Submitted to: Journal of Environmental Quality
Publication Type: Other
Publication Acceptance Date: November 15, 2000
Publication Date: N/A
Technical Abstract: Spatial and temporal scales in environmental research cover a wide range. As the
Submitted to: Journal of Environmental Quality
Publication Type: Other
Publication Acceptance Date: November 15, 2000
Publication Date: N/A
Technical Abstract: Spatial and temporal scales in environmental research cover a wide range. As the research community wants to develop an understanding of the impact of management changes on larger scales there is often a difficulty because of the lack of tools to effectively transfer data or information among scales. Emphasis on watershed and regional scale research requires information being transferred from either observations or models based on smaller scales. This book presents the theory that underlays the development of upscaling and downscaling methods and incorporates this theory into a decision support system to help the user. The information contained in this book is gleaned from the various papers that have been prepared on components of scaling. The references cited within this book represent applications from a variety of locations and studies. The outline of the book provides an introduction about the program of scaling and the general principles of upscaling (aggregation) or downscaling (disaggregation). All of the major terms that the readers need to understand in order to put concepts into practice are defined in a glossary and there are ample figures to visually explain the concepts. There are only three chapters in the book: Introduction; Upscaling; and Downscaling. The authors have developed a decision flow diagram that the reader can follow in the book to evaluate the most appropriate method for scaling and asks a series of questions for each step to assist the reader with applying the concepts. This diagram progresses through a series of decisions that a user must address to arrive at the best approach.