Risks and Decisions for Conservation and Environmental Management

Mark Burgman

Cambridge University Press, 2005

ISBN: 0521543010

488 pages

Buy this book from Amazon

The author's forward states that "this book intends to create a professional standard for "honest and complete" environmental  risk assessments." By honest, Burgman means that risk assessments are carried out in full recognition of the "assumptions about the kinds of uncertainties embedded in an assessment that carries these uncertainties through chains of calculations and judgments, and that represent and communicate with them reliably and transparently." Complete risk assessments are those that undertake all stages of the risk assessment cycle. In achieving these two objectives, the author has been commendably successful.

This is not a text book on environmental science; rather it instructs readers how to interpret scientific results from this discipline and evaluate inherent uncertainties. It comprises 12 chapters covering three broad areas: the meaning of probability and its history, uncertainty and the risk management process. Bergman then prsents a range of techniques employed in environmental risk assessment and considers decision making and risk communication.

This book is well written and easy to read. Many of the chapters are illustrated with examples, although most of these are not worked from the ground up but reflect results from studies that are interpreted using techniques described. Each chapter closes with a brief discussion where the author draws the reader's attention to important and cautionary issues apposite to the chapter. The book contains a very useful and extensive glossary of terms and a comprehensive set of references.

To make the most of the book, readers should have a background in statistics, probability theory, linear algebra and calculus equivalent to say first year university level. Although focused around environmental risk issues, this is an excellent text book showing how uncertainty should be incorporated into risk assessments and carried through to the conclusions of a study.

Reviewed by Roger Shaw MIRM, Head of Risk Management, City & Hackney Teaching Primary Care Trust