Carrying capacity as "informed judgment": The values of science and the science of values

Abstract

Contemporary carrying capacity frameworks, such as Limits of Acceptable Change and Visitor Experience and Resource Protection, rely on formulation of standards of quality, which are defined as minimum acceptable resource and social conditions in parks and wilderness. Formulation of standards of quality involves elements of both science and values, and both of these elements must be integrated into "informed judgments" on the part of park and wilderness managers. That is, managers must ultimately make value-based judgments about the maximum acceptable level of visitor-caused impacts to the resource base and the quality of the visitor experience. However, such judgments should be as informed as possible by scientific data on the relationships between visitor use and resulting impacts, and the degree to which park and wilderness visitors and other interest groups judge such impacts to be acceptable. Such information represents the "values of science" to managing carrying capacity in parks and wilderness. A growing body of literature has begun to address the corresponding "science of values," and how this type of information might be integrated in park and wilderness management. Visitor-based research has employed normative theory and techniques to explore the acceptability of a range of social and biophysical impacts related to visitor use, and findings from these studies are being integrated into a body of knowledge and applied in management decisionmaking. Conceptual and methodological extensions of the normative approach are currently being explored in a variety of park and wilderness contexts, and new theoretical and empirical approaches are being adapted to address tradeoffs inherent in carrying capacity. In these ways, the science of values is progressing to meet the opportunities and challenges of the values of science to park and wilderness management.

Parent Publication

• Visitor use density and wilderness experience: proceedings; 2000 June 13; Missoula, MT

Citation

Manning, Robert E. 2001. Carrying capacity as "informed judgment": The values of science and the science of values. In: Freimund, Wayne A.; Cole, David N., comps. Visitor use density and wilderness experience: proceedings; 2000 June 13; Missoula, MT. Proceedings RMRS-P-20. Ogden, UT: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. p. 21-28.