Natural and Social Science Collaboration Bolsters Effective Policy Analysis

Policy analysis is informed by asking how a change in policy effects people. When the change in policy is mediated by ecosystems, our experience is that policy analysis is improved when natural and social scientists collaborate in depth. This collaboration should be built around an understanding of what information is needed by social scientists, what can be provided by biophysical scientists, and how to identify and reconcile the inevitable gaps.  Joint understanding of 1) the meaning of key terms, 2) the biophysical features that matter to people, 3) the temporal and spatial characteristics of those features, and 4) the temporal and spatial characteristics of the analysis are all important elements of this dialogue as is the certainty of the information that can be provided. We will illustrate some of these features with examples from a developing national scale analysis of changes in water quality. The illustration will show differences in understanding of key terms, and some rudimentary consequences of representing and evaluating aquatic ecosystems for national policy. The result of this collaboration is not only more scientifically defensible policy analysis, but also an improved understanding of needs and capabilities that can pay off in future research directions and consequential capacity to support future policy analysis more effectively.

Impact/Purpose

Policy analysis is informed by asking how a change in policy effects people. When the change in policy is mediated by ecosystems, policy analysis benefits when the biophysical features linking changes in ecosystems to changes in social systems are sensible both to biophysical scientists and to social scientists. An abundance of case studies shows that often this linkage is often not carefully considered to the detriment of the benefits analysis and to the capacity of policy makers to make well-grounded trade-off decisions. This talk not only identifies the need for that consideration, but also suggests some specific elements of that consideration. The result will of following these suggestion would be more tractable quantitative policy analysis and more meaningful tradeoff considerations.

Citation

Corona, J. AND P. Ringold. Natural and Social Science Collaboration Bolsters Effective Policy Analysis. Joint Aquatic Sciences Meeting, Grand Rapids, Michigan, May 14 - 20, 2022.