Communicating scientific findings to the general public

Abstract

The Human Induced Land Transformation project (HILT), part of the U.S. Geological Survey Global Change Research Program, has generated considerable public interest during the first two phases of the project: the data assembly and visualization phase carried out for the San Francisco Bay area; and the model building and calibration phase. The third phase, now underway for the Washington/Baltimore region, is a large scale test of the model's portability to another urban area. The modeling community has been kept informed of progress and findings of the HILT project through conventional academic outlets such as conference and journal publications as well as through more popular outlets such as newspaper, television, and a World Wide Web site. The program, sample data and documentation of the model will be available for downloading to those with an Internet connection. While recognizing that not all research has the same degree of public appeal as this project, additional effort was invested to establish contacts, publicize, and distribute the historical visualizations and model predictions generated by this work in the media, publishing, and in education. In this paper, we will cover the lessons learned in publicizing HILT, the techniques used and the criteria evolved for successful involvement of the general public in the modeling of land cover transitions.