Event Title
Designing the future of contaminants management, together
Presentation Abstract
Both shipping and oil transport are expected to increase in the Salish Sea over the next few years, and it is essential to have a clear understanding of how this activity will impact the ecosystem – so that environmental challenges can be planned for and mitigated. Atlantis is a whole-of-ecosystem model that can assess the impacts of human activity, including the effects of contaminants, like oil, on the marine environment. The model can be used to look at how different contamination events and management approaches affect the whole system – allowing their likely impact to be assessed ahead of time. This ability to explore potential impacts in a virtual environment helps to plan strategically, and make decisions about how to keep the Salish Sea healthy. To ensure such a tool is relevant to decision making, it is vital to understand the needs of diverse partners and build them into the design of the model – and the design of the scenarios that will be tested within it. Drawing on experiences associated with the Salish Sea Atlantis model, this presentation will identify how specialised knowledge brokering can help span boundaries between diverse stake-and rights-holders to facilitate the development of highly relevant decision support tools. In particular, we highlight key steps to take when co-designing a decision-support tool, with a specific focus on creating scenarios and outputs that are tailored to user needs. By defining shared goals for environmental management and planning strategically to tackle challenges before they occur, it is possible to create a shared vision for the Salish Sea and to work towards it, together.
Session Title
Contaminants, Nutrients, and Productivity
Conference Track
SSE10: Contaminants
Conference Name
Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference (2022 : Online)
Document Type
Event
SSEC Identifier
SSE-traditionals-341
Start Date
28-4-2022 10:15 AM
End Date
28-4-2022 11:45 AM
Rights
Copying of this document in whole or in part is allowable only for scholarly purposes. It is understood, however, that any copying or publication of this document for commercial purposes, or for financial gain, shall not be allowed without the author's written permission.
Type
Text
Language
English
Designing the future of contaminants management, together
Both shipping and oil transport are expected to increase in the Salish Sea over the next few years, and it is essential to have a clear understanding of how this activity will impact the ecosystem – so that environmental challenges can be planned for and mitigated. Atlantis is a whole-of-ecosystem model that can assess the impacts of human activity, including the effects of contaminants, like oil, on the marine environment. The model can be used to look at how different contamination events and management approaches affect the whole system – allowing their likely impact to be assessed ahead of time. This ability to explore potential impacts in a virtual environment helps to plan strategically, and make decisions about how to keep the Salish Sea healthy. To ensure such a tool is relevant to decision making, it is vital to understand the needs of diverse partners and build them into the design of the model – and the design of the scenarios that will be tested within it. Drawing on experiences associated with the Salish Sea Atlantis model, this presentation will identify how specialised knowledge brokering can help span boundaries between diverse stake-and rights-holders to facilitate the development of highly relevant decision support tools. In particular, we highlight key steps to take when co-designing a decision-support tool, with a specific focus on creating scenarios and outputs that are tailored to user needs. By defining shared goals for environmental management and planning strategically to tackle challenges before they occur, it is possible to create a shared vision for the Salish Sea and to work towards it, together.
