Science, Citizens, and Catchments: Decision Support for Catchment Planning in Australia.

This paper describes an approach that has been used to facilitate participatory catchment (watershed) planning in Australia. Integrated catchment management(ICM) is a complex process embracing not only the natural resources of a catchment, but also diverse interests and values. This paper examines experiences and issues relating to the integration of science-based research and development (R&D) in ICM. In particular, it identifies issues relating to the integration of uncertainty of knowledge on catchment processes. Using a case study of a catchment setting in Western Australia, the paper offers an early evaluation of adaptive environmental assessment and management (AEAM), a decision support systems (DSS) approach that explicitly recognizes the high levels of uncertainty in environmental processes. Previous evaluations of AEAM have tended to focus on immediate outcomes. This study forms the first phase of an evaluation that seeks to measure the long-term effects of the approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]