Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book identifies strategies for an effective and efficient improvement in the biological condition of the Baltic Sea and the sustaining of such conditions in the future. It discusses the general requirements for the economic evaluation of management strategies. The book then investigates the land use in the drainage basin. It also illustrates a marine ecological simulation of the impacts of changes in nutrient loads in different Baltic Sea basins. The book discusses the design of a mechanism for the cost sharing for a programme to reduce the load of nitrogen by 50 per cent. It then applies the so-called Chander-Tulkens model of sharing the cost of the provision of an international public good, such as the environmental preservation of the Baltic Sea.