S11: Bridging the gaps between design and use: evaluating decision and information support tools
Organisers
Topics
The aim of this session will therefore be to provide a forum for the presentation and discussion of conceptual, methodological and empirical work on the evaluation of environmental decision and information support tools. The session will build on discussion and outputs from the iEMSs 2006 paper and workshop sessions on ‘bridging the gap between design and use’. By doing so we hope to improve our understanding of how to develop better and more useful tools for environmental management and policy, and how to improve the likelihood that they will adopted and used.
The following indicative topics will be addressed by this session:
- How do we evaluate the impact of DISTs on environmental policy and management processes, actions and outcomes?
- What methodological approaches are available? How have they been employed and with what success / lessons?
- How do DISTs influence effectiveness and efficiency in environmental policy and management?
- How effective are DIST as tools for learning and for promoting and facilitating change? How do we evaluate their success in this regard?
- How do we turn knowledge of impact into better tool development and into improved adoption and usage levels?
Description
A key aim of developing environmental models and software is to provide decision and information support to environmental policy and management. For example, integrated assessment models (IAM) and decision support systems (DSS) have been identified as being well suited to providing information support to complex decision processes. In developing such technologies we hope to provide tools which exert a positive impact on policy and management processes, actions and outcomes. We want to contribute to a diverse range of objectives from better managing scarce resources, through mediating and avoiding conflict, to maintaining adaptive potential and promoting sustainable development. But what impacts do environmental decision and information support tools (DISTs) have on policy and management? Are they positive? How do we know? To answer these questions we wish to better understand DIST impacts and how to measure them. To be effective, the development of environmental models and software must be informed by knowledge of the value and impact that such tools provide to policy and management organisations.