Search results for ""Author Peter Nijkamp""

Current trends in transport, particularly the rise in CO_2 emissions, indicate that major changes in technology, public policy and individual behaviour are necessary to make the transport system more compatible with environmental sustainability. What then are the possible futures for sustainable systems of transport? In this book future scenarios are constructed on the basis of the recently developed 'spider model'. This model constructs an evaluation framework - based along spatial, institutional, economic and socio-psychological axes - which visualises the core factors that influence transport systems. These factors can operate either separately or in combination - this interaction creates scenarios which range from market-oriented to regulatory systems, and from individual to collective modes of transport. Drawing on the work of a range of transport analysts, the book suggests that the current trend away from sustainability and collective systems is likely to continue, but when sound policies are introduced, a sustainable transport system becomes a feasible option.

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The loss of biodiversity has put increasing pressure on the stability and continuity of ecosystems, and their ability to provide goods and services to mankind. This valuable new book addresses this issue and presents an integrated ecological-economic perspective on the analysis of biodiversity loss and conservation. It adopts a multidisciplinary approach and attempts both to provide a definition of biodiversity benefits as well as investigate alternative perspectives on biodiversity. The book also presents a classification of biodiversity values and effectively illustrates which economic valuation methods can best measure which type of biodiversity value. The distinguished authors move on to discuss the utility of the application of the economics-ecology interface and integrated modelling for the assessment of biodiversity values. In doing so, they consider the use of multi-criteria evaluation and meta-analytical methods to deal with the aggregation of information from multiple disciplines and past valuation studies, respectively. The book concludes by addressing the role of biodiversity indicators and monetary information for policy design and biodiversity management, devoting special attention to the certification and the ecolabeling of biodiversity benefits.The integration of economic and ecological theories and methods, and the strong methodological orientation will be of immense benefit to students, academics and researchers of environmental economics, environmental science and ecology. Policymakers involved with nature policy and management will also find this volume to be of great practical value.

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