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Contributed Talk

Session: : Broadening Participation and Impact 1

COS 53-3 - Communicating ecological integrity metrics to a broader audience using web tools

Tuesday, August 8, 2023
8:30 AM – 8:45 AM PDT
Location: B117
Abstract: Ecological research is often only communicated within the scientific community. However, communicating complex topics to a broader audience is key to engaging more stakeholders, including policymakers and the public. In San Diego County, an analysis of ecosystem integrity was conducted to identify areas impacted by large-scale threats and determine priorities for future management. The ecological integrity assessment consisted of 19 indicators including species, vegetation communities, and threats to ecological functions. Measurable metrics were assessed for each indicator to represent different aspects of the indicator’s condition. Many of these metrics used large, multifaceted datasets and covered complex ecological topics. In order to communicate these complicated metrics to a broader audience, web tools were designed to distill information into interactive webpages on sdmmp.com. A combination of graphics in a dashboard format, with story maps to provide context and additional information, were used to draw in a larger audience. Depending on their interests, visitors can link to more detailed information, data, and scientific publications for each indicator and metric. These tools are now being used by the public to learn about conservation efforts and by conservation stakeholders, such as wildlife agencies and land managers, to understand the effects of past management and plan for future actions for species and in habitats of conservation concern. The keys to engaging a larger audience include designing tools based on understanding the needs and abilities of various user groups, incorporating a database design to facilitate automatic queries with updates, and using a “general-to-specific” approach for the tools.