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Making a difference on the ground: the challenge of demonstrating the effectiveness of decision support

Climatic Change volume 95, Article number: 11 (2009) Cite this article

Abstract

Decision support has become a popular concept, especially in the context of climate change. Government agencies and researchers increasingly recognize that they should provide it, and resource managers and policy-makers increasingly need and demand it. This demand will only grow as climate change progresses. Those who will attempt to meet this growing demand will need to demonstrate “effectiveness”. This editorial raises a number of critical questions that need to be answered in the course of evaluating whether decision support is effective. The answers, if carefully considered early on, may help to design processes that may in fact produce more useable products, facilitate their use, and ultimately create intended and desirable outcomes.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Susanne Moser Research and Consulting, Santa Cruz, CA, 95060, USA

    Susanne Moser

  2. University of California-Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA, USA

    Susanne Moser

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  1. Susanne Moser
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Correspondence to Susanne Moser.

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Open Access This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0), which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.

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Moser, S. Making a difference on the ground: the challenge of demonstrating the effectiveness of decision support. Climatic Change 95, 11 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-008-9539-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-008-9539-1

Keywords

  • Decision Support
  • Public Participation
  • Provide Decision Support
  • Future Research Agenda
  • Decision Support Process