Coastal SEES Collaborative Research: Oyster fisheries in the Chesapeake Bay: Integrating stakeholder objectives with natural system models to promote sustainable policy

研究人员将利用切萨皮克湾的牡蛎渔业作为基于可靠科学的合作政策制定的测试案例。环境政策往往引起争议，难以执行，特别是当人们不理解规则的原因或不认为规则是公平的时候。自然资源可以通过所有受影响的利益攸关方、科学家和政府代表合作制定的政策得到更好的维持。项目小组将采取系统的办法，举办一系列讲习班，让所有利益攸关方与科学家合作，指导模型的开发，选择政策目标，并应用模型提出政策建议。协作建模方法将确保利益相关者有机会将他们的价值观，目标和知识纳入河口生态系统的模型，其中包括自然系统的许多好处，如商业和娱乐捕鱼，安全的游泳水和其他生态系统服务。 研究人员将研究影响利益相关者参与和政策形成的社会学和经济学，以更好地了解人的因素，改善过程，并提高建议政策的实施成功率。关于牡蛎生态系统和渔业的经验教训将促进贝类渔业可持续管理的工具和做法。利益攸关方研讨会提出的政策建议将由州和联邦机构进行评估，如果得到实施，将直接提高沿海可持续性。一个博士学生，两名硕士生，一名博士后研究员将在耦合自然-人类系统的科学培训。该项目是美国国家科学基金会海岸科学、工程和可持续发展教育项目（Coastal SEES）的一部分，旨在提高预测模型在制定自然资源政策和管理方面的实用性。 该研究小组将建立一个创新的自然系统模型，将三维水动力学，水质和幼虫运输模型与牡蛎人口统计，人类使用和经济学相结合，其规模适用于恢复和管理。开发的建模系统将大大推进调查和理解自然系统的方法，这些系统具有物理条件，生物体和人类之间的复杂反馈。研究人员将在模型设计过程中纳入利益相关者的价值观、目标和知识。通过一系列讲习班，利益攸关方将选择政策目标，综合模型将预测政策在多大程度上能够实现这些目标。这一迭代过程将确保自然系统模型将纳入人类对生态系统的复杂使用。将作出有针对性的努力，研究利益攸关方参与、信息流动、使用和影响以及政策制定的社会经济驱动因素，以改进这一进程，提高所建议政策的执行成功率。通过这样做，这项研究将促进对制定可持续政策所需的人类层面的理解，并为将自然科学和社会科学以及科学家纳入可持续资源管理提供重要的新战略。这一可推广的研究内容是对牡蛎研究的重要补充，两者都将促进贝类渔业可持续管理的工具和做法。

Researchers will use the oyster fisheries in the Chesapeake Bay as a test case for collaborative policy development that is grounded in sound science. Environmental policies often create controversy and can be difficult to enforce, particularly when people do not understand the reason for the rules or do not consider the rules to be fair. Natural resources can be better sustained by policies developed cooperatively among all affected stakeholders, scientists, and government representatives. In a systematic approach, the project team will hold a series of workshops in which a full set of stakeholders will work with scientists to guide development of a model, select policy objectives, and apply the model to make policy recommendations. A collaborative modeling approach will ensure that stakeholders have an opportunity to incorporate their values, objectives, and knowledge into the model of the estuarine ecosystem which will include many benefits from the natural system such as commercial and recreational fishing, safe swimmable water, and other ecosystem services. Researchers will study the sociology and economics that influence stakeholder involvement and policy formation in order to better understand the human dimensions, improve the process, and enhance the implementation success of recommended policies. The lessons learned regarding the oyster ecosystem and fishery will advance the tools and practices of sustainable management of shellfisheries. The policy recommendations from the stakeholder workshops will be evaluated by state and federal agencies, and if implemented, would be an outcome that would directly enhance coastal sustainability. One Ph.D. student, two masters students, and one postdoctoral researcher will be trained in the science of coupled natural-human systems. This project is supported as part of the National Science Foundation's Coastal Science, Engineering, and Education for Sustainability program - Coastal SEES.This research aims to improve the utility of predictive models for shaping natural resource policy and management. The research team will build an innovative natural systems model that integrates three-dimensional hydrodynamic, water quality and larval transport models with oyster demographics, human uses, and economics at a scale that is applicable to restoration and management. The modeling system developed will substantially advance methods for investigating, and understanding, natural systems with complex feedbacks between physical conditions, vital rates of organisms, and humans. Researchers will include stakeholder values, objectives, and knowledge in the model design process. Through a series of workshops, stakeholders will select the policy objectives and the integrated model will project how well policies are expected to meet these objectives. This iterative process will ensure that the natural system model will incorporate the complex human uses of the ecosystem. A targeted effort will be made to study the socioeconomic drivers of stakeholder involvement, information flow, use and influence, and the policy formation in order to improve the process and enhance the implementation success of recommended policies. By doing so, this research will advance understanding of the human dimensions needed to create sustainable policy as well as provide important new strategies for integrating natural and social sciences, and scientists, in sustainable resource management. This generalizable research component provides an important complement to the research on oysters, both of which will advance the tools and practices of sustainable management of shellfisheries.