OF MAPS AND TERRITORIES - THE USE AND ABUSE OF SOCIOECONOMIC MODELING IN SUPPORT OF DECISION-MAKING

While the need for better data and models to support environmental decision making is generally recognized, the need for new approaches to how those data and models are used in the policy-making process has received less attention. Yet the relationship between analysis and policy is often characterized by problems of misunderstanding and mistrust between analysts and decision makers. The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of socioeconomic models in forecasting and decision making about environmental problems, and to suggest ways in which such models can be developed and used so as to increase the chance of their playing not only a scientifically but also a politically useful and desirable role.