An integrated ecological-economic decision-making approach is developed to help local stakeholders decide on land use in rural areas where the conflict between natural resource protection and economic development is pressing. It consists of four methodological steps. In the first step the...

In der politischen Diskussion werden für den Erhalt der biologischen Vielfalt in der Regel ökonomische Argumente vorgebracht: Biodiversität sollte als ökonomisches Gut betrachtet werden. Dem Rückgang der Vielfalt sei entgegenzutreten, indem man die Auswirkungen menschlicher Aktivitäten auf...

In this paper a method is developed to derive prices for natural goods from information about material and energy flows within ecosystems. The derivation is based on an analogy between ecological and economic systems: both systems are characterized by flows of material and energy. To derive...

IANUS is a method for aiding public decision-making that supports efforts towards sustainable development and has a wide range of application. IANUS stands for Integrated Assessment of Decisions uNder Uncertainty for Sustainable Development. This paper introduces the main features of IANUS and...

The focus of this guidance document is decision making under uncertainty in river basin management. Our purpose is to give hints for the analysis of decision situations in the HarmoniRiB case studies. The background of HarmoniRiB and thus of the case studies is the implementation of the EU-Water...

Ecological Economics inherently faces a challenge akin to sailing between Scylla and Charybdis. In Greek mythology these are two monsters located on opposite sides of a narrow strait, and falling victim to one or other of them is unavoidable. In the recurring process of establishing and refining...

The EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) calls for cost-effective measures to achieve a good status in all European ground, surface and coastal waters. Besides eutrophication, the degradation of hydro-morphology is the main reason for failing the WFD's objectives in Germany. In this paper , we...