Part I. General Concepts: 1. What we presently know; 2. Assumptions about habitability; 3. Candidate features of habitability; 4. Variability over short time scales; 5. The role of environmental catastrophe in planetary habitability; Part II. The Evolution of Earth into a Habitable Environment: 6.

Transition to a habitable planet; 7. Stratigraphic evidence for habitability; Part III. Assessment of Habitability: 8. Chemical habitability metrics; 9. Physical metrics; 10. Geographic and geologic metrics; 11. Astrophysical metrics; 12. Measurement approaches; 13.

Instrumentation and tools; Part IV. Human Alteration of Habitability Potential on Earth: 14. Agriculture; 15. Industrial environmental pollution; 16. Human contributions to climate change; Part V. Solar System Habitability Potential: 17. Exchange of life between bodies in solar systems; 18. Habitability and human exploration in the solar system; 19.

Fate of habitable environments in solar system evolution; Part VI. Extra-Solar Habitability: 20. Development of habitability models; References; Index.