This chapter describes tools and a methodology to model wind and flood risks from tropical storms under present and future climate accounting for natural infrastructure. Wind forcing provide a crucial link to hydrodynamic models that can be used in risk assessments to estimate extent of and...

We present two case studies in which coastal vulnerability modeling was used to quantify the role those coastal ecosystems play in reducing risk to coastal communities now and with future sealevel rise. These analyses were used to inform post-disaster reconstruction and coastal resilience...

We combine household-level data on the choice to purchase flood insurance with experiment-based risk preference data and subjective risk perception data. The sample covers a wide geographic area (the entire U.S. Gulf Coast and Florida's Atlantic Coast) and includes individuals exposed to varying...

This paper addresses optimal taxation, when the relationship between consumption and environmental damage is uncertain and treated as a random variable by policy makers. The main purpose is to analyze how additional uncertainty about this relationship affects the optimal unit tax on the...

We study the effect of environmental risk on the extraction of a common resource. Using a dynamic and non-cooperative game in which an environmental event impacts the renewability and the quality of the resource, we show that the anticipation of such an event has an ambiguous effect on...

Natural capital should be preserved because it exhibits features that distinguish it from all other kinds of capital. Natural capital provides fundamental life-support functions, is a necessary input into production and is often unique in that its destruction is irreversible. The notorious...

A conceptual approach is commonly needed to provide guidance for empirical analyses concerning the use of renewable resources such as rangelands. The theoretical model constructed in this paper captures the essential aspects of dynamic and stochastic issues associated with the management of...

A question has arisen concerning the relationship between the financial theory of options and the concept of option value developed in the literature on environmental preservation. This article presents simple models in each approach and then demonstrates their equivalence. The conventional,...

The precautionary principle has been invoked to justify a policy of aggressive greenhouse gas (GHG) emission controls that would go beyond "no regrets" actions to reduce global warming. However, this justification is based upon selectively applying the principle to the potential public health...

The precautionary principle has often been invoked to justify a ban on genetically modified (GM) crops. However, this justification is based upon a selective application of the principle to the potential public health and environmental benefits of such a ban, while ignoring a ban's potential...