Decisions and Actions

Land managers make decisions in the context of a number of demands for the land and for themselves.

These demands may complement each other or they may conflict. Land management decisions therefore have multidimensional influences on them, leading to actions with multifunctional land uses.

Globalisation and the urban/rural divide have led to a shift in emphasis from production to delivery of environmental benefits, challenging the traditional view of what makes a ‘good farmer’.

This research is exploring the multifunctional and multidimensional aspects to land management decisions and actions, the extent to which distinctive common features of the way in which decisions are made form identifiable classes of land manager, and whether interactions among subtypes of land managers form sustainable ‘decision ecologies’ at the landscape scale.

The work is combining studies of the relevant existing literature, with a set of case studies, each of which involves some combination of quantitative and qualitative empirical approaches, and computer and mathematical modelling. Different approaches to modelling decision-making processes (e.g. case-based reasoning and rule-based systems) are being examined.

The case studies include examining the responses of land managers to external shocks (such as disease, and climate, economic and policy change) and examining the socio-cultural influences on land managers.