Applied decision research and environmental policy

Discusses the construction of scenarios as a tool to improve the quality of decision making, research in environmental risk assessment and the public's perception of risks, and cost-benefit analyses of environmental policy. The actual and possible role of (behavioral) decision theory and the relationship between applied decision research and policy decisions are examined. Political factors are as important as the quality of the scientific basis in determining the influence of research on policy making. Insufficient emphasis on applied value has reduced the impact of research findings in the past. The extreme dependence on funding agencies often leads to a lack of continuity, hinders the development of research, and sometimes precludes basic research on the validity and reliability of assessment techniques.