Linking supply and demand concerning environmental information

Abstract

One of the main purposes of this book is to make a link between the supply and demand of analytical tools concerning environmental information. The reason is that it is not clear for which problems a specific tool is most appropriate, or whether more than one tool should be applied, especially in determining the net overall effects of any given decision. Furthermore, it is a reaction to the fact that we often find a gap and a lack of communication between the developers of such tools — typically stemming from academic research — and the users of tools from industry and government. Such lack of co-ordination can lead to situations where tool developers dedicate a huge amount of resources to create highly sophisticated tools that find little practical application, and at the same time industry is lacking instruments to meet the steadily increasing demand for environmental evaluation.