Environmental Conservation

Characterizing Climate-Change Uncertainties for Decision-Makers — Jun 13, 2012

Probability-based estimates can have serious limitations when applied to a problem such as climate change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change should also consider approaches to decision-making under conditions of uncertainty that do not depend on expert consensus on probabilities.

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Scenario Uncertainties in Estimating Direct Land-Use Change Emissions in Biomass-To-Energy Life Cycle Assessment — Jan 1, 2012

The use of biomass for energy production has increasingly been encouraged in the United States, in part motivated by the potential to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions relative to fossil fuels.

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• Energy and Environment Research Area

Incorporating Uncertainty Analysis Into Life Cycle Estimates of Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Biomass Production — Jul 1, 2011

This paper provides a framework for incorporating uncertainty analysis specifically into estimates of the life cycle GHG emissions from the production of biomass.

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• Energy and Environment Research Area

Does Marginal Price Matter? A Regression Discontinuity Approach to Estimating Water Demand — Mar 1, 2011

Using a regression discontinuity design, we find that consumers do respond to changes in marginal price. Doubling marginal price leads to a 12% decrease in water use (500 cubic feet per bill) among high-use households.

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• Energy and Environment Research Area

Managing Climate Risks in Developing Countries with Robust Decision Making — Jan 1, 2011

The authors present the concept of robust decision making (RDM), which draws on already-existing knowledge of practitioners to choose actions that are viable in both the short- and long-term.

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• Energy and Environment Research Area

Identifying and Evaluating Robust Adaptive Policy Responses to Climate Change for Water Management Agencies in the American West — Jul 1, 2010

This paper describes work helping the Inland Empire Utilities Agency (IEUA) explicitly develop adaptive policies to respond to climate change and integrating these policies into the organizations' long-range planning processes.

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• Energy and Environment Research Area

Planning for Climate Change in the Inland Empire: Southern California — Jan 1, 2008

Water managers in Southern California, who grapple with how to address climate change in their near-term and long-term plans, are beginning to seek methods for incorporating such changes in their planning processes.

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A New Analytic Method for Finding Policy-Relevant Scenarios — Jun 19, 2007

Description of a new analytic method, based on robust decisionmaking, that could be applied to water resource management in California and climate change policy questions.

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• Science and Technology Research Area

Success Matters: Recasting the Relationship Among Geophysical, Biological, and Behavioral Scientists to Support Decision Making on Major Environmental Challenges — Jan 1, 2006

Coping with global change, providing clean water for growing populations, and disposing of nuclear waste are difficult public policy challenges.

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• Energy and Environment Research Area

Assessment of Environmental Kuznets Curves and Socioeconomic Drivers in IPCC's SRES Scenarios — Mar 1, 2005

This study performs a standard econometric analysis on the simulation model outputs from six scenarios from the Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (SRES) to assess the extent to which the projected CO 2 and NO x emissions reflect Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) behavior.

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• Energy and Environment Research Area

Adaptive Strategies for Climate Change — Jan 1, 2002

In this chapter the authors argue for a different approach to climate-change policy and thus a different use for forecasts.

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• Science and Technology Research Area

Climate-change Strategy Needs to Be Robust — Jan 1, 2001

Recommendation for use of ensembles of multiple scenarios to capture what is known about the long-term climate future.

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• Energy and Environment Research Area

Carrots and Sticks for New Technology: Abating Greenhouse Gas Emissions in a Heterogeneous and Uncertain World — Jan 1, 2000

Many governments use technology incentives as an important component of their greenhouse gas abatement strategies.

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• Science and Technology Research Area

Determining Optimal Pollution Control Policies: An Application of Bilevel Programming — Jan 1, 1999

This paper presents two optimization models for hazardous waste capacity planning and treatment facility locations.

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• Energy and Environment Research Area

A Decision Support System for Regional Hazardous Waste Management Alternatives — Jan 1, 1998

The authors consider the problem of regional hazardous waste in the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California.

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• Science and Technology Research Area

Environmental Scarcity, Resource Collection, and the Demand for Children in Nepal — Jul 1, 1995

This paper uses recently collected cross-sectional data from Nepal to test whether variation in firewood and water scarcity affects the demand for children by altering the relative value of children in resource collection activities.

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• Energy and Environment Research Area

Our Disposable World: Talks on the Environment from a Conference Sponsored By the Junior League of Los Angeles and Rand Corporation — Jan 1, 1970

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Reply to Some Comments By Malville Concerning the Midnight Auroral Maximum — Jan 1, 1961

Movement of geomagneticall trapped radiation toward lower latitudes on the night side of the earth.

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