Research summary
Natural resources include ecosystems, water, soil, trees and more. Community-based approaches to managing these resources must include community knowledge. But what is the best way to quantitatively integrate this knowledge into science-based decisions? As Canada Research Chair in Fisheries Ecology, Dr. Aaron MacNeil is trying to come up with an answer to this question.
He and his research team are using information theory, translation theory, cognitive psychology and machine learning to understand how to translate ideas into models that can be evaluated empirically. They want to know how best to elicit model structures from individual ideas, define model-data coherence and its impact on model evaluation, and develop a framework for integrating community knowledge into resource management. Ultimately, their findings will form the basis of a book that sets out coherent, evidence-based ways to incorporate diverse views into the science of resource management.