Published In
Environmental Monitoring and Assessment
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-2011
Subjects
Watersheds -- Research -- United States, Watershed assessment
Abstract
Assessments of watershed condition for aquatic and riparian species often have to rely on expert opinion because of the complexity of establishing statistical relationships among the many factors involved. Such expert-based assessments can be difficult to document and apply consistently over time and space. We describe and reflect on the process of developing a computer-based decision support application from expert judgments for assessing aquatic and riparian conditions over the 100,000 km2 managed by the US federal government under the Northwest Forest Plan. The decision support system helped structure and document the assessment process and provided consistency and transparency to the evaluation methodology. However, many decisions and trade-offs were required in the expert engagement and model-building processes. Knowledge elicitation in an interactive group had a number of benefits over nominal group or Delphi processes, but efficient knowledge capture required considerable planning and expertise in the subject matter and modeling process. Communicating model results for validation was problematic and only effectively accomplished via in-person workshops. The choice to use different expert groups for each biophysical province provided more opportunities for participation and promoted greater ownership in the assessment, but it also led to increased variation among the resulting model structures. We propose three possible approaches for better managing the consistency of assessment models when multiple expert groups are involved.
DOI
10.1007/s10661-010-1362-2
Persistent Identifier
http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/17288
Citation Details
Gordon, S. N., & Gallo, K. (2011). Structuring expert input for a knowledge-based approach to watershed condition assessment for the Northwest Forest Plan, USA. Environmental monitoring and assessment, 172(1-4), 643-661.
Description
This work was authored as part of the contributor's official duties as an Employee of the United States Government and is therefore a work of the United States Government. In accordance with 17 U.S.C. 105, no copyright protection is available for such works under U.S. Law.