ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the output of risk assessments and how it might be used to facilitate decision making. A discipline that would seem to have considerable potential for application to environmental decision making is that of fuzzy logic. The idea that decision making under uncertainty involves more than the calculation of probabilities to obtain the most favourable outcome. Regret factors might be incorporated to accommodate the risk-taking propensity of the decision-maker. There has been increasing recognition that risk distributions might better support the decision making process as opposed to single point values. Fuzzy logic seems to offer considerable potential to deal with complex issues characterised by uncertainty. Professional judgement by experts will be utilised with uncertainty estimates where data is unavailable or where the application of a remedial measure is subject to an uncertain outcome.
