Transferring Information on a Regional Environmental Issue: A Hybrid Information System

David W. Layton
Russell L. Gum

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DOI: 10.2190/T194-NPH9-LAGD-D048

Abstract

The transfer of environmental information on an issue of regional extent presents several informational problems to those groups and individuals involved with the issue. For an issue like coal-fired energy development in the Colorado River Basin, members of the interested public have difficulties in acquiring factual material on power plants, while electric utilities and government agencies have other problems related to the communication of information. The Hybrid Information System was conceived as a method of facilitating the flow of impact information among the parties concerned with the effects of eight power plants in the Southwest. It is a computerized system that uses stored material, simulation models, and computational routines to describe impacts. An evaluation of the system by thirty-five prospective users from Arizona found it to be a viable way of transmitting environmental information.

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