Over the past three decades, policymakers and researchers in varied social scientific fields have developed both a thorough understanding and a critique of conventional approaches to the use of scientific knowledge in environmental policy and decisionmaking. However, the collective insights of this work have had, at best, only marginal impacts on the production, review, and application of scientific knowledge in environmental policy in the United States. Moreover, existing tools do not provide systematic ways of identifying the consequences of environmental policy decisions. This research project addresses that gap by developing a conceptual framework and set of policy tools, called Knowledge Systems Analysis, that can be used by researchers and policymakers to guide the systematic review of environmental decisions and their outcomes.

The development of KSA will take place through theoretical research, and through empirical analyse of a network of coal mines and coal-fired power plants in the Four Corners region of the American Southwest. The empirical component entails a quantitative postaudit of the predictions in environmental and hydrologic impact statements, and a qualitative social and institutional analysis of the normative practices through which environmental knowledge is produced, validated, and used in policy decisionmaking.

In addition to producing an innovative policy tool and theoretical framework, this award will fund the development of a KSA pedagogical tool for students in professional public policy degree programs at Arizona State University. The project will also contribute important insights to the practice of environmental impact assessment and deterministic modeling, present a case study on the management and resilience of complex socio-ecological systems, and contribute to the environmental history of energy development on the tribal lands in the American Southwest. Finally, the research supports the training of a postdoctoral researcher.