Practice and perspectives in the validation of resource management models

Sibel Eker (), Elena Rovenskaya, Michael Obersteiner and Simon Langan
Additional contact information
Sibel Eker: International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)
Elena Rovenskaya: International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)
Michael Obersteiner: International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)
Simon Langan: International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)

Nature Communications, 2018, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract Quantitative modelling is commonly used to assist the policy dimension of sustainability problems. Validation is an important step to make models credible and useful. To investigate existing validation viewpoints and approaches, we analyse a broad academic literature and conduct a survey among practitioners. We find that empirical data plays an important role in the validation practice in all main areas of sustainability science. Qualitative and participatory approaches that can enhance usefulness and public reliability are much less visible. Data-oriented validation is prevalent even when models are used for scenario exploration. Usefulness regarding a given task is more important for model developers than for users. As the experience of modellers and users increases, they tend to better acknowledge the decision makers’ demand for clear communication of assumptions and uncertainties. These findings provide a reflection on current validation practices and are expected to facilitate communication at the modelling and decision-making interface.

Date: 2018
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-07811-9 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:9:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-018-07811-9

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-07811-9

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().