ABSTRACT
Environmental assessments have evolved from individual literature review papers, through single organization assessments (e.g. World Resource Institute reports), to structured and regular representative assessments (e.g. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)). These latter assessments are sometimes linked to international policy processes. Environmental assessments are produced by joint expert participation and analysis of the existing issue-specific science (Clark et al. 2006) with policy implications (Mitchell et al. 2006). It may include collation and analysis of data and responses to specific questions. It can, but mostly does not, include original research. However, it triggers original research subsequently published in journals and referred to in the assessments.
