Polasky, Vivek Shandas, J. Alan Yeakley, James Boyd

Institute for Sustainable Solutions Publications and Presentations

Making trade-offs between ecological services and other contributors to human well-being is a difficult but critical process that requires valuation. This allows both better recognition of the ecological, social, and economic trade-offs and also allows us to bill those who use up or destroy ecological services and reward those that produce or enhance them. It also aids improved ecosystems policy. In this paper we clarify some of the controversies in defining the contributions to human well-being from functioning ecosystems, many of which people are not even aware of.We go on to describe the applicability of the various valuation methods that …

Systems Views Of The Economics Of Sustainable Development, Joshua Hughes

Systems Science Friday Noon Seminar Series

The mainstream economics of the 20th century (and now 21st century) has often failed to predict what will happen--or explain what has happened--in the real world, even with (or because of?) an ever-increasing reliance on quantitative and computational methods. Since the mid-20th century a number of people part of, or closely associated with, the systems community--economists among them--have provided insights about what is wrong with "traditional" economics. Systems science offers a number of alternative methods for understanding economic systems that take heed of these criticisms, especially in the context of sustainable development. Yet, while promising, few of these alternatives …

Building A Decision Aid Right-Side-Out, Barry F. Anderson

Systems Science Friday Noon Seminar Series

Tools have long been available for improving decision making, yet people who have knowledge of these tools seem reluctant to use them. I consider multiple reasons why this might be so and consider multiple solutions, then present what I believe to be the world's most user-friendly decision aid, which is now nearly ready for beta testing and available at no cost at http://wisedecider.net.

Wise Decider is believed to be unique in having the following features:

1. A creative thinking guide and a critical thinking guide that provide context-sensitive advice for problem structuring, evaluation, and implementation.
2. A decision table with cells …

Interview With Jim Middaugh, Metro, 2011 (Audio), Jim Middaugh

All Sustainability History Project Oral Histories

Interview of Jim Middaugh by Teddy Messan on February 25th, 2011.

The interview index is available for download.

Information Disclosure And Environmental Performance, Mark Stephan

Systems Science Friday Noon Seminar Series

Scholars and policymakers increasingly argue that information disclosure programs such as the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) should be used to supplement conventional environmental regulation. Yet we lack a clear understanding of how such programs work as well as the empirical data to confirm their success in achieving environmental quality objectives. To better understand the impacts of environmental information disclosure on corporate decision making, this paper develops an analytic framework drawn from theories of risk perception and communication, individual and corporate decision making, and social capital. I examine the importance of the TRI for facility level behavior through an analysis of …

Approximating Confidence Intervals About Discrete Time Survival/Cumulative Incidence Estimates Using The Delta Method, Alexis Dinno, Jong-Sung Kim

Community Health Faculty Publications and Presentations

Poster focuses on answering the questions whether and when and event will happen in a population at risk.

Can Salmonids (Oncorhynchus Spp.) Be Identified To Species Using Vertebral Morphometrics?, Harriet R. Huber, Jeffery C. Jorgensen, Virginia L. Butler, Greg Baker, Rebecca Stevens

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Remains of anadromous Pacific salmon and trout (genus Oncorhynchus) are common in archaeological sites from California to Alaska; however, morphological similarity generally precludes species identification, limiting the range of questions that salmonid remains can address in relation to past human use and ongoing efforts in conservation biology. We developed a relatively simple, rapid, and non-destructive way to classify salmon and trout vertebrae from archaeological contexts to species using length, height and the ratio of length to height. Modern reference material was obtained from all seven anadromous Oncorhynchus species native to the west coast of North America. A minimum of ten …