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

研究人员将使用切萨皮克湾的牡蛎渔业作为以健全的科学为基础的合作政策制定的测试案例。环境政策经常引起争议，可能很难执行，特别是当人们不理解制定规则的原因或认为规则不公平的时候。所有受影响的利益攸关方、科学家和政府代表之间合作制定的政策可以更好地维持自然资源。项目小组将以系统的方式举办一系列研讨会，在研讨会上，所有利益攸关方将与科学家合作，指导模型的开发，选择政策目标，并应用模型提出政策建议。合作建模方法将确保利益攸关方有机会将他们的价值观、目标和知识纳入河口生态系统模型，该模型将包括自然系统的许多好处，如商业和休闲捕鱼、安全的可游泳水域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，以更好地理解人的维度，改进过程，并提高建议政策的实施成功。关于牡蛎生态系统和渔业的经验教训将推动贝类渔业可持续管理的工具和做法。利益攸关方研讨会的政策建议将由州和联邦机构进行评估，如果付诸实施，将是一个直接加强沿海可持续性的结果。一名博士生、两名硕士生和一名博士后研究员将接受自然-人类耦合系统科学方面的培训。该项目是国家科学基金会海岸科学、工程和可持续发展教育计划-海岸可持续发展计划的一部分。这项研究旨在提高预测模型的实用性，以形成自然资源政策和管理。研究小组将建立一个创新的自然系统模型，将三维水动力、水质和幼虫运输模型与牡蛎的人口统计学、人类用途和经济性相结合，规模适用于恢复和管理。开发的建模系统将极大地改进研究和理解自然系统的方法，这些系统具有物理条件、生物体的生命率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。通过一系列研讨会，利益攸关方将选择政策目标，综合模式将预测政策预期如何实现这些目标。这一迭代过程将确保自然系统模型将纳入生态系统的复杂人类用途。将有针对性地努力研究利益攸关方参与、信息流动、使用和影响的社会经济驱动因素，以及政策的形成，以改进这一过程，提高建议政策的实施成功率。通过这样做，这项研究将增进对制定可持续政策所需的人的层面的理解，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。这一概括性研究构成部分是对牡蛎研究的重要补充，这两项研究都将推动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.