As the natural world has become dominated by human influences the need for the public involvement in natural resource management decisions has become vital. In addition, scientists are now viewing nature as a dynamic rather than “in balance”. To accommodate these paradigms, natural resource managers have been encouraged to look holistically at the problems they manage through the lens of adaptive management. Current adaptive management theory incorporates variability, uncertainty, the relationship of impacts with respect to potential temporal and spatial disconnects, and social concerns. Add the obvious need for modeling and the stage is set for participatory system dynamics modeling.

Participatory SD modeling is a process that can integrate science and local knowledge with policy, and open the lines of communication between potentially different world views. We will use case studies to highlight three characteristics of participatory environmental modeling to illustrate the flexibility of process and the effectiveness of a broad range of interventions. 1) Interventions may take place anywhere on the “problem identification to solution producing” continuum. 2) Stakeholder involvement in the actual building of the model varies; the “hands on” continuum. 3) The type of data required varies on the “qualitative to quantitative” continuum.