Mar 3 - Shalini Vajjhala
Resources for the Future

"Spatial Analysis and Environmental Decision Making"

Many development and environmental projects inherently depend on the locations of key populations and resources. As a result, mapping tools, like Geographic Information Systems (GIS), have become increasingly widely used in environmental research and policy making. Even though the quality and quantity of spatial data have improved drastically with the growing popularity of mapping applications, in most cases these data are still based on superimposed boundaries, such as zip codes or counties, which rarely align with individuals’ experiences with and views of natural places.  

Because public perception and stakeholder outreach have also emerged as critical policy problems, affecting issues from siting major energy facilities to planning environmental clean-ups, there is a growing recognition that effective environmental planning and decision making require better understanding of individuals’ priorities, perceptions, and preferences for their environments. To this end, this talk presents a series of studies that bring together two spatial analysis tools, participatory mapping and GIS, to elicit individuals’ diverse perspectives of different places and resources. These studies range from surveys of Pittsburgh residents to define the ‘backyard’ to interviews with Virginians and North Carolinians to characterize the extent of market and extent of resource for contingent valuation in the Southern Appalachians. Together these examples highlight the potential for spatial analysis to support improved environmental decision making.

Shalini Vajjhala is a fellow in the Risk, Resource, and Environmental Management division at RFF, where she studies the social impacts of large-scale physical and economic phenomena. Her work focuses on development and environmental projects with a public participation component, such as population resettlement stemming from dam or highway construction, as well as how siting major facilities, such as electric power lines, affects and is influenced by local communities. Her interests are interdisciplinary and policy-focused and lie at the interface between large-scale technical projects and grassroots decision making and communication. As a result, her research brings together the fields of development planning, risk communication, spatial analysis, natural resource management, and judgment and decision making. Shalini has also worked extensively on adapting and integrating participatory mapping methods and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology to engage citizen participation...

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