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Neglect of the relation between the socio-economic system and its natural environment has had detrimental consequences in the past, for example - the pollution of the natural environment (water, air and soil) by producing, using and consuming the products of our industrialized economy, - the forseeable exhaustion of natural resources by continuing the increase of industrial production. Most of the recent activities, both in research and in adminis tration, against these impacts have been technically oriented, with the aim of stimulating and introducing new technologies of produc tion and new products to diminish the environmental pollution. But these efforts, which are of course necessary, cannot be successful in approaching the aim - which should and must in the long-term view be defined as the development of society in balance with the natural environment. Therefore, in addition to an assess ment of technologies, emphasis should be put on an assessment of socio-economic systems. On di~~erent levels, individual and social preferences determine quantities and qualities of production and consumption using economical values, e.g., market prices as regula tors. Following this argumentation, an environment assessment of activities against pollution has especially to consider the social response to environmental impacts. Of course, this topic must be a subject of interdisciplinary research. The challenge concerned in this context is to increase the knowledge of the relationship between social, economic and tech nical subsets.
List of contents
Session I Methodology: Planning.- Systematic Distortion in Planning and Assessment.- Planning Sociotechnical Systems.- Demo-Economic Policy Simulations for Belgium.- Socio-Economic Systems, Urban Growth and Settlement Patterns (The Case of Turkey).- Session II Methodology: Prediction.- Some Future Uses of Analytic Forecasting.- The Development of Policy-Sensitive Models.- Intuitive Prediction of Growth.- Models for Prediction under Conditions of Interaction.- Session III Methodology: Assessment.- Universal Checklists in the Concept of "Impact Trees".- Problems with People, Decision, Conflict, Language and Measurement.- Long-Term Policy Assessment of Energy/Environment Systems: A Conceptual and Methodological Framework.- Economic and Environmental Assessment of a Water Quality Management System (River Neckar).- Behavior Settings: The Building Blocks of Social Systems.- Session IV Case Studies: Assessment of Technological Systems.- Government Regulation and Rail Safety.- Towards a Social Psychology of the Traffic Environment.- Control Methodology of the U.K. Road Traffic System.- Traffic Policing, Effectiveness Measurement and Resource Allocation.- A Suggested Framework for Evaluating the Assessment of a Technological System.- Assessment of Alternative Energy/Environment Futures: A Comparative Case Study of Wisconsin (USA), the German Democratic Republic, and Rhone-Alpes (France).- Session V Case Studies: Assessment of Social Systems.- The Distribution of Environmental Quality: Some Canadian Evidence.- Social Stability Analysis - Can Carrying Capacity Provide an Answer to Public Policy in Canada?.- Environmental Quality Change in Several Socio-Economic Contexts in France: 1970 - 1995.- Environmental Control: A Methodology for Planning Change in Public Housing.-Environment and Public Policy in the United States: A Diffusion Analysis.- Responses to Changing Urban Systems: An Analysis of Public Education.- Session VI Case Studies: Assessment of Social Impact.- Environment and Energy on the Texas Gulf Coast: An Economic Evaluation Model of Alternative Policies.- Environmental Pollution and Its Social Impact.- Social Perception of Industrial Odors.- Impact Assessment and Participation: Case Studies on Nuclear Power Siting in West Germany.- Environmental Planning and Social Response at the Strategy Level.- Register of Names.
Summary
Neglect of the relation between the socio-economic system and its natural environment has had detrimental consequences in the past, for example - the pollution of the natural environment (water, air and soil) by producing, using and consuming the products of our industrialized economy, - the forseeable exhaustion of natural resources by continuing the increase of industrial production. Most of the recent activities, both in research and in adminis tration, against these impacts have been technically oriented, with the aim of stimulating and introducing new technologies of produc tion and new products to diminish the environmental pollution. But these efforts, which are of course necessary, cannot be successful in approaching the aim - which should and must in the long-term view be defined as the development of society in balance with the natural environment. Therefore, in addition to an assess ment of technologies, emphasis should be put on an assessment of socio-economic systems. On di~~erent levels, individual and social preferences determine quantities and qualities of production and consumption using economical values, e.g., market prices as regula tors. Following this argumentation, an environment assessment of activities against pollution has especially to consider the social response to environmental impacts. Of course, this topic must be a subject of interdisciplinary research. The challenge concerned in this context is to increase the knowledge of the relationship between social, economic and tech nical subsets.
