McDowell Memo: Decision Making Social Based versus Natural Occurance

Decision Making Social Based versus Natural Occurrence 

The following quote from Influence of Decision Making During Disasters and How It Impacts a Community by  Jayantha Withanaarachchi and Sujeeva Setunge RMIT University presented at 10th International Conference of the International Institute for Infrastructure Resilience and Reconstruction (I3R2) 20–22 May 2014 Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, USA

3. DECISION MAKING " Decision making is one of the basic cognitive processes of human behaviors by which a preferred  People make decisions to carry out their daily tasks. In an organization, decisions are made at every level and some get approved, discarded, or even stalled according to its culture and sometimes due to inherent bureaucratic processes. Decision makers are a special breed of people who are given the task to make responsible decisions, often from the responsible roles within organizations. Decisions are made to provide solutions to problems and to prevent a problem from being created; decision making creates many scenarios and actions that are connected with many outcomes. The outcomes of decisions change according to the dynamics of the situation. Also, the decision making depends on the decision maker’s abilities, characteristics, and approach towards reaching a solution.  The decision making varies between normal-day decisions making to extreme-disaster-event decision making, such as natural weather events or even man-made disasters. Decision making during disasters changes the dynamics involved with decision-making processes and, most of the time, creates panic situations. Each decision changes according to the type of disaster and its magnitude. Decision making must be flexible, responsive, and capable of reacting to the unexpected in a timely and effective manner (Lahidji, 2003). All disasters impact people and communities, destroys or damages cities and critical infrastructure, and impacts the environment. But each disaster is different, and the decisions have to suit the needs and requirements. The time to evacuate a community to safety depends on the type of disaster and the available time to prepare and continue with the evacuation processes"  

We as a community in the Southern Tier of New York have faced variety of decisions for the progress of the community in which we had to or should have had to look at the impact of doing what society wants versus what leaving it to the natural forces to resolve. Let me give you some wild life examples , The wild Turkey was nearly extinct here until the 1970s when they were re-introduced and have flourished . What has this lead to a huge industry in the hunting of Turkeys and therefore economic impacts that are all positive. But what natural effects have occurred from this change in natures plan . First the amount and size of the flocks of other birds such as pheasants, grouse, etc. are in decline as the compete for food. 

Then lets look at the eastern Coyote , I had never seen a coyote other than at a zoo when I was a kid. They were brought back as we experienced in the late 80's a movement to restore all endangered species to the area. So we brought back coyotes, birds of Prey ( several kinds) , Lynx and Bobcats. All of this in about a 10 year period. This was a social based decision as Nature had removed them from the area. This was caused by not only a lack of habitat as urban and suburban sprawl occurred all over upstate , but also by negative interactions with pet owners and farmers. So what have the positive impacts been of the social decision. First all of the above items have returned to populations the highest in 100+ years. People are harvesting some of the animals for sport The animals are being seen almost daily in the case of coyotes . What have been the negative impacts, Coyotes had adjusted and are now more of a suburban animal they are routinely found living in villages and even urban settings. The increase in deaths by predation of household pets is astonishing. The loss of small pets to Eagles, Hawks, Owls and Crows has exploded as we have large numbers of all of these now. The woodchuck and rabbit populations have crashed, you rarely see a rabbit sitting along side a road or even dead along the road the same with woodchucks we still see deer but the next biggest animal we see is Coyotes. 

So what is our point to this discussion, We have to look at decisions such as putting in dams and dykes along the Susquehanna River with an eye to what do we want more saved homes or wildlife habitation. When we build new highways and housing developments what are the impacts of choosing just to solve a human problem and not look at the impact to the water runoff in those areas. 

So I propose that whenever Government wants to improve a project or pass a law they must list the impacts that are desired and which are Society benefitting and which benefit the environment which include all of us. And they must list what natural impacts would occur over the next 20 years if the project is not done. 

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