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DECISION-MAKING USING EXISTING DATA
Citation:
Smith, E R. DECISION-MAKING USING EXISTING DATA. Presented at Forest-Related Activities and Integrated Assessment Approaches in the European Union and the United States Joint Research Centre, Ispra, Italy, December 10, 2003.
Impact/Purpose:
Provide regional-scale, spatially explicit information on the extent and distribution of both stressors and sensitive resources.
Develop and evaluate techniques to integrate information on exposure and effects so that relative risk can be assessed and management actions can be prioritized.
Predict consequences of potential environmental changes under alternative future scenarios.
Effectively communicate economic and quality of life trade-offs associated with alternative environmental policies.
Develop techniques to prioritize areas for ecological restoration.
Identify information gaps and recommend actions to improve monitoring and focus research.
There are two task objectives that reflect the work done by LCB in support of the ReVA Program objectives:
Provide information management, spatial analysis support, and data and information accessibility for the ReVA Program
Provide program management support, technology transfer, and outreach.
Description:
Decision-makers need information on cumulative and aggregate stressors as well as clear information on where problems are likely to occur in the future in order to prioritize risk management actions. The most prevasive and difficult to assess changes are the result of regional-scale drivers of change that act simultaneously on a suite of resources that are important to society and to ecological sustainability. A great deal of data already exist that could potentially inform risk management decision, however, there has been no effort previously to synthesize these data into meaningful assessment results that can inform the multiple criteria that go into any kind of decision-making. Methods to do this are critical to timely, responsive, and proactive decision-making.