Modellers' and Outreach Professionals' Views on the Role of Models in Watershed Management

Abstract

Nitrogen loading models are often designed and built without any input from decisionmakers. Better understanding and communication between modellers and decision-makers would improve the usefulness of models. In interviews with 16 modellers and outreach professionals in southern New England, USA, we inquired about how nitrogen-loading models should be designed and used in local decision-making. Qualitative analysis revealed several insights about: differences between models intended to advance science and those to advance policy-making; matching the scale of the model with that of the decision; the danger that models might promote technocracy; how to present uncertainty information; ecological transferability and social acceptance of models to new locales; involvement of local decisionmakers and citizens in the design of models; and the use of models by lay decision-makers. The findings highlight both opportunities and obstacles to the use of models in local policymaking.

Forms of Participatory Modelling and its Potential for Widespread Adoption in the Water Sector

“…For example, the findings of Borowski and Hare () concur with those (based on a pre‐press version) of Webler et al ., in the present special issue in indicating that the modelling community is not always communicating well with the user side, and thus not providing the type of models for which there is a demand (e.g. models that are maintained and well documented (Borowski and Hare, )).…”

“…According to Borowski and Hare (), despite this trend, there is greater demand by managers for simple, data‐rich models. Indeed, Webler et al ., report that modellers and outreach professionals think that such an increase in complexity is a ‘handicap for policy models’. This trend leads to an increase in the difficulty of obtaining sufficient data to enable such complex models to be transferred easily for use in new management locations, a problem which the latter two cited articles both highlight.…”

“…Water managers need to be able to trust in the validity of the models they are using, especially as the manager often has a legal responsibility for the decisions made and has to clearly justify the reasons for their decisions to their superiors or to the public (cf. Borowski and Hare, 2007;Webler et al, 2011). With this in mind, it has to be remembered that information from models is just one of many sources that are used by a decision-maker to make decisions (van Overveld et al, 2010).…”

Effects of Climate Change on Hydric Resources: Some Implications and Solutions

“…Participation is in addition viewed by researchers and policy makers as a means of bridging the policyscience-interface gap, leading to the improved use of research products in the management sector (e.g., Borowski and Hare (2007)). Those advocating a purely model-based approach to supporting adaptation in water resources management should take note of the considerable policy-science interface obstacles that exist to the water-sector adopting and using models for decision-making (see Borowski and Hare (2007), Mysiak., et al (2008), Webler., et al (2011)). …”

Regional-scale brine migration along vertical pathways due to CO<sub>2</sub> injection – Part 1: The participatory modeling approach

“…PM comprises several approaches, such as group model building focusing on strategy development in organizations (Richardson and Andersen, 1995), mediated modeling with its aim of generating consensus for environmental issues (van den Belt, 2004), or companion modeling for collective learning in the field of natural resource management (Simon and Etienne, 2010). Most research of PM application currently takes place in the management of natural resources, such as water, forestry, or land use (e.g., Refsgaard et al, 2005;Antunes et al, 2006;Cockerill et al, 2006;Bogner et al, 2011a;Webler et al, 2011;Röckmann et al, 2012). To our knowledge, no PM stimulated applications have so far been carried out in the field of CCS.…”