Eco-decisional well-being networks as a tool for community decision support

Area of Science:

• Ecological economics
• Social-ecological systems analysis
• Network science

Background:

• Community decision-making for ecosystem services sustainability is complex and requires understanding interrelationships.
• Decision interdependencies can be quantified by mapping connections between actions, ecosystem services, and human well-being domains.
• Network structures offer quantifiable properties to analyze decision impacts.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and present an eco-decisional network tool for integrated decision-making.
• To utilize weighted social-ecological networks to link actions, ecosystem services, and human well-being.
• To provide a framework for understanding and measuring the interrelatedness of community decisions.

Main Methods:

• Constructed an eco-decisional network using weighted social-ecological networks.
• Nodes represented actions, ecosystem services, or human well-being domains.
• Weighted influences were derived from community stakeholder input and network analysis.

Main Results:

• Identified significant patterns of influence from actions to community well-being within the network.
• These patterns reveal community priorities and specific pathways through which actions affect well-being.
• The network structure highlights unique roles of actions in influencing human well-being.

Conclusions:

• The eco-decisional network serves as a generalized or community-specific guidance tool.
• It enables comparison of decisional priorities and proposed actions across and within communities.
• Network properties and theory offer a robust approach for integrated decision-making and stakeholder communication.