Decision Making for Sustainable Use and Development - Coastal Lagoons: Ecosystem Processes and Modeling for Sustainable Use and Development - page 340

Another example is that of tourism or other related outdoor recreational income
attributable to the presence of “quality of life” and intrinsic contributions of a lagoon.
An estimate of the income to the area from tourists, the associated employment, and
income from other man-made or skilled products or services should be tallied. At
the same time, however, the other side of the balance sheet, the impact cost to the
NC by the increased use and degradation, must be quantified as well. Similarly,
increased population growth and corresponding land or water use changes can be
measured by changes in biological indicators. Chapter 7 deals with this concept in
detail and provides examples and discussion of monitoring techniques.

8.4 TOOLS FOR DECISION MAKING

A wide assortment of implementation tools is available to those involved in the
planning process and to decision makers. Many effective tools are already being
used for improvements in lagoon water quality and the health of the socio-economic
and ecological systems in the watershed. Involvement of more types of constituent
groups and plan participants usually enriches the number and types of tools, options,
and resources available. A sample list of tools now being used to assess and improve
the health of these systems is provided below.
Technical (scientific ecological and socio-economic) tools available are

• Models—including modules of hydrodynamics, chemical processes, bio-
logical, ecological, land-use, and spatio-temporal factors that describe the
lagoon system ( Chapters 3 - 6, Section 8.4.1)
• Monitoring (Section 8.4.2 and Chapter 7)
• Indicators—biological, social, economic, etc. (i.e., the Organization for
Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) core set of indicators)
(Section 8.4.3)
• Graphic user interface, including geographic information system (GIS)
(Section 8.4.4)
• Economic valuation methods (Section 8.4.5)
• Environmental and social assessments (Section 8.4.6)
• Policy transformation and implementation (Section 8.4.7)
•

Public input (Section 8.4.8)

Since most of these tools have been described in more detail in previous chapters,
only a brief summary is provided here in the context of their use in decision making.

8.4.1 M D -M T

ODELING AS A ECISION AKING OOL

A model is a useful tool for decision making because it provides for a better under-
standing of the elements, mechanisms, kinetic processes, and capabilities of the sys-
tems being modeled. Modeling allows for integrated interpretation of input scenarios
by varying the existing parameters to the desired future conditions to produce numer-
ical solutions for the differential equations describing the ecosystem's processes. The
user is then able to model different alternative scenarios and analyze costs and benefits
of each of the outcomes that has been input. A model provides the decision maker
with a prediction, based upon the best scientific information available, of the outcome