Torchbearer: Winter 1996

$5 million To Study Environmental Decisions

Environmental decisions affecting cities soon may be based on research at UTK.

The National Science Foundation has given UTK $5 million to establish the National Center for Environmental Decision-Making Research. Dr. Milton Russell, director, says the center will do research and outreach to help cities, states, and private firms make more efficient, effective decisions about environmental issues.

The center will be operated by the Joint Institute for Energy and Environment, a consortium that includes UT, TVA, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Russell said the center will develop study methods and decision-making processes that will be more efficient than current methods such as cost-benefit analyses, which can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and take years to produce.

"Local governments trying to site a county landfill, for example, don't have that much money or time," Russell says. "One thing we will be doing is developing simpler, faster, cheaper decision-making techniques."

He says he hopes the center will "provide direction about the kind of research that needs to be done" as well as defining problems and conducting training.