7,468 research outputs found

    Integrating economic values and catchment modelling

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    Integrated catchment policies are widely used to manage natural resources in Australian catchments. Decision support tools available to aid integrated catchment management are often limited in their integration of environmental processes with socio-economic systems. Fully integrated models are required to support assessments of the environmental and economic trade-offs of catchment management changes. A Bayesian Network (BN) model is demonstrated to provide a suitable approach to integrate environmental modelling with economic valuation. The model incorporates hydrological, ecological and economic models for the George catchment in Tasmania. Information about the non-market costs and benefits of environmental changes is elicited using Choice Experiments, allowing an assessment of the efficiency of alternative management scenarios.Integrated catchment modelling, Bayesian networks, Uncertainty, Environmental values, Non-market valuation, Choice Modelling.,

    An Integrated Assessment approach to linking biophysical modelling and economic valuation tools

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    Natural resource management (NRM) typically involves complex decisions that affect a variety of stakeholder values. Efficient NRM, which achieves the greatest net environmental, social and financial benefits, needs to integrate the assessment of environmental impacts with the costs and benefits of investment. Integrated assessment (IA) is one approach that incorporates the several dimensions of catchment NRM, by considering multiple issues and knowledge from various disciplines and stakeholders. Despite the need for IA, there are few studies that integrate biophysical modelling tools with economic valuation. In this paper, we demonstrate how economic non-market valuation tools can be used to support an IA of catchment NRM changes. We develop a Bayesian Network model that integrates: a process-based water quality model; ecological assessments of native riparian vegetation; estimates of management costs; and non-market (intangible) values of changes in riparian vegetation. This modelling approach illustrates how information from different sources can be integrated in one framework to evaluate the environmental and economic impacts of NRM actions. It also shows the uncertainties associated with the estimated welfare effects. By estimating the marginal social costs and benefits, a cost-benefit analysis of alternative management intervention can be gained and provides more economic rationality to NRM decisions.Bayesian networks, bio-economic modelling, catchment management, cost-benefit analysis, environmental values, integrated assessment and modelling, non-market valuation, riparian vegetation, Environmental Economics and Policy, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

    Bayesian participatory-based decision analysis : an evolutionary, adaptive formalism for integrated analysis of complex challenges to social-ecological system sustainability

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    Includes bibliographical references (pages. 379-400).This dissertation responds to the need for integration between researchers and decision-makers who are dealing with complex social-ecological system sustainability and decision-making challenges. To this end, we propose a new approach, called Bayesian Participatory-based Decision Analysis (BPDA), which makes use of graphical causal maps and Bayesian networks to facilitate integration at the appropriate scales and levels of descriptions. The BPDA approach is not a predictive approach, but rather, caters for a wide range of future scenarios in anticipation of the need to adapt to unforeseeable changes as they occur. We argue that the graphical causal models and Bayesian networks constitute an evolutionary, adaptive formalism for integrating research and decision-making for sustainable development. The approach was implemented in a number of different interdisciplinary case studies that were concerned with social-ecological system scale challenges and problems, culminating in a study where the approach was implemented with decision-makers in Government. This dissertation introduces the BPDA approach, and shows how the approach helps identify critical cross-scale and cross-sector linkages and sensitivities, and addresses critical requirements for understanding system resilience and adaptive capacity

    Integrated Hydro-Economic Modelling: Challenges and Experiences in an Australian Catchment

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    Integrated catchment policies are widely used to manage natural resources in Australian catchments. Integration of environmental processes with socio-economic systems is often difficult due to the limitations of decision support tools. To support assessments of the environmental and economic trade-offs of changes in catchment management, fully integrated models are needed. This research demonstrates a Bayesian Network (BN) approach to integrating environmental modelling with economic valuation. The model incorporates hydrological, ecological and economic models for the George catchment in Tasmania. Choice experiments were used to elicit information about the non-market costs and benefits of environmental changes. This allows the efficiency of alternative management scenarios to be assessed.Hydro-economic modelling, Integrated catchment modelling, Ecological modelling, Valuation, Bayesian networks, Water quality, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Environmental Economics and Policy, Land Economics/Use,

    Natural flood management applications (NFM)

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    Identifying the Potential of Participatory Modelling and Mobile Data Collection to Enhance Implementation of Integrated Water Resources Management

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    The global problem of increasing freshwater scarcity has led to the promotion and adoption of the concept of integrated water resources management (IWRM) as a way of achieving sustainable development and management of available freshwater resources. However, despite its popularity and the widespread support it has enjoyed among its proponents over the years, IWRM has registered dismal performance on the implementation front. Whereas participatory involvement in the management of water resources is a key requirement in IWRM, its realisation in practice remains a major challenge. This study investigated means through which participatory involvement in water resources management could be improved with the aim of enhancing implementation of IWRM. To that end a participatory modelling exercise was designed and implemented with a select group of participants and the process evaluated; a web-based mobile data collection system was developed, tested and evaluated; and an enabling framework for water resources management was assessed. Key findings from the study suggest that participatory modelling can enhance implementation of IWRM by supporting participatory involvement in the management of water resources. However this is not possible with a web-based mobile data collection system, particularly in a developing country context. The findings also suggest that an enabling environment for water resources management is not sufficient to enhance implementation of IWRM but may need to be accompanied by additional supporting measures. As the responsibilities of managing water resources are increasingly being decentralised with more emphasis being placed on stakeholder participation, participatory modelling offers methodological guidance on how to constructively involve stakeholders in water resources management

    Supporting Decisions: Understanding natural resource management assessment techniques

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    Report to the Land and Water Resources Research and Development Corporation. This document presents a review of NRM decision support techniques. It draws upon previous studies in the fields of management science, operations research, environmental economics and natural resource management. The objectives of the document are to: Explain the workings of the more significant (representative) methods of NRM decision support (including the latest developments); Discuss how these decision support methods may influence the outcome of NRM decisions; and Provide practicing NRM decision makers with guidance for choosing which methods to apply.Australia;natural resource management;assessment;decision support;

    Multi-criteria decision analysis in Bayesian networks-Diagnosing ecosystem service trade-offs in a hydropower regulated river

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    The paper demonstrates the use of Bayesian networks in multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) of environmental design alternatives for environmental flows (eflows) and physical habitat remediation measures in the Mandalselva River in Norway. We demonstrate how MCDA using multi-attribute value functions can be implemented in a Bayesian network with decision and utility nodes. An object-oriented Bayesian network is used to integrate impacts computed in quantitative sub-models of hydropower revenues and Atlantic salmon smolt production and qualitative judgement models of mesohabitat fishability and riverscape aesthetics. We show how conditional probability tables are useful for modelling uncertainty in value scaling functions, and variance in criteria weights due to different stakeholder preferences. While the paper demonstrates the technical feasibility of MCDA in a BN, we also discuss the challenge
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