Decision Support Framework Implementation of the Web-Based Environmental Decision Analysis Application DASEES: Decision Analysis for a Sustainable Environment, Economy, and Society.

摘要

Pervasive environmental challenges such as climate change, coastal eutrophication, habitat and species loss are rarely the result of natural processes solely, but linked to human activities and their resource management behaviors (Shultz, 2011). The implication of this is that solutions will not always have a straightforward, tame application of science-based actions, but are often wicked problems. Wicked problems (Balint, et al., 2011) are large-scale environmental policy questions where environmental concerns, economic constraints, and societal values conflict causing seemingly intractable political situations. Over the last few decades, advances in information technology have enabled the environmental sciences to evolve from relatively distinct scientific disciplines, e.g., geology, meteorology, hydrology, etc., to a more inter-related systems-based science. When human behavior is factored, the analysis of complex phenomena, such as climate change becomes more feasible (Dozier and Gail, 2009). Dozier and Gail (2009) argue that these analyses drive the need for research into the development of environmental applications that use systems approaches and decision science to enable society to make decisions that address wicked problems.