A Cross-National Comparison of Air Pollution Management: France, G.D.R., and the U.S

The close ties of the IIASA Ecology Project with research institutions in France, the GDR, and Wisconsin permitted the collection of parallel legal documents dealing with environmental protection in the three regions. The IIASA team also obtained empirical values of pollution concentrations in the cities of each study area. This material provided a basis for a cross-national comparison of such factors as government roles in supervising industry, the chain of authority in the implementation of pollution legislation, pollution standards, and sanctions against polluters. Also, a preliminary attempt was made to assess each country's progress in executing its legislation, through examination of current concentrations of pollutants in the ambient air

Socio-Economic Implications of New Information Technology

Socio-Economic Implications of New Information Technology provides not only an exploration of the relevant literature and some guidelines for further, more detailed research, but also some stimulating insights into a host of issues raised by the communications revolution

National Perspectives on Management of Energy/Environment Systems

The first part of this book is composed of a set of chapters on the management and planning of energy/environment systems in twelve different countries both East and West. The term "energy/environment systems" here describes the socioeconomic and technological aspects of energy and their relationship to the natural and man-made environments. The basic philosophy is that there is a very close relationship between the methods employed in the management of these systems and the institutional framework within which they must operate. By studying the way in which energy/environment problems are tackled in one country, it is hoped not only to identify the management and planning tools being used, but also to see whether they could be applied with equal success in countries with a different social, economic, and political structure. The approach is therefore both methodological and policy-oriented. Each chapter is written by an expert from the country concerned, and in addition to a description of the management and planning techniques used includes an analysis of national energy supply and demand, an assessment of the environmental effects of energy systems, and an explanation of how these analyses are incorporated in the decision-making process. The second part of the book takes a retrospective look at the IIASA case studies of four regions already described in Volume 5 of this series and elsewhere. The main features of the energy/environment scenarios developed for these four regions are summarized, important issues treated in the scenarios are discussed (energy conservation, energy supply strategies, air pollution, and the coal option), and representatives from the four regions assess, retrospectively, the value of the IIASA study

Assessment of Alternative Energy/Environment Futures for Austria, 1977-2015: An Executive Summary

This report was prepared to complement a presentation made October 25, 1977 at IIASA. The presentation, titled "An Executive Briefing Session", was designed to present the final results of a thirteen-month study of the Austrian Energy/Environment System to leaders in Austrian government, industry, and science. This written documentation of the results (of which a German translation is also available) presents in a brief form the final conclusions of this study. The study results provide a comprehensive spatial and sectoral description of Austrian energy consumption, and examine alternative energy and environmental policy strategies. This report, however, is only a summary and a more complete description will appear in Research Report form in 1978

Assessment of Alternative Energy/Environment Futures for Austria: 1977-2015

The Austrian Regional Energy/Environment Study is the fourth in a series of IIASA studies on regional energy and environmental systems. The regions studied previously were the German Democratic Republic, the Rhone-Alpes Region in France and the state of Wisconsin in the U.S.A. The Austrian case study, regional in scope, complements the work of the IIASA Energy Systems Program which focuses primarily on global aspects of energy. This report presents the major results of the l5-month, Austrian case study, which examines alternative energy futures and strategies for Austria and some of their environmental implications. A secondary objective is the development of appropriate concepts and methods for energy/environment management and policy design in Austria

Assessment of Alternative Energy/Environment Futures for Austria 1977-2015: Final Summary Report

This study had two primary objectives: (1) To examine alternative energy futures and strategies for Austria and to consider some of their environmental implications. (2) To investigate and apply appropriate concepts and . methodologies for energy/environment management and policy design in Austria. The establishment of these objectives was based upon the conviction that in Austria, as in most regions and nations of the world, there is an urgent need for the development and application of methods for studying regional energy systems and for testing the impact of alternative policies. In view of the major role which energy plays in the determination of environmental quality, this study was designed to aid in the integration of energy and environmental management from a systems perspective. "Regional," in the context of our previous studies, is not strictly defined as subnational or as a specific class of geographic units; rather, it refers to a region, appropriately bounded so that it is possible to speak of energy and environmental systems from a physical, socioeconomic, or administrative perspective, or from all three. At the beginning of this study, we intended to limit its scope to a selected few Austrian Lander (states); we quickly realized that Austria's size and vigorous interregional links precluded anything less than a national study

The Wisconsin-IIASA Set of Energy/Environment (WISE) Models for Regional Planning and Management: An Overview

This report presents an overview of the analytical framework and quantitative methods used in the IIASA case studies on Regional Energy/Environment Management and Planning. Its purpose is to summarize the structure of the models, to provide a complete listing of the sources of more detailed model and data descriptions, and to indicate how the models are integrated to provide a foundation for regional energy/environment policy maker analysis. The audience for the report includes managers, planners, technical advisors, and modelers. The set of models used in the research project encompasses socioeconomic links to the energy system; energy demand in the residential, industrial, commercial/service, agricultural and transportation sectors; the energy supply sector, environmental impacts associated with the energy system; and policy makers' preferences. The report gives a brief description of the purpose and general structure of each model, data requirements, examples of input and output, and model limitations. As a whole, the models integrate information about energy flows in a region to simulate the energy system and its relationship to other regional variables, e.g., demographic and economic trends and the environment