Difference between revisions of "2017 Knowledge Assessment"

2017 Knowledge Assessment

The GCDAMP advises the Secretary of the Interior (Secretary) on:

• Meeting environmental and cultural commitments.
• Long-term monitoring and the status of resources.
• Studies undertaken to increase knowledge of the effects of routine and experimental dam operations, other management actions, and environmental factors on key resource values.
• Activities undertaken to comply with applicable laws.

The GCDAMP carries out a substantial program of monitoring and research, and manages large bodies of data and knowledge, in order to advise the Secretary on these topics. The ultimate purpose of this advice is to sustain a robust program of adaptive management. The GCDAMP periodically undertakes a review of the knowledge on which it bases its advice to the Secretary. This knowledge and advice crucially help inform the decisions of the Secretary concerning adaptive management of dam operations and their impacts. The review – here termed a ‘knowledge assessment’ – assesses the knowledge, and the reliability or certainty of the knowledge, for three broad objectives, to:

1. summarize what is known;
2. assess ongoing needs for monitoring to sustain crucial knowledge; and
3. identify crucial gaps and weaknesses in this knowledge that require attention.

The results will inform work planning and budgeting.