Engineering Statistics Philosophy Bio. Conservation Biology Medicine Project Management Economics Security
Biological Conservation

Scientists use models and data to formulate strategies for biological conservation. These models and data are often imperfect due to the vast complexity of the biological systems. Info-gap theory has been used extensively to evaluate and formulate conservation strategies.

  • Yakov Ben-Haim, 2006, Info-gap Decision Theory: Decisions Under Severe Uncertainty, 2nd edition, Academic Press, London.
    Chapter 3: Robustness and Opportuneness.
    ... Section 3.2.10: Assay design: Environmental monitoring.

  • Yakov Ben-Haim, 2010, Info-Gap Economics: An Operational Introduction, Palgrave-MacMillan.
    Chapter 5: Topics in Public Policy
       5.1  Emissions Compliance
       5.2  Enforcing Pollution Limits
       5.3  Climate Change

  • Atte Moilanen, Astrid van Teeffelen, Yakov Ben-Haim and Simon Ferrier, 2009, How much compensation is enough? A framework for incorporating uncertainty and time discounting when calculating offset ratios for impacted habitat, Restoration Ecology, vol.17, issue 4, pp.470-478.

  • Yemshanov, Denys, Frank H. Koch, Yakov Ben-Haim and William D. Smith, Detection capacity, information gaps and the design of surveillance programs for invasive forest pests, Journal of Environmental Management, to appear. Preprint.

  • Yemshanov, Denys, Frank H. Koch, Yakov Ben-Haim and William D. Smith, 2010, Robustness of risk maps and survey networks to knowledge gaps about a new invasive pest, Risk Analysis: An International Journal, vol.30, #2, pp.261-276. Preprint.

  • M.A. Burgman, B.A. Wintle, C.A. Thompson, A. Moilanen, M.C. Runge, and Yakov Ben-Haim, 2010, Reconciling uncertain costs and benefits in Bayes nets for invasive species management, Risk Analysis: An International Journal, vol.30, #2, pp.277-284. Preprint.

  • L.R.Carrasco, R.Baker, A.MacLeod, J.D.Knight and J.D.Mumford, 2010, Optimal and robust control of invasive alien species spreading in homogeneous landscapes, J. Royal Soc. Interface, March 6, 2010 7:529-540.

  • L. Joe Moffitt, John K. Stranlund and Craig D. Osteen, 2008, Robust detection protocols for uncertain introductions of invasive species, Journal of Environmental Management, vol.89, pp.293–299. Abstract.

  • L. Joe Moffitt, John K. Stranlund, Barry C. Field, and Craig D. Osteen, 2007, Robust Inspection for Invasive Species with a Limited Budget, in Lansink, Alfons Oude, (ed.), Economics of Plant Health, Springer.

  • Rout, T.M., C.J.Thompson, and M.A.McCarthy, 2009, Robust decisions for declaring eradication of invasive species, Journal of Applied Ecology, vol. 46, pp.782–786.

  • McCarthy, M.A., Lindenmayer, D.B., 2007, Info-gap decision theory for assessing the management of catchments for timber production and urban water supply, Environmental Management, 39 (4) pp. 553-562.

  • John K. Stranlund and Yakov Ben-Haim, 2008, Price-based vs. quantity-based environmental regulation under Knightian uncertainty: An info-gap robust satisficing perspective, Journal of Environmental Management, 87: 443-449. pdf preprint.

  • Helen M. Regan, Yakov Ben-Haim, Bill Langford, Will G. Wilson, Per Lundberg, Sandy J. Andelman, Mark A. Burgman, 2005, Robust decision making under severe uncertainty for conservation management, Ecological Applications, vol.15(4): 1471-1477.

Questions or comments on info-gap theory? Contact me at yakov@technion.ac.il

More references

  • Thomas Knoke, 2008, Mixed forests and finance - Methodological approaches, Ecological Economics, Volume 65, Issue 3, pp.590-601.

  • Patrick Hildebrandt and Thomas Knoke, 2009, Optimizing the shares of native tree species in forest plantations with biased financial parameters, Ecological Economics, vol.68, issue 11, pp. 2825 - 2833.

  • Lior Davidovitch, Richard Stoklosa, Jonathan Majer, Alex Nietrzeba, Peter Whittle, Kerrie Mengersen and Yakov Ben-Haim, 2009, Info-Gap theory and robust design of surveillance for invasive species: The case study of Barrow Island, Journal of Environmental Management, Volume 90, Issue 8, pp.2785-2793. Abstract.  

  • Walshe, Terry  and Tilo Massenbauer, 2008, Decision-making under climatic uncertainty: A case study involving an Australian Ramsar-listed wetland, Ecological Management and Restoration , Volume 9, Issue 3, December 2008, Pages 202-208. Abstract.

  • Eve McDonald-Madden, Peter W. J. Baxter and Hugh P. Possingham, 2008, Making robust decisions for conservation with restricted money and knowledge, Journal of Applied Ecology, 45, pp.1630-1638. Abstract.

  • Crone, Elizabeth E., Debbie Pickering and Cheryl B. Schultz, 2007, Can captive rearing promote recovery of endangered butterflies? An assessment in the face of uncertainty, Biological Conservation, vol.139, #1-2,pp.103-112.
  • Atte Moilanen, Michael C. Runge, Jane Elith, Andrew Tyre, Yohay Carmel, Eric Fegraus, Brendan Wintle, Mark Burgman and Yakov Ben-Haim, Planning for robust reserve networks using uncertainty analysis, Ecological Modelling, vol. 199, issue 1, pp.115-124.

  • David R. Fox, Yakov Ben-Haim, Keith R. Hayes, Michael McCarthy, Brendan Wintle, Piers Dunstan, 2007, An info-gap approach to power and sample size calculations, Environmetrics, vol. 18, pp.189-203.

  • M. A. Burgman, D.B. Lindenmayer, and J. Elith, Managing landscapes for conservation under uncertainty, Ecology, 86(8), 2005, pp. 2007–-2017.

  • Burgman, Mark, 2005, Risks and Decisions for Conservation and Environmental Management, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

  • An article, commentary, and rejoinder:

    • Benjamin S. Halpern, Helen M. Regan, Hugh P. Possingham and Michael A. McCarthy, 2006, Accounting for uncertainty in marine reserve design, Ecology Letters, 9: 2-11.

    • Commentary on this article by Marc Mangel: Marc Mangel, 2006, Accounting for uncertainty in marine reserve design, Ecology Letters, 9: 11-12.

    • Benjamin S. Halpern, Helen M. Regan, Hugh P. Possingham and Michael A. McCarthy, 2006, Rejoinder: Uncertainty and decision making, Ecology Letters, 9: 13-14.

  • Moilanen, A. and B.A. Wintle, 2006, Uncertainty analysis favours selection of spatially aggregated reserve structures. Biological Conservation, Volume 129, Issue 3, May 2006, Pages 427-434.

  • Moilanen, A., B.A. Wintle., J. Elith and M. Burgman, 2006, Uncertainty analysis for regional-scale reserve selection. Conservation Biology, Vol.20, No. 6, 1688–1697.

  • Nicholson, Emily and Hugh P. Possingham, 2007, Conservation planning for the persistence of multiple species under uncertainty: an application of info-gap decision theory, Ecological Applications, 17: 251-265

  • Jason K. Levy, Keith W. Hipel and D. Marc Kilgour, 2000, Using environmental indicators to quantify the robustness of policy alternatives to uncertainty, Ecological Modelling, Volume 130, Issues 1-3, 1 June 2000, Pages 79-86.