An Integrated Multi-Model Decision Support Framework for Evaluating Ecosystem Based Management Options for Coupled Human-Natural Systems
Simulation models offer a way to achieve a comprehensive understanding of the consequences of alternative community planning scenarios. For example, a community might want to understand how a particular decision—such as expanding an urban growth boundary into lands zoned for agriculture—will result in ecological, economic, and social tradeoffs for various stakeholder groups. This chapter explores the utility of ENVISION, a spatially-explicit decision support framework that integrates various ecological and human systems model “plug-ins” for informing Ecosystem-Based Management (EBM) options. While ENVISION already has a reasonably large toolbox of such plug-ins, its usefulness could be further extended to address a wider range of community and ecosystem types. We specifically examine how a suite of existing U.S. Environmental Protection Agency decision support tools (VELMA, HexSim, CORESET, Coral PF and others) could significantly extend ENVISION’s plug-in toolbox for coastal ecosystem EBM, inclusive of terrestrial-marine interactions and restoration goals of coastal communities dependent on marine ecosystem services.