ECOLOGICAL BOUNDARY-SETTING IN MENTAL AND GEOPHYSICAL MODELS

2 Project Summary When agencies and the public direct their attention to an environmental problem, they explicitly or implicitly bound that problem by associating it with a particular system at a particular scale. Proposed research will focus on the problem formulation phase of the decision process and on the role of spatial modeling in that process. The objectives of this research center on identification of modeling approaches that identify and clarify environmental problems in public decision making. Two aspects of such problems are: (1) the boundary and scale decisions made by geophysical modelers in their attempt to represent the system of concern; and (2) the mental and cultural processes by which stakeholders identify temporal and spatial boundaries in the process of formulating and articulating a shared concern. The latter processes are hypothesized to be shaped by individual and social values that invigorate the public to respond to an environmental problem. A framework for understanding and articulating these values will inform the formal modeling process undertaken by those attempting to resolve shared resource problems. Two key types of values will be emphasized: (a) " sense of place values " —values that residents associate with a locality; and (b) spatial dimensions of equity issues, as private and public decisions may create differentials in the quality of life within and across physical and political boundaries. Sense of place is hypothesized in the context of experiential discounting as critical to the development of individual and social identities that frame the way environmental problems are experienced, informally bounded, and formulated. Similarly, values derived from relative social status are important in determining the spatial boundaries used to characterize and articulate environmental problems. Three case study areas, where team members have established a research presence, have been chosen to apply this framework: comparative lens will be used to examine formulation of three types of environmental problems: sprawling land use patterns, management of water quality and quantity, and brownfield redevelopment. A variety of methods will be developed and employed to study the processes by which individuals and interest groups identify, articulate, and modify perceived boundaries of environmental problems. Selected methods of garnering information about stakeholders' mental models include elicitation of perceptions through interviews, discourse analysis of documents, and revealed preference valuation. These methods will be combined with the use of agent-based GIS modeling techniques to represent such information geographically and to provide linkages between social scientific data and …