IIc: Representational Validity of Computer Visualizations for Environmental Value Assessments

在过去的30年里，在美国，重大的环境管理决策需要公众的参与。公共机构在公共土地上采取的行动，要求公众参与的理由最为明确，但环境状况必然会影响到每个人，因此我们都是每个环境管理决策的利益相关者。人们对环境变化后果的看法很重要，而且往往是法律要求的。但环境管理的后果往往是复杂的，往往要到遥远的将来才能实现，而且总是有些不确定。那么，公众如何有意义地参与环境管理决策过程？如何传达环境的未来状态？公众如何确定和表达他们对这些替代品的偏好？已经制定和尝试了许多不同的“公众参与”方法，取得了不同程度的成功，从张贴通知和发表冗长的环境影响声明到举行公开会议，再到执行复杂的冲突解决程序。每种方法都有优点和缺点，并且都有合法的作用。最重要的公众参与方法之一是正式的价值评估-对相关公众偏好进行系统调查。环境价值评估通常向公众中有代表性的样本提出管理备选办法，包括程序和预期成果，公众通常通过给出数字评级或排名或作出选择来表明其偏好。为使这一进程有意义，评估中所表达的价值观和偏好必须与所述替代环境条件实际实现时所得出的价值观和偏好相一致-环境价值评估的结果必须有效。影响环境价值评估有效性的最基本因素之一是替代品表述的准确性和完整性。也就是说，文字，数字，地图和/或图片，用于描述相关的环境条件必须让参与者正确理解的替代品的问题，并确定这些条件如何影响的东西，他们value.The拟议的研究探讨计算机可视化的有效性作为一种手段，代表替代环境条件在正式的价值评估。环境可视化技术的发展非常迅速，从粗糙的示意图到卡通图像，再到摄影现实主义，最后到“虚拟现实”。他说：“这些作品可透过互动电脑网络，非常有效地分发给世界各地的观众，为公众提供前所未有的参与机会。但这些陈述对公众理解和评价环境替代品的影响尚不清楚。这项研究将告知环境管理人员和评估专家的优点和局限性的计算机可视化，并有助于确保公众输入的环境决策是有效的。

During the last thirty years in the United States, significant environmental management decisions have required the participation of the public. The justification for requiring public input is most clear for actions by public agencies on public lands, but the condition of the environment necessarily affects everyone so we are all stakeholders in every environmental management decision. People's opinions about the consequences of environmental changes are important, and they are often legally required. But the consequences of environmental management are often complex, they are frequently only to be realized far into the future, and they are always somewhat uncertain. How, then, is the public to be meaningfully engaged in the environmental management decision process? How are alternative future states of the environment to be communicated? How can the public determine and express their preferences for these alternatives?Many different "public participation" methods have been developed and tried with varying levels of success, ranging from the posting of notices and the publication of lengthy environmental impact statements to holding open meetings to implementing elaborate conflict resolution processes. Every method has advantages and disadvantages, and all have a legitimate role. One of the most important public participation methods is a formal values assessment--a systematic survey of relevant public preferences. Environmental values assessments typically present management alternatives, including processes and expected outcomes, to representative samples of the public who indicate their preferences, usually by assigning numerical ratings or rankings or by making choices. For this process to be meaningful, it is critical that the values and preferences expressed in the assessment are consistent with the values and preferences that would be elicited if the alternative environmental conditions represented were actually realized--the results of environmental values assessments must be valid. Among the most basic factors affecting the validity of environmental values assessments is the accuracy and completeness of the representation of alternatives. That is, the words, numbers, maps and/or pictures used to describe relevant environmental conditions must allow participants to correctly understand the alternatives at issue, and to ascertain how those conditions affect things that they value.The proposed study investigates the validity of computer visualizations as a means for representing alternative environmental conditions in formal value assessments. Environmental visualization technology has advanced very rapidly, from crude schematics to cartoon-like images to photographic realism to "virtual reality." These representations can very efficiently be distributed to audiences world-wide over interactive computer networks, providing unprecedented opportunities for public participation. But the effects of these representations on public understanding and evaluations of environmental alternatives is not known. This study will inform environmental managers and assessment specialists of the advantages and limitations of computer visualizations, and help to insure that public input to environmental decisions is valid.