A Team-Based Approach to Social Learning Research in Natural Resource Management

This thesis responds to the need to quantify social learning and its outcomes as it relates to natural resource management. Social learning enables individuals engaging in collective action to understand each other’s perspectives, encourages integration of diverse knowledge bases, and the creation of new knowledge (Keen, Brown, & Dyball, 2005). However, the concept currently lacks a clear operational definition in natural resource management. The lack of an operational definition for social learning has stymied attempts to validate its espoused ability to improve civic discourse and, ultimately, resource governance (Pahl-Wostl & Hare, 2004). This report is composed of three papers that collectively offer a way forward for this area of research. The first paper supplies an operational definition of social learning based on team cognition research in organizational psychology. One possible research framework for the assessment of social learning is provided. The second paper presents a case study using this framework. The case study takes place within the context of private forestlands management; a growing arena for collective action institutions. A pre-test and post-test quasi-experimental design is used to test for social learning resulting from a participatory research intervention. The third paper documents the results of the participatory research intervention, independent of the social learning framework

Efficient Decision Support Systems

This series is directed to diverse managerial professionals who are leading the transformation of individual domains by using expert information and domain knowledge to drive decision support systems (DSSs). The series offers a broad range of subjects addressed in specific areas such as health care, business management, banking, agriculture, environmental improvement, natural resource and spatial management, aviation administration, and hybrid applications of information technology aimed to interdisciplinary issues. This book series is composed of three volumes: Volume 1 consists of general concepts and methodology of DSSs; Volume 2 consists of applications of DSSs in the biomedical domain; Volume 3 consists of hybrid applications of DSSs in multidisciplinary domains. The book is shaped upon decision support strategies in the new infrastructure that assists the readers in full use of the creative technology to manipulate input data and to transform information into useful decisions for decision makers

Methods of analysis and empirical evidence of farm structural change

The dissertation aims to develop and apply new empirical methods to analyze and model farm structural change. Changes of the farm structure are not only important for the sector itself but may have broader economic, social and environmental consequences for a region. Understanding this process is important for assessing the impact of (agricultural-) policies. A common approach to analyze farm structural change are Markov chains. The dissertation provides a Bayesian estimation framework that allows to more consistently and transparently combine individual and aggregated data in the estimation of non-stationary Markov models compared to existing methods. It is shown that the data combination improves precision and numerical stability of the estimation. Building on this, a Bayesian prediction framework for EU farm structural change is developed exploiting the available information more fully. Secondly, farm interdependences and their importance for farm structural change are analyzed. It is argued that the assumption of independence between farm behavior as implied by the Markov approach may become problematic in specific applications. Empirical evidence is provided that these interactions are indeed important to consider for a consistent aggregation of farm level results when assessing policy effects at regional level. Specifically, it is shown for the case of Norway that it is important to consider neighboring farm characteristics when analyzing the influence of direct payments on farm survival. To the knowledge of the author, the study is the first to show empirically that spatial interdependence at farm level is important for farm structural change. With respect to policy assessment, the results indicate that direct payments a farm receives itself have a positive influence on farm survival while neighboring direct payments have a negative one. For an overall assessment of the policy effects it is thus necessary to consider the interdependencies between farms. Ignoring these interdependencies might lead to an overestimation of the effects of direct payments.Analysemethoden und empirische Erkenntnisse zum landwirtschaftlichen Strukturwandel Ziel der Arbeit ist die Entwicklung und Anwendung von Methoden zur empirischen Analyse und Modellierung des Agrarstrukturwandels. Veränderungen der Agrarstruktur sind nicht allein für den Sektor bedeutend, sondern können weitreichende ökonomische, soziale und ökologische Konsequenzen für eine Region haben. Ein Verständnis des Strukturwandels ist somit wichtig für die Folgenabschätzung (agrar-)politischer Maßnahmen, sowie deren Gestaltung im Hinblick auf konkrete (agrar-)politische Ziele. Ein häufig verwendeter methodischer Ansatz zur Untersuchung des Agrarstrukturwandels ist die Markowketten-Analyse. In dieser Arbeit wird ein Bayes‘scher Schätzansatz entwickelt, der eine Kombination von einzelbetrieblichen und aggregierten Daten in der Schätzung von nicht-stationären Markowketten erlaubt. Die Datenkombination erfolgt auf eine, im Vergleich zu existierenden Ansätzen, konsistentere und transparentere Weise und es wird gezeigt, dass sie die Präzision sowie die numerische Stabilität des Schätzers erhöht. Darauf aufbauend wird ein Bayes‘scher Ansatz zur Vorhersage des EU Strukturwandels entwickelt, der es erlaubt die verfügbaren Daten besser zu nutzen. Darüber hinaus befasst sich die Arbeit mit Interdependenzen auf Betriebsebene und deren Bedeutung für den Strukturwandel. Es wird argumentiert, dass sich das Verhalten von Betrieben gegenseitig bedingt und die Annahme einer unabhängigen Entwicklung, wie sie der Markowketten-Analyse zugrundeliegt, zu Problemen führen kann. Es wird empirisch gezeigt, dass die Berücksichtigung von Interdependenzen zwischen Betrieben wichtig für eine konsistente Aggregation der Ergebnisse der Betriebsebene zur Politikfolgenabschätzung auf regionaler Ebene ist. Am Beispiel Norwegens wird gezeigt, dass zur Abschätzung der Effekte von Direktzahlungen die Charakteristika benachbarter Betriebe berücksichtigt werden müssen. Nach Wissen des Autors ist die Arbeit die erste, die empirisch die Bedeutung von Interdependenzen auf Betriebsebene für den Strukturwandel belegt. Mit Blick auf eine Politikfolgenabschätzung zeigen die Ergebnisse, dass Direktzahlungen, die ein Betrieb selbst erhält, einen positiven Einfluss auf das Überleben des Betriebs haben, während Direktzahlungen an benachbarte Betriebe einen negativen Einfluss haben. Zur Abschätzung des generellen Effekts von Direktzahlungen ist es somit notwendig, die Interdependenzen zwischen Betrieben zu berücksichtigen. Werden diese vernachlässigt, kann der Effekt von Direktzahlungen überschätzt werden

Recreation, tourism and nature in a changing world : proceedings of the fifth international conference on monitoring and management of visitor flows in recreational and protected areas : Wageningen, the Netherlands, May 30-June 3, 2010

Proceedings of the fifth international conference on monitoring and management of visitor flows in recreational and protected areas : Wageningen, the Netherlands, May 30-June 3, 201

Multi-method Modeling Framework for Support of Integrated Water Resources Management

The existing definition of integrated water resources management (IWRM) promotes a holistic approach to water resources management practice. The IWRM deals with planning, design and operation of complex systems in order to control the quantity, quality, temporal and spatial distribution of water with the main objective of meeting human and ecological needs and providing protection from water disasters. One of the main challenges of IWRM is development of tools for operational implementation of the concept and dynamic coupling of physical and socio-economic components of water resources systems. This research examines the role of simulation in IWRM practices, analyses the advantages and limitations of existing modeling methods, and, as a result, suggests a new generic multi-method modeling framework that has the main goal to capture all structural complexities and interactions within water resources systems. Since traditional modeling methods solely do not provide sufficient support, this framework uses multi-method simulation approach to examine the co-dependence between natural resources and socio-economic environment. Designed framework consists of (i) a spatial database, (ii) a process-based model for representing the physical environment and changing conditions, and (iii) an agent-based model for representing spatially explicit socio-economic environment. The main idea behind multi-agent models is to build virtual complex systems composed of autonomous entities, which operate on local knowledge, possess limited abilities, affect and are affected by local environment, and thus enact the desired global system behavior. Based on the architecture of the generic multi-method modeling framework, an operational model is developed for the Upper Thames River basin, Southwestern Ontario, Canada. Six different experiments combine three climate and two socio-economic scenarios to analyze spatial dynamics of a complex physical-social-economic system. Obtained results present strong dependence between changes in hydrologic regime, in this case surface runoff and groundwater recharge rates, and regional socio-economic activities

Puzzling Out Ecosystem Services Values: A Participatory Framework to Support Decision- Making

Ecosystems are the support of our lives, with their goods and services backing up human wellbeing. The concept of ecosystem services was advanced as a metaphor to demonstrate the importance of nature and its processes to the existence of our societies. Since the early stages of its adoption, this concept has been seen as a promising way to emphasise the importance of nature conservation. This research field is growing fast, with a strong focus on research-society interfaces. However, as much worldwide attention as the ecosystem services concept has recently received, value reductionism and monistic approaches, still surface in many debates. Looking only into one value dimension brings several associated risks and biases. This calls for adoption of more integrative perspectives where multiple values attached to ecosystem services are considered. Once these multiple values are recognized, the ensuing question is how to promote their articulation in the context of policy and decision-making processes. Ecosystem services is a value-laden concept that carries in itself potential controversies about the values it translates. On the other hand, it is also seen as a platform to promote participation and to search for new paths of collaborative action. Based on these assumptions this dissertation started from the focal question “how to structure a participatory process for the integration and articulation of multiple values of ecosystem services to inform decisionmaking?”. A three stage participatory conceptual framework was developed and subsequently tested in the Arrábida Natural Park, a Portuguese coastal and marine protected area. The proposed approach starts with a “set the scene” stage, where a new methodology to implement a collaborative scoping process of ecosystem services was developed. Scoping tasks combine an institutional and stakeholder analysis that allows to identify key stakeholders, their interdependencies and institutional rules governing the study area, with a participatory workshop, where the ecosystem services provided by the area are identified by participants. Such workshop also provides a platform to scope ecosystem services threats, linkages with wellbeing elements, as well as a preliminary assessment of ecosystem services ecological, economic and social importance. The second stage aims to “deepen understanding” regarding the structure underlying the provision of a sustainable flow of selected ecosystem services. In the case study, this stage was developed through a participatory systems mapping approach. Inter-organisational stakeholder groups collaborated in the conceptualization of feedback processes characterizing ecosystem services during a group modelling workshop, which allowed to share insights on the underlying cause-effect mechanisms and leverage points, supporting the identification of interrelationships among different ecosystem services and the selection of key indicators for management processes. The framework ultimately envisages to engage stakeholders in the “articulate values” stage. A third participatory workshop is proposed to integrate multiple ecosystem services values in the context of a real world decision-making process. In the Arrábida Natural Park, participants were asked to deliberate on social, biophysical and economic criteria associated to different alternative policies for the protected area, as well as to define decision rules that foster integration of different value dimensions to inform decision-making processes. Using participation as a value articulating institution, stakeholders were engaged in a process to select, discuss and articulate several and distinct ecosystem services value dimensions regarding two decision contexts – a land use conflict and a project evaluation process. The empirical results and participants’ evaluation support the conclusion that the developed conceptual framework is able to provide a coherent platform to engage stakeholders in ecosystem services scoping, assessment and decision support tasks. Ultimately, the proposed framework offers structured guidelines for puzzling out multiple value dimensions of ecosystem services, which may be further applied to different types of ecosystems and decision processes

Exposure-Based Cash-Flow-at-Risk for Value-Creating Risk Management under Macroeconomic Uncertainty

A strategically minded CFO will realize that strategic corporate risk management is about finding the right balance between risk prevention and proactive value generation. Efficient risk and performance management requires adequate assessment of risk and risk exposures on the one hand and performance on the other. Properly designed, a risk measure should provide information on to what extend the firm's performance is at risk, what is causing that risk, the relative importance of non-value-adding and value-adding risk, and the possibilities to use risk management to reduce total risk. In this chapter, we present an approach – exposure-based cash-flow-at-risk – to calculating a firm's downside risk conditional on the firm's exposure to non-value-adding macroeconomic and market risk and to analyzing corporate performance adjusted for the impact of non-value-adding risk.Cash-flow-at risk; Value at risk; Risk management; Value creation; Total risk