Gail Achterman

Duration: 3 minutes and 34 seconds

Country: United States

Language: English

License: CC - Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives

Genre: None

Views: 34 (1 embedded)

Posted by: umarket on Nov 13, 2009

Helps identify and solve sustainable development problems.

Report this video as offensive

Translate and Transcribe

Sign In/Register for dotSUB to translate this video.

Share

Embed Video
Embed normal player
Embed a smaller player
Advanced Embedding Options
Embedding Options

Size:

Language:

Embed Code
Embed transcript
Embed transcript in:
Invite a user to dotSUB

Your invitation to join dotSUB was successful

There was an error inviting that user to dotSUB

Video Transcription

Show in new window

I'm Gail Achterman.
I'm the director of the
Institute for Natural Resources
at Oregon State.
The Institute is one of the multi-campus
research institutes in the Oregon University
system. But it's housed at Oregon State
and investments by Oregon State University
really made it possible to create this
inter-disciplinary research center.
We do research on natural resource
policy and management and environmental
policy and management issues.
And we also work extensively on
integrated natural resource information systems.
We really work as a research group
that helps policy-makers in Oregon
answer their questions. And at the same
time we try to work with policy-makers
and the broader public to identify
high-priority problems that need to be solved.
So an example of the kind of work we do,
when policy-makers come to us,
is an evaluation we did of the effectiveness
of our statewide land use program,
which helped inform the legislative deliberations
on what kinds of changes might be needed
in that system.
One other reason that sustainable
development is so important is that
our current systems, and this is a
big part of what we study,
are very fragmented.
We have silos that split up how we
manage natural resources in the environment
even though we know that all of the
systems are integrated.
So we have a parallel set of federal
agencies that do all those things.
And so on both the information side
and the policy side of what the
Institute for Natural Resources
does, we're trying to figure out
how we can break down those barriers.
How we can put all the information
together so that we look at the whole
system, not the various
silos, so that you don't have to go to
one place to look for water information,
another place to look for forestry information.
And we're doing that in conjunction with
the OSU libraries, where we have developed
a series of web portals called
The Oregon Explorer.
And that allows people to learn about
their space across all those silos
by going one place instead of 15 places.
We've got to understand, like the
example with Clean Water Services or other
examples with the Oregon Department of Transportation,
how can we invest in new roads and highways,
how can we invest in our waste water infrastructure systems,
in a way that reduces the time and cost
delivering those solutions
and at the same time
improves the environmental outcomes.
And we're very fortunate that local
government agencies like Clean Water
Services, and state agencies like
the Oregon Department of Transportation
have been willing to partner with the
university system to invent
and test these new ways of doing
business. Which should get better results
in terms of development
at the same time that we get better
results for the environment .

Gail Achterman

Translate and Transcribe

Share

Video Transcription

Other videos from umarket