What is meant by decision-making in the context of eco-informatics?

An initial starting point might be to consider the definition provided by Harris (1998): “Decision-making is the study of identifying and choosing alternatives based on the values and preferences of the decision maker.” In the context of eco-informatics, the decision-maker might be a policy-maker (e.g., a politician) or one of his or her analysts, a public agency official managing or working within some environmental program (e.g., a public employee in the U.S. EPA, U.S.D.A. Forest Service, or a state or local agency), a manager or staff in a non-profit organization such as the Nature Conservancy, a citizen environmental advocacy group, employees in a private firm involved in some environment-related decision, or even “citizen scientists” interested in a particular environmental problem or issue. Decision-making processes in the context of eco-informatics (and this report) involve any of these actors or combinations of the above, such as in the context of a town meeting or a public comment period, for example.