This volume fills a critical gap in environmental science education by moving beyond content mastery to emphasize the application of environmental assessment tools used by professionals to address real-world challenges, particularly those driven by climate change. Rather than focusing on broad survey topics, the text immerses readers in the frameworks, methodologies, and decision-making processes that underpin environmental analysis across policy, management, and consulting contexts.

Organized around a carefully curated “environmental assessment toolbox,” the book introduces widely used and emerging frameworks, including causal analysis using weight-of-evidence, ecological risk assessment, NEPA review, ecoregional assessment, ecosystem services valuation, climate vulnerability assessments, and life cycle analysis. Each unit reflects how environmental professionals actually work: defining problems, evaluating evidence, addressing uncertainty, and communicating results to support actionable climate solutions.

Designed with an applied, workforce-ready focus, every unit combines foundational knowledge with case studies, structured exercises, and realistic challenges drawn from contemporary environmental issues such as species declines, pollution, and climate-driven system changes. Students and early-career professionals learn not only how to conduct rigorous assessments, but also how to engage stakeholders, interpret complex data, and translate findings into defensible recommendations for management, policy, and adaptation planning.

Climate change serves as a unifying lens throughout the text, with multiple frameworks explicitly addressing vulnerability, resilience, and mitigation across communities, ecosystems, and production systems. By integrating scientific analysis with practical decision-making and communication strategies, the book prepares readers to contribute meaningfully in professional settings where environmental assessments inform climate solutions.

Ideal for upper-level undergraduate and applied graduate courses in environmental science, natural resources, and sustainability, this volume also serves as a practical guide for emerging professionals entering careers in government agencies, consulting, nonprofit conservation, and planning. It equips readers with the tools, mindset, and applied experience needed to move from analysis to action in addressing today’s most pressing environmental and climate challenges.

This book offers lecturer material. Request it here: sn.pub/lecturer-material

Jennifer Pontius: Dr. Pontius is Associate Dean for Programs and Instruction at the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources at the University of Vermont and Director of the Environmental Science Program. She also serves as Principal Investigator of the Forest Ecosystem Monitoring Cooperative (FEMC) with research focused on modelling and monitoring forested ecosystems and coordinating diverse stakeholders to address pressing forest health challenges across the northeastern United States. 

Alan McIntosh: After receiving his PhD in limnology at Michigan State University, Professor McIntosh taught at Purdue University and Rutgers University before joining the School of Natural Resources at the University of Vermont. He served as Director of the Vermont Water Resources and Lake Studies Center, and he chaired the Environmental Sciences Program in the school from 1995 until 2013. He taught a number of environmental courses, including the introductory environmental science class each semester during that period.