Comprehensive environmental assessment: a meta-assessment approach.

Area of Science:

• Environmental Science
• Risk Assessment
• Policy Analysis

Background:

• Growing demand for improved risk assessment methodologies.
• Need for transparent and stakeholder-inclusive environmental decision-making.
• Challenges in balancing environmental trade-offs for sustainability.

Purpose of the Study:

• Introduce and describe the Comprehensive Environmental Assessment (CEA) approach.
• Demonstrate CEA's utility in managing complex environmental information.
• Highlight CEA's role in integrating diverse stakeholder perspectives for decision support.

Main Methods:

• Describing the CEA framework as a holistic management tool.
• Incorporating existing environmental assessment tools and approaches within CEA.
• Illustrating CEA's application in environmental decision-making processes.

Main Results:

• CEA provides a structured method for complex environmental data management.
• CEA facilitates the integration of diverse stakeholder input.
• CEA supports informed environmental decision-making for near- and long-term sustainability.

Conclusions:

• The Comprehensive Environmental Assessment (CEA) approach offers a robust framework for environmental decision-making.
• CEA enhances transparency and stakeholder engagement in addressing environmental issues.
• CEA can be extended to evaluate complex sustainability challenges, such as biofuel production.