OPERAs
OPERAs aims to improve understanding of how ES/NC contribute to human well-being in different social-ecological systems in inland and coastal zones, in rural and urban areas, related to different ecosystems including forests and fresh water resources.
The OPERAs research will establish whether, how and under what conditions the ES/NC concepts can move beyond the academic domain towards practical implementation in support of sustainable ecosystem management. OPERAs will use a meta-analysis (systematic review) of existing ES/NC practice to identify knowledge gaps and requirements for new policy options and instruments. New insights, and improved or novel tools and instruments, will be tested in practice in exemplar case studies in a range of socio-ecological system across locales, sectors, scales and time.
PLUS will integrate the ES/NC concept into performance evaluation of different options/alternatives in spatial and non-spatial MCDAs. It will allow the accommodation of a variety of ES/NC performance measures (e.g. quantitative, qualitative, monetary and non-monetary, rating scales, directly assessed preferences and model-derived performance measures). The principal strengths of MCDA in multi-dimensional analyses of sensitivity, trade-offs, and uncertainties within heterogeneous decision environments will be further integrated and adapted to the ES/NC concepts, and methods will be coupled to tailor them to respond to specific ES/NC rationales. The integration of human health, safety, social, economic or health indicators will be considered. Other decision-support tools and methods including various types of Environmental Assessments will also employ approaches of relevance to MCDA.
Developing focusing is furthermore on user interfaces to foster the use of decision-support tools and methods to betterand more accurately include information on ES/NC into decision-making processes. The tools and methods will range from various computer software frameworks and applications to collaborative platforms including improved 3D visualizations. The social design and the governance conditions necessary for the successful operationalisation of the tools will be identified and trialled iteratively within the exemplars. To ensure the political feasibility of decision alternatives implemented in the decision-making tools and methods, we will incorporate political parameters based on a systematic analysis of boundary conditions due to the given and expected governance context relevant for the ES/NC issues.
Project data
Persons involved
Prof. Dr. Adrienne Grêt-Regamey
Sibyl Brunner
Thomas M. Klein
Duration
December 2012 – November 2017