This guide is intended to assist the organization of studies dealing with the behavior of human societies and their institutions in relation to their environments. Emphasis is on contemporary industrial and postindustrial society as it expresses its environmental relationships through action defined by policies, laws, and administrative arrangements. The content and organization is essentially multidisciplinary. Twelve subtopics are organized around the following four major areas: (1) basic environmental concepts--introduction and background; (2) environment as a policy issue--origins, characteristics, and implications; (3) reconciling natural and technical systems--objectives, approaches, and processes; and (4) problems of policy implementation--economic, juridical, and institutional. Each of the subtopics is keyed to references in the comprehensive bibliographies. Subtopics are defined and described by an abstract. Bibliographic references to articles and books comprise the bulk of the document. For each topic, a set of 10 organizing questions has been provided to enable the student to estimate his comprehension of the subject. (Author/JR)