Building a better toolbox
Understanding these relational values (how people relate to our planet) can have practical outcomes. Generating trust through a shared understanding of nature’s value can increase public participation in conservation or safety programs.
“For example, improved trust in wildfire risk warnings or hurricane forecasts would likely increase compliance with evacuation orders, saving lives and reducing rescue costs,” O’Hara pointed out.
In their study the researchers started with a set of thousands of peer-reviewed earth science information papers, eventually narrowing down to 171 studies that applied specific valuation methods to their data. They mapped these methods assessing their strengths and weaknesses, and sorted them into three value types: Instrumental (i.e, means to an end) where the benefit was measured in monetary and non-monetary (e.g. healthy crops or clean water) terms and relational, in which the benefit is less tangible, such as community-building or cultural significance.
The vast majority of studies valued their data using a “Value of Information” framework, which assigns value based on the data’s ability to reduce uncertainty in decision-making; or through cost-benefit analysis.
“One of our sub-goals was also to look at methods that go beyond monetary value,” O’Hara said. “Not just the instrumental value of more money or more crops or more clean water, but also the way that we relate to the world and to each other through the medium of nature.” For instance, he said, recreational fishing has economic value, but there is also the benefit of being out in nature, doing something enjoyable with friends that would be important. For these types of benefits, other valuation methods, such as surveys or interviews, may be more useful, he added.
The aim, according to O’Hara, is to create a toolbox from which researchers can draw to interpret their data. O’Hara noted that because methods like cost-benefit analysis are well-studied (“success breeds success”), they often become the only lens through which ESI is viewed.
“But not every question can be answered by those methods,” he said. “ If you focus only on those, you miss asking really rich, interesting questions that other methods are much better suited to answer.”
Ultimately, this broader approach is about equipping the future workforce.
“It teaches the next generation of scientists that data is not neutral; it is a tool that interacts with deep human values,” Echeverri said. “If they can speak the languages of both remote sensing and socio-cultural value, they will be the most effective leaders in their field.”
Source: UCSB