Roland W. Scholz chairs the Natural and Social Science Interface in the Department of Environmental Sciences at the ETH (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology), Zürich. A mathematician, psychologist and decision theorist by training, he is particularly interested in environmental systems analysis, human-environment interactions, environmental decisions and risk assessment. He has led numerous large-scale transdisciplinary processes to foster sustainable transitions of urban and regional systems.

• List of boxes; Overview; Roadmap to environmental literacy; Part I. Invention of the Environment: Origins, Transdisciplinarity, and Theory of Science Perspectives: 1. What knowledge about what environment?; 2. From environmental literacy to transdisciplinarity; 3. Basic epistemological assumptions; Part II. History of Biological Knowledge: 4. Emerging knowledge on morphology, ecology, and evolution; 5. From molecular structures to ecosystems; Part III. Contributions of Psychology: 6. Psychological approaches to human-environment interactions; 7. Drivers of individual behavior and action; Part IV. Contributions of Sociology: 8. Traditional sociological approaches to human-environment interactions; 9. Modern sociological approaches to human-environment interactions; Part V. Contributions of Economics: 10. Origins of economic thinking and the environment; 11. Contemporary economic theories dealing with the environment; Part VI. Contributions of Industrial Ecology: 12. The emergence of industrial ecology; 13. Industrial agents and global biogeochemical dynamics; Part VII. Beyond Disciplines and Sciences: 14. Integrated systems modeling of complex human-environment systems Roland W. Scholz, Justus Gallati, Quang Bao Le and Roman Seidl; 15. Transdisciplinarity – a tool for environmental literacy; Part VIII. A Framework for Investigating Human-Environment Systems (HES): 16. The HES postulates; 17. The HES framework Roland W. Scholz, Claudia R. Binder and Daniel J. Lang; 18. Applying the HES framework Roland W. Scholz, Claudia R. Binder, Daniel J. Lang, Timo Smieszek and Michael Stauffacher; 19. Comparing the HES framework with alternative approaches Roland W. Scholz and Fridolin Brand; Part IX. Perspectives for Environmental Literacy: 20. New horizons: environmental and sustainability sciences; Glossary; References; Index.

'… Environmental Literacy in Science and Society provides a potential basis for research and conceptual revisions in coming decades.' Harald A. Mieg, Science