A boundary spanning system supports large-scale ecosystem-based management
A 2022 article in the journal Environmental Science & Policy looks at how knowledge exchange across organizations influences science-based ecosystem recovery in Puget Sound. The University of Washington Puget Sound Institute describes its work to identify and communicate key scientific findings that support funding and policy decisions on an ecosystem scale.
Summary
In the Puget Sound region, there is concerted effort to develop and implement restoration activities based on the best available science and information. This helps to ensure that the funding and effort that supports the restoration activities is well spent and well applied. The University of Washington Puget Sound Institute engages in this process through “boundary spanning,” which is a focused effort to facilitate the exchange of knowledge and information between producers (i.e., analysts, scientists, researchers, etc.) and users (i.e., decision-makers, policy makers, managers, etc.) in support of evidence-informed decision-making.
A 2022 publication (James et al, 2022) describes specific examples of approaches and products used by the Puget Sound Institute (a boundary spanning organization) as part of the Environmental Protection Agency's National Estuary Program. These examples illustrate a range of potential boundary spanning activities to improve the use of knowledge in decision-making across interfaces separating different institutions. Different institutions, even those that broadly serve to promote Puget Sound recovery, are separate and stove-piped, so that learning that takes place within one, does not necessarily translate to, or inform the activities of another. Boundary spanning is meant to span the interfaces across institutions improving project implementation and policy and decision-making, and making science more relevant to policy needs.
Additionally, the paper describes a holistic boundary system that employs several complimentary and related approaches. This system is supported by, and indeed requires, a larger institutional framework that provides scaffolding upon which the boundary spanning operates. As described, the institutional framework is often not supplied solely by a single boundary spanning organization, but rather by a suite of cooperating institutions. Finally, we discuss approaches to evaluating the various impacts of boundary spanning.
Citation
James, C. A., Francis, T. B., Baker, J. E., Georgiadis, N., Kinney, A., Magel, C., Rice, J., Roberts, T. & Wright, C. W. (2022). A boundary spanning system supports large-scale ecosystem-based management. Environmental Science & Policy, 133, 137-145.
