Systematic causal inference and knowledge transfer between science and policy: Eco Evidence in water management

Abstract

Effectively transferring complex scientific ideas into the policy domain is a serious challenge, but an essential one given the important role of science in assessing the implications of a changing climate and resulting water shortages in Australia. Eco Evidence, a method for conducting systematic reviews of the scientific literature using causal criteria analysis, was developed for the eWater Cooperative Research Centre to help bridge this gap between science and policy. It provides a transparent and repeatable method for assessing the strength of the available scientific evidence regarding particular management actions. However, if evidence is used to justify decisions rather than to provide options and likely outcomes of these options to stakeholders, its effectiveness can be undermined. By drawing on interdisciplinary theories of uncertainty in the science-policy arena, this paper demonstrates how Eco Evidence can be used in evidence-based practice in a manner that does not interfere with the effective participation of a range of stakeholders in the decision-making process.

Keywords:

• Systematic review
• environmental science
• environmental policy
• causality
• participation
• uncertainty

Additional information

Notes on contributors

D S Skinner

Dominic Skinner is a Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne working at the interface between limnology and river basin management. He is a 2011 Fellow of the Peter Cullen Trust, a 2010 Wentworth Scholar, and completed his PhD in 2012 on the effects of drought and extreme water level decline on a shallow lake at the end of the Murray-Darling Basin.

J A Webb

Dr Angus Webb is a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Resource Management and Geography at The University of Melbourne. Following completion of his PhD in marine ecology, Angus became involved in research targeted at managing human-induced disturbances to freshwater systems, largely through projects undertaken with the Cooperative Research Centre for Freshwater Ecology and the eWater Cooperative Research Centre. Angus was instrumental in developing the Eco Evidence method and software for systematic review with the eWater CRC.

S J Nichols

Dr Susan Nichols is a Senior Research Fellow with the Institute for Applied Ecology and the Murray-Darling Futures CRN at the University of Canberra. Her background is in freshwater science and ecological assessment of river condition. A research interest is the adaption of causal criteria (as used in epidemiology) for use in environmental assessment. This research focuses on the systematic review and synthesis of scientific research to aid the integration of science in the management of freshwater systems. Susan’s PhD thesis was titled “Use of invertebrate predictive models, the reference condition and causal criteria for ecological assessment of river condition”.

M J Stewardson

A/Prof Mike Stewardson is Discipline Leader for Environmental Hydrology and Water Resources in the Melbourne School of Engineering at The University of Melbourne. His research spans ecohydraulics, hydromorphology and freshwater ecosystem management. Mike has led a number of research projects that focused on improving evidence-based practice in environmental management of rivers, with a recent focus on supporting environmental flow decisions in the MurrayDarling Basin. He is the winner of the 2011 Eureka Prize for Water Research and Innovation.