James J. Opaluch

Synopsis:

The coastal zone constitutes about 11% of the land area of our nation, but it supports almost half of the population and generates one-third of the gross national product. And the growth rate of population is higher in the coastal zone than in any other region. Our coasts provide unique opportunities for recreation, production, and commerce that contribute to our nation's cultural and environmental heritage. As the nexus of terrestrial, estuarine and marine ecosystems, the coastal zone is the world's most complex, and vulnerable ecological setting. But coastal development threatens threatens many of these natural amenities, which are what attract people to the coast in the first place.

The decline in the ecological health of the coastal zone is due, in part, to a de-coupling of scientific information and land-use decision-making. This research attempts to address this de-coupling by developing technology-based tools to help coastal communities better envision the consequences of alternative growth management policies. The goal of the research is to develop methods that can contribute to the dialog and help develop a consensus on community efforts to manage growth. The research uses the new University of Rhode Island Policy Simulation Laboratory, which is a set of rooms that are integrated to provide a state-of-the-art facility to integrate science and decision making. The facility is made of a Policy Simulation laboratory, a Presentation Hall and two group decision rooms. It is also networked into the existing Rhode Island Environmental Data Center Geographic Information System laboratory.

The SimLab is a computer lab with 26 computer workstations and advanced audiovisual equipment. Participants in the SimLab make decisions that interact though a "virtual" decision environment, but are isolated by partitions to discourage direct interactions. The Presentation Hall is an auditorium with 125 seats, in-seat voting capabilities and advanced audiovisual equipment. The two group decision rooms are conference rooms that seat 8-16 individuals around a conference table for decision making by group consensus.

These rooms are networked to provide an integrated and flexible decision environment. For example, members of the town council might meet in a group decision room and create a growth management plan for the town. Computer systems might then determine the implications for the future of the community, and identify associated impacts on groundwater, traffic, ecosystem fragmentation and town finances. Audiovisual systems might present the plan and its implications to voters in the Presentation Hall, who might vote on a management plan, or they might rank or rate several alternative plans. The town council might then receive feedback in the form of forecast impacts and the results of the voting process. They might then revise the management plan in response.

We are currently using these facilities to manage growth in two projects. First, we have a project funded by the Rhode Island Sea Grant to help southern Rhode Island communities better understand growth-related impacts and develop policies to manage growth. Second, we have a project funded by the US Environmental Protection Agency to help communities on Cape Cod understand and plan for potential impacts associated with climate change. The presentation summarizes the current status and future directions of these two research projects.