tions raised by the assessment or facilitated by data sets compiled through
the assessment. Accordingly, there could be substantial returns to installing
a process for promoting and extending these types of relationships. In the
wake of SAA, SAMAB has continued to play an important role in enabling
dialogue within the broad community of interest that emerged from the
assessment (e.g., through its annual conference on Southern Appalachian
issues).
From the modeler’s perspective, an assessment activity offers an opportunity to thoroughly define a set of questions immediately relevant to
managers. The assessment proper calls for a short-run analysis that takes
advantage of existing knowledge. The follow-up to an assessment may be a
long-run effort to align research efforts with management needs.
4.7 Discussion
Bioregional assessments, as a relatively new genus of scientific inquiry,
provide a distinct and important set of challenges for the development and
application of models. Clearly, they address multiple problems in complex
systems where models could provide useful insights. By virtue of their
connections to public interests and management challenges, bioregional
assessments have the potential to define the most important questions that
need to be addressed (i.e., they can focus the attention of scientists on the
questions that need to be addressed rather than on the questions that
can be addressed). They also serve to define the critical linkages between
important causes and effects and between models of various disciplines.
Assessments such as the SAA can be viewed as meta-models. That is, they
take vast quantities of inputs from interested publics and a variety of
data sources, process this input through computer models and the organic
computers of scientists and resource analysts, and yield a set of outputs
in the form of both quantitative and qualitative findings. However, these
meta-models are far removed from the mechanistic and internally consistent integrated ecosystem modeling frameworks that have been anticipated
for some time (Holling 1978). Instead, the assumptions, scales, and relative
certainties of the various components can differ widely within assessments,
and the lack of interdisciplinary integration may identify one of their
greatest weaknesses (Johnson et al. 1999). Indeed, assessments may provide
their greatest service in pointing out the ultimate limits of current understanding, modeling, and approaches to ecosystem and social analysis for
addressing broad-scale and complex ecosystem management issues.
Perhaps it is best to view broad assessments as a necessary initial step in
defining the scope and structure of an integrated modeling framework that
could provide a comprehensive analysis of policy and management-relevant
questions at appropriate scales. Assessments may indeed be needed to both
define the critical questions and identify the links between modeling
4. Large-Scale Regional Assessments
83
the assessment. Accordingly, there could be substantial returns to installing
a process for promoting and extending these types of relationships. In the
wake of SAA, SAMAB has continued to play an important role in enabling
dialogue within the broad community of interest that emerged from the
assessment (e.g., through its annual conference on Southern Appalachian
issues).
From the modeler’s perspective, an assessment activity offers an opportunity to thoroughly define a set of questions immediately relevant to
managers. The assessment proper calls for a short-run analysis that takes
advantage of existing knowledge. The follow-up to an assessment may be a
long-run effort to align research efforts with management needs.
4.7 Discussion
Bioregional assessments, as a relatively new genus of scientific inquiry,
provide a distinct and important set of challenges for the development and
application of models. Clearly, they address multiple problems in complex
systems where models could provide useful insights. By virtue of their
connections to public interests and management challenges, bioregional
assessments have the potential to define the most important questions that
need to be addressed (i.e., they can focus the attention of scientists on the
questions that need to be addressed rather than on the questions that
can be addressed). They also serve to define the critical linkages between
important causes and effects and between models of various disciplines.
Assessments such as the SAA can be viewed as meta-models. That is, they
take vast quantities of inputs from interested publics and a variety of
data sources, process this input through computer models and the organic
computers of scientists and resource analysts, and yield a set of outputs
in the form of both quantitative and qualitative findings. However, these
meta-models are far removed from the mechanistic and internally consistent integrated ecosystem modeling frameworks that have been anticipated
for some time (Holling 1978). Instead, the assumptions, scales, and relative
certainties of the various components can differ widely within assessments,
and the lack of interdisciplinary integration may identify one of their
greatest weaknesses (Johnson et al. 1999). Indeed, assessments may provide
their greatest service in pointing out the ultimate limits of current understanding, modeling, and approaches to ecosystem and social analysis for
addressing broad-scale and complex ecosystem management issues.
Perhaps it is best to view broad assessments as a necessary initial step in
defining the scope and structure of an integrated modeling framework that
could provide a comprehensive analysis of policy and management-relevant
questions at appropriate scales. Assessments may indeed be needed to both
define the critical questions and identify the links between modeling
4. Large-Scale Regional Assessments
83