S.96-9
40
1^1
SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
OFFICE OF THE VICE-PRESIDENT, ACADEMIC
?
MEMORANDUM
To: ?
Senate
From: ?
D. Gagan, Chair
/a4v4
I
?I9 4'-.
Senate Committee on Academic Planning
Subject:
?
School of Resource and Environmental Management
Curriculum Revisions
Date: ?
December 11, 1995
Action undertaken by the Senate Graduate Studies Committee and the Senate Committee
on Academic Planning gives rise to the following motion:
Motion:
"That Senate approve and recommend approval to the Board of
Governors, as set forth in
S.96-9 ,
the following
New course: ?
REM
625-5 Risk Assessment and Decision Analysis
for Management of Natural Resources
Deletion of:
?
REM
615-3 Management of Aquaculture Resources -
(subject to the dissolution of the
Master of Aquaculture Program)
Change in degree requirements for the Joint Masters in Natural Resource
Management and Business Administration."
Agreement has been reached between the Faculty and Library in?
the assessment of library costs associated with the new course.
0
SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY?
SCHOOL OF RESOURCE AND ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT?
MEMORANDUM
TO: ?
Dr. Parveen Bawa
Associate Dean of FAS
FROM: ?
Dr. Randall M. Peterman, Chair
Graduate Studies Committee
School of Resource and Environmental Management
DATE: ?
November 10, 1995
SUBJECT: Calendar Changes
We propose to make the following changes to the calendar for 1995-96.
1.
New
Course Proposal
REM 625-5 Risk Assessment and Decision Analysis for Management of Natural
Resources. See attached course description.
Rationale:
Uncertainties are often large in natural resource systems and they create risks that
managers of natural resources must take into account. No existing course at SFU
deals with the use of the above quantitative methods for incorporating
uncertainties explicitly into decision making in management of natural resources
such as forests, fish, and wildlife. This course will fill that gap.
2.
Course Deletion
MRM 615-3 Management of Aquaculture Resources and description.
Rationale:
The Aquaculture program in the department of Biological Sciences has been
discontinued. This course will no longer be offered.
I.
2
3.
?
Masters in REM and Business.
1995-96
Calendar, page 275, Under Degree Requirements
a)
Under courses:
Replace Old Line 6: "In conjunction with..."
by
?
"In consultation with..."
b)
The
11
required courses (subject to any approved substitutions) are as
follows.
Change from:
BUS 512-4 - Introduction to Business Finance
527-3 - Financial Accounting
536-4 - Quantitative Methods in Management
543-4 - Introduction to Graduate Marketing
572-4 - Organizations and Human Resource Management
MRM 601-5 - Natural Resources Management 1: Theory and Practice
602-5 - Natural Resources Management 2: Advanced Seminar
611-5 - Applied Population and Community Ecology
641-5 -
Law and Resources
and one
of
MRM 621-5 - Economics
of
Natural Resources
BUS 507-4 - Managerial Economics
and one
of
MRM 644-5 - Public Policy Analysis and Administration
BUS 858-4 - Business and the Public Interest
.
.
[1
3
Replace with:
.
?
The 11 required courses (subject to any approved substitutions) are as follows:
BUS 512 - Introduction to Business Finance
BUS 527 - Financial Accounting
BUS 536 - Quantitative Methods in Management
BUS 543 - Introduction to Graduate Marketing
BUS 572 - Organizations and Human Resource Management
REM 601 - Natural Resources Management 1: Theory and Practice
REM 611 - Applied Population and Community Ecology
REM 801 - Principles of Research Methods and Design in Resource and
Environmental Management
and one of
REM 602 - Natural Resources Management 2: Advanced Seminar
REM 641 - Law and Resources
and one of
BUS 507 - Managerial Economics
REM 621 - Economics of Natural Resources
and one of
BUS 858 - Business and the Public Interest
REM 644 - Public Policy Analysis and Administration
Rationale:
This will make the degree requirements consistent with the change made to the MRM
degree in 1995.
Dr; Lindsey Meredith, Graduate Chair, MBA Program has approved the changes to the
Joint MRM/MBA degree.
Randall M. Peterman
RMP/jr
'I
Simon Fraser University
New Graduate Course Proposal Form
Department: School
of
Resource and Environmental Mana
g
ement Course No.: REM 625
Course Title: Risk Assessment and Decision Anal
y
sis for Mana2ement
of
Natural Resources
Course Description for Calendar
(append a course outline):
Use of quantitative methods of risk assessment and decision analysis to explicitly take uncertainty into
account when making decisions in management of natural resources. Methods of quantifying uncertainty and the
resulting risks. Examples from management of forests, wildlife, fisheries, water resources, energy, and toxic
chemicals. Communicating information about uncertainties and the resulting risks to resource managers, the
public, and scientists. Advantages and limitations of various quantitative methods. Includes computer laboratories.
Credit Hours: 5
?
Vector: 3-2-0 Prerequisite(s)
if
any: REM 612 and REM 621
or permission of instructor
Estimated Enrolment: 10
?
When the course will first be offered:
?
Sprin2 1997
Frequency of course offering:
?
Every other year.
Justification:
Uncertainties are often large in natural resource systems and they create risks that managers of natural resources
must take into account. No existing course at SFU deals with the use of the above quantitative methods for
incorporating uncertainties explicitly into decision making in management of natural resources such as forests,
fish, and wildlife. This course will fill that gap.
Resources:
Faculty Member(s) who will normally teach this course;
append information about their competency to teach the course:
?
Randall M. Peterman
Number
of
additional faculty members required in order to offer this course:
?
none
Additional space required in order to offer this course
(append details):
?
none?
Additional specialized equipment required in order to offer this course
(append details):
none
Additional Library resources required
(append details):
annually:
$ I
one-time: ?
$_Q
Any other resource implications
of
offering this course
(append details): ?
none
If additional resources are required to offer this course, the department proposing the course should be
prepared to provide information on the source(s) of those additional resources.
.
Approvals:
Departmental Graduate Studies Committ :
/€LJ&
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1g2i:___.
Faculty Graduate Studies Committee: &,t4J'"-"
Faculty:
Date:
24
Date:
kic). -1;
Date:
A
k
V
7J'/9S
Following approval by the Faculty, this form and all relevant documentation should be forwarded to the Assistant
?
Director - Graduate Studies in the Office of the Registrar for consideration by the Senate Graduate Studies
?
Committee, the Senate Committee on Academic Planning and Senate.
1 ?
Course Outline for REM 625
Risk Assessment and Decision Analysis for
?
Management of Natural Resources
School of Resource and Environmental Management
?
Simon Fraser University
Randall M. Peterman
Objectives for Students in the Course
To learn:
1.
The fundamental role that uncertainty plays in the observation and
management of ecological systems as well as the nature and sources - - -
of that uncertainty
2.
How to describe and quantify that uncertainty
3.
Quantitative methods, especially decision analysis, to explicitly take
uncertainty into account when making decisions about management
actions in natural resource management. This will include methods to:
-define a management objective that includes more than one attribute
-quantify probabilities of different states of nature occurring
-calculation of outcomes for each contemplated management action,
given those states
4.
How to communicate information about uncertainties and the resulting
risks to resource managers, the public, and scientists
5.
The advantages and limitations of decision analysis
Required Text from
the Bookstore
1.
Morgan, G. and M. Henrion. 1990. Uncertainty: A Guide to Dealing with
Uncertainty in Quantitative Risk and Policy Analysis. Cambridge Univ.
Press, 332 pp. paperback.
2.
Course reading package (includes copies of several journal papers)
Tentative Outline
for the Lectures
1.
Overview of the Course'
2.
What is Risk Assessment and Why Do We Need It for Management of
Natural Resources?
3. Uncertainty -- Its Pervasiveness and Its Sources
4. Implications of Uncertainty in Resource Management
5. Describing and Quantifying Uncertainty
6.
Overview of Methods for Assessing Risks'and Making Decisions
7.
Quantitative Methods for Making Decisions Accounting for Uncertainty
8. The Value of Reducing Uncertainty
9. Limitations of Quantitative Methods
I
of Decision Making
10.
Communicating Uncertainty
11.
Review of Themes of the Course
Tentative Topics for the Computer Laboratories
-
Quantifying uncertainty about states of nature
- Using a model to generate outcomes
- Doing decision analyses on an Excel spreadsheet
- Analysis of sensitivity to uncertainties in a model's structure, parameter
values, probabilities, assumptions, and management objectives
- Analysis of value of information
- Multiattribute decision analysis
- Decision analysis for a sequence of decisions
Selected Readings
Barnthouse, L.W. 1994. Issues in ecological risk assessment: The CRAM
perspective.
Risk Analysis
14(3): 251-256.
Cohan, D. S.M. Haas, D.L. Radloff and R.F. Yancik. 1984. Using fire in
forest management: decision making under uncertainty.
Interfaces
14(5):8-19.
Cordue, P.L. and Francis, R.I.C.C. 1994. Accuracy and choice in risk
estimation for fisheries assessment.
Canadian Journal of Fisheries and
Aquatic Sciences
51:817-829.
Hilborn, R., Pikitch, E.K., Francis, R.C. 1993. Current trends in including risk
and uncertainty in stock assessment and harvest decisions.
Canadian
Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
50:874-880.
Holling, C.S. (ed.). 1978. Model invalidation and belief.
pp.
95-105, In:
Adaptive Environmental Assessment and Management. John Wiley &
Sons, New York, 377 pp.
Keeney, R.L. 1982. Decision analysis: An overview.
Operations Research
30(5):803-838.
Lave, L.B. and Dowlatabadi, H. 1993. Climate change: The effects of
personal beliefs and scientific uncertainty.
Environmental Science &
Technol.
27(10):1962-1972.
Maguire, L.A. 1986. Using decision analysis to manage endangered species
populations.
Journal of Environmental Management
22:345-360. ?
Manne, A.S. and R.G. Richels. 1994. The costs of stabilizing global CO2
emissions: A probabilistic analysis based on expert judgments.
The
Energy Journal
15(1):31-56.
Montgomery, C.A., Brown, G.M. and Adams, D.M. 1994. The marginal cost
of species preservation: The northern spotted owl.
J. of Environmental
Economics and Management
26:111-128.
Parkhurst, D.F. 1984. Decision analysis for toxic waste releases.
J.
Environmental Management
18:105-130.
Powell, S.G. 1991. A risk analysis of oil development in the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge.
The Energy Journal
12: 55-76.
44
3
. ?
Reckhow, K.H. 1994. Importance of scientific uncertainty in decision
making. Environmental Management
18(2):161-166.
Routledge, R.D. 1980. The effect of potential catastrophic mortality and
other unpredictable events on optimal forest rotation policy.
Forest Sd.
26(3):389-399.
Scherer, C.W. 1990. Communicating water quality risk.
Journal of Soil and
Water Conservation,
March-April: 198-200
Sissenwine, M.P. 1984. The uncertain environment of fishery scientists and
managers. Marine Resource Economics
1(1):1-29.
Stahl, G. D. Carlsson, and L. Bondesson. 1994. A method to determine
optimal stand data acquisition policies.
Forest Science
40(4):630-649.
Suter, G.W. 1990. Uncertainty in environmental risk assessment.
pp.
203-
230, In: Von Furstenberg, G.M. [Ed.], Acting Under Uncertainty:
Multidisciplinary Conceptions. Kluwer Academic -PubL, NorweIl
1
Ma.- 485
PP.
Suter, G.W. 1993. Defining the field.
pp.
3-47, In: G.W. Suter (ed.),
Ecological Risk Assessment. Lewis Publishers, Chelsea, Michigan, 538
PP.
Competence of the Facult y
Member to Teach the Course:
.
?
?
Randall M. Peterman (Professor, School of Resource and
Environmental Management) will teach this course in the future. He already
taught it once in the spring of 1995 when it was put on as a special topics
course. He has taught and done research on simulation modelling of natural
resources since the 1970s. He has numerous publications specifically in the
area of dealing with ecological uncertainties and has received commendation
awards for his research from the American Fisheries Society, American
Institute of Fisheries Research Biologists, and the Canadian Conference for
Fisheries Research.
.
I.
