Integrated Regional Assessment of Global Climate Change

Integrated Regional Assessment (IRA) promotes a better understanding of how regions contribute to global environmental change. This book provides a detailed treatment of the methodological challenges of IRA and a set of international examples illustrating the practice of such assessments at the regional scale. The first nine chapters address questions of scale, uncertainty, quantitative versus qualitative approaches, and particular conceptual frameworks for IRA evaluation. The next five chapters illustrate a range of IRA activities combining qualitative and quantitative approaches in innovative ways. The final five chapters review IRA as a process from an implementation perspective. This volume is the culmination of the START/CIRA/IHDP initiative: a collection of international research programs, including the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP), the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP), and the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP). The book is an important resource for researchers and policymakers in environmental science and policy.

C. Gregory Knight is a Professor of Geography and Professor of International Environmental Affairs at the Pennsylvania State University. He joined the faculty of Pennsylvania State in 1971, where he has served as a geography professor and department head, as well as Vice Provost and professor of international environmental affairs in the School of International Affairs. His work on resource management includes development in Africa, energy management in the United States, and global climate change impacts on water resources. He was founding director of the National Science Foundation-funded Center for Integrated Regional Assessment, and is an honorary member and consultant to the Scientific Coordinating Center for Global Change in the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

Jill Jäger has worked as a consultant on energy, environment, and climate for numerous national and international organizations and has an extensive publication record. She was Deputy Director of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (1994–8) and Executive Director of the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (1999–2002). She was a member of the Core Group of the EU-funded MATISSE (Methods and Tools for Integrated Sustainability Assessment) project (2005–8).