Integrated and cost-effective monitoring

Why do we monitor? Among other things, we may be interested in the status and trend of key values, state-dependent decision-making, or learning more about system dynamics. These are all entirely reasonable motivations for... [ view full abstract ]

Why do we monitor? Among other things, we may be interested in the status and trend of key values, state-dependent decision-making, or learning more about system dynamics. These are all entirely reasonable motivations for allocating substantial resources to monitoring. But any such allocation forgoes the opportunity to spend those same resources on direct management intervention. Here we outline how managers can think through the adequacy of their investment in monitoring, with emphasis on the integration of models and data, and the cost-effectiveness of data acquisition.