The planning and management staffs of state and national parks and protected areas face a complex set of management problems and an uncertain future. Today, internal and external forces are combining with changes in management philosophy (from a species to an ecosystem focus) to create a new direction in natural resources management.
National Parks and Protected Areas: Approaches for Balancing Social, Economic and Ecological Values is peerless in its unified treatment of the issues surrounding this subject. From decision making for planning and management to the principles of ecology and economics, this text examines the analytical methods, information technologies, and problems associated with protected area planning and management. Protected area managers and students in natural resource management undergraduate and graduate courses will appreciate this highly readable book.
Features Include:
- A multidisciplinary, systems perspective
- Focus on science-and knowledge-based natural resource management
- Concentration on North American national parks and protected areas with information and examples from other parts of the world
- Clarification of methods for dealing with social, economic, and ecological uncertainty
- Explanations of biophysical and economic simulation models and information management technologies: GIS, remote sensing, decision support systems, computer animation, etc.
- Discussion of the role local communities and joint making for designing and implementing management strategies’
- Case studies that show-dimensional decision making for specific management problems and issues
