Findings and Recommendations - Science For Environmental Protection: The Road Ahead - page 175

tions from a systems perspective and through strengthened leadership, commu-
nication, internal expertise, and internal and external collaboration. The mecha-
nism or mechanisms through which EPA chooses to address the recommenda-
tions will depend on its funding, its priorities, and what environmental science
and engineering areas it wants to focus its efforts on in the future. EPA already
addresses some aspects of the committee's recommendations to some degree. It
is the committee's aim that this report will help the agency to choose where to
enhance its ability to integrate its current science and to use new tools and tech-
nologies to address its mission challenges.
SYSTEMS THINKING
It is important for EPA to try to balance its capacity and resources to ad-
dress complex environmental challenges, to address potential favorable and un-
favorable health and environmental effects, and to apply emerging scientific
information, tools, techniques, and technologies. Approaching problems from a
systems perspective will allow EPA to meet those challenges and make the
maximum continuing use of new scientific tools. The committee has suggested
ways in which the agency can integrate systems-thinking techniques into a 21st
century framework for science to inform decisions (see Figure 6-1). That
framework will help EPA to stay at the leading edge of science by encouraging
it to produce science that is anticipatory, innovative, long-term, and collabora-
tive; to evaluate and apply emerging tools for data acquisition, modeling, and
knowledge development; and to develop tools and methods for synthesizing
science, characterizing uncertainties, and integrating, tracking, and assessing the
outcomes of actions. If effectively implemented, the framework would help to
break the silos of the agency and promote collaboration among different media,
time scales, and disciplines. In supporting environmental science and engineer-
ing for the 21st century, there will need to be a move from using science to
characterize risks, to applying science holistically to characterize both problems
and solutions at the earliest possible time. ORD's move toward embracing sus-
tainability throughout its research program is a positive move in this direction.
Finding: Environmental problems are increasingly interconnected. EPA can no
longer address just one environmental hazard at a time without considering how
that problem interacts with, is influenced by, and influences other aspects of the
environment.
Recommendation 1: The committee recommends that EPA substantially
enhance the integration of systems thinking into its work and enhance its
capacity to apply systems thinking to all aspects of how it approaches com-
plex decisions.