The Transactional Environmental Support System
The Transactional Environmental Support System (TESS) is an international research project supported by the 7th Framework Programme of the European Commission.
“Effective management of ecosystems is constrained both by the lack of knowledge and information about different aspects of ecosystems and by the failure to use adequately the information that does exist in support of management decisions.” MA
CCEEC staff are collaborating with 14 partners from 10 countries (including new EU member states and pre-accession countries) in the TESS project. The overall objective is to design a transactional environmental decision support system, linking central policy planning to local livelihoods. The project aims to assist policy makers to integrate knowledge from the EU, national, regional and local level into the decision making process while also encouraging local people to maintain and restore biodiversity ecosystem services.
CCEEC involvement in the projects falls in two main areas:
1. A survey of environmental information flows within local communities
A survey of local governments and other stakeholders across the partner countries characterised the use of information on biodiversity and ecosystem services in the environmental decision making process. The enquiry addressed the following questions relating to the flow of information on biodiversity and ecosystem services at the local level:
- What are the information needs?
- What determines the information needs?
- What information is used?
- What information is needed but currently unobtainable?
- What are the barriers to obtaining information?
2. A local case study exploring the potential benefits of enhanced information flow to both local communities and central policy makers.
CCEEC is collaborating with a Dorset based company, Anatrack Ltd
, in a detailed study of capacities for enhancing environmental information flows for decision support requirements in the Frome catchment.
The Frome catchment case study was designed to create a spatially explicit decision support framework for local stakeholders by mapping biodiversity and ecosystem services within the catchment area. The case study will gather environmental information currently available from various sources. It will then model and map the current distribution and value of biodiversity and ecosystem services. Scenario testing will illustrate the impacts of potential land-use decisions on human well-being and biodiversity, helping to understand the environmental, social and economic costs and benefits of changes in land-use and policy. This will provide a framework for local stakeholders to explore how local decisions on land use will impact the provision of ecosystem services and biodiversity.
The project runs for 30 months from October 2008
CCEEC staff: Kathy Hodder, Adrian Newton, Jane Butters, Lorretta Perrella, Chris Moody
For more information please visit the project web pages: www.tess-project.eu .
