DI Digest Idea 4 July 96

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4.	Global Overlays
	Decision-makers are always looking for new tools to help make complex situations more under- standable. Recently, a new cluster of communications methodologies has emerged to aid them in this task. For instance, the folks at the Global Environment Facility (GEF) - a multi-billion dol- lar international initiative of the World Bank, UNDP and UNEP - are working on a new concept called 'global overlays'. The idea is to develop a much-needed template for analyzing the often- ignored environmental impacts or 'externalities' of economic decisions. If properly calculated, global over- lays promise to produce a truer measure of the 'real returns' of development projects. Similarly, new citi- zen-scientist partnerships are emerging that redefine 'experts' by placing a new value on local knowledge. In Canada, for instance, the collected wisdom of communities is receiving new recognition, whether it's the forest knowledge of aboriginal people in British Columbia or the seasoned expertise of Atlantic fisher-folk. Still another frontier for clarifying information for decision-making builds on the pictorial imagery of maps. Experts called 'community mappers' translate the customs and resource use patterns of local populations into powerful pictures that capture relevant details about local landscapes. A more sophisticated mapping method called Geographic Information Systems, or GIS, uses computers to manipulate multiple layers of spatially-arranged information. Taken together, technologies like global overlays, citizen-scientist partner- ships, community mapping and GIS present a promising toolkit for improving the communication of intri- cate information. [communications tools for assessing development impacts and more]
	GIS n. geographical information systems global overlays n. templates for incorporating unintended environmental impacts into economic analyses
	Aberley, Doug, ed. Boundaries of Home: Mapping for Local Empowerment. Philadel- phia, PA: New Society Publishers, 1993. 138 p. World Bank. 1995. Mainstreaming Biodiversity in Development: A World Bank Assistance Strategy for Implementing the Convention on Biological Diversity. World Bank Environment Paper #29.
NOT HOT -	One-Dimensional Decision-Making
	The folly of relying too heavily on any one indicator is well illustrated in Alan Atkisson's GDP Song (see page 7). But it's not just economists who occasionally succumb to the spell of a single indicator or issue. Conservationists have been known to push for parks while sometimes forgetting about people. Politicians are also known to suffer from clouded judgement when re-election ideas dominate their thoughts. Global overlays and other communication tools are one way to help decision-makers keep track of all the important aspects of complex issues.
*Virtual Ideas*	GIS links http://www-nais.ccm.emr.ca/schoolnet/issuemap/Home.html