The varied contexts of environmental decision problems and their implications for decision support

Society today is faced with many environmental issues, and many decision analytic techniques and methodologies are offered to support their resolution. The literature to date, however, has not explored the appropriateness of the different methods in relation to the different contexts to which they might be applied. As a beginning, we take three categories of environmental decisions as exemplars with regard to contextual issues, such as problem dimensions, social circumstances and cognitive factors. Then, we turn to analytic methodologies and reflect on their suitability for application to the three exemplars. Finally, we will draw more general conclusions to help others in developing appropriate decision analysis and support processes for environmental problems.