Organising evidence for environmental management decisions: a ‘4S’ hierarchy

作者：Lynn V. Dicks, Jessica C. Walsh, William J. Sutherland · 发表于：Trends in Ecology & Evolution · 年份：2014 · DOI：10.1016/j.tree.2014.09.004 · 被引用次数：255 · 研究领域：Environmental and Social Impact Assessments、Economic and Environmental Valuation、Risk Perception and Management

Making decisions informed by the best-available science is an objective for many organisations managing the environment or natural resources. Yet, available science is still not widely used in environmental policy and practice. We describe a '4S' hierarchy for organising relevant science to inform decisions. This hierarchy has already revolutionised clinical practice. It is beginning to emerge for environmental management, although all four levels need substantial development before environmental decision-makers can reliably and efficiently find the evidence they need. We expose common bypass routes that currently lead to poor or biased representation of scientific knowledge. We argue that the least developed level of the hierarchy is that closest to decision-makers, placing synthesised scientific knowledge into environmental decision support systems.