includes index

Integrated Regional Assessment (IRA) promotes a better understanding of how regions contribute to global environmental change. This book provides a detailed treatment of the methodological challenges of IRA and a set of international examples illustrating the practice of such assessments at the regional scale. The first nine chapters address questions of scale, uncertainty, quantitative versus qualitative approaches, and particular conceptual frameworks for IRA evaluation. The next five chapters illustrate a range of IRA activities combining qualitative and quantitative approaches in innovative ways. The final five chapters review IRA as a process from an implementation perspective. This volume is the culmination of the START/CIRA/IHDP initiative: a collection of international research programs, including the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP), the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP), and the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP). The book is an important resource for researchers and policymakers in environmental science and policy.