Avoiding Tragedies of the Intellectual Commons through Integrated Impact Assessments

Abstract

This paper suggests that an ex ante assessment of future social, environmental, and economic impacts – i.e., an Integrated Impact Assessment, as advocated by the European Commission – might be precisely the sort of interdisciplinary and numerate analytical tool to give administrative reality to the principles of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM). For these assessments to be an effective administrative tool for IWRM, the general public must be able to use them to transparently compare environmental, social, and economic values and to compel states to pursue policies consistent with their underlying analyses. In making this argument, this paper compares the use of integrated assessments by the European Union and the United States in addressing mercury pollution.