Book Chapter

Towards reliable mapping of biosecurity risk: incorporating uncertainty and decision makers' risk aversion

Haack, R. A, Yemshanov, D, Koch, F. H, Ducey, M

2015

Overview

Pest risk maps are an important source of decision support when devising strategies to minimize introductions of invasive organisms and mitigate their impacts. When possible management responses to an invader include costly or socially sensitive activities, decision makers tend to follow a more certain (i.e. risk-averse) course of action. We present a new mapping technique that assesses pest invasion risk from the perspective of a risk-averse decision maker. We demonstrate the approach by evaluating the likelihood that an invasive forest pest will be transported to one of the continental US states or Canadian provinces in infested firewood that may be carried by visitors to US federal campgrounds. We test the impact of the risk aversion assumption using distributions of plausible pest arrival scenarios generated with a geographically explicit model developed from data documenting camper travel across the study area. Next, we prioritize regions of high and low pest arrival risk via application of two stochastic ordering techniques that employ, respectively, first- and second-degree stochastic dominance rules, the latter of which incorporates the notion of risk aversion. We then identify regions in the study area where incorporating risk aversion changes a region's pest risk value considerably. While both methods identified similar areas of highest and lowest risk, they differed in how they demarcated moderate-risk areas. Each method provides a tractable way to incorporate decision-making preferences into final risk estimates, and thus helps to better align these estimates with particular decision-making scenarios about an organism of concern. Overall, incorporation of risk aversion helps to refine the set of locations that could be confidently targeted for costly inspections and outreach activities.

• Publisher: CABI
• Subject: America / animals / APEC countries / Appalachian States of USA / arthropod pests / arthropods / Canada / cartography / Commonwealth of Nations / Corn Belt States of USA / Delta States of USA / Developed Countries / East North Central States of USA / East South Central States of USA / eukaryotes / forest pests / geographical distribution / Great Plains States of USA / Gulf States of USA / Hexapoda / insect pests / insects / invasion / invertebrates / Lake States of USA / mapping / methodology / methods / Middle Atlantic States of USA / Mountain States of USA / New England States of USA / North America / North Central States of USA / Northeastern States of USA / Northern Plains States of USA / OECD Countries / Pacific Northwest States of USA / Pacific States of USA / pest arthropods / pest insects / pests / plant pests / risk assessment / South Atlantic States of USA / Southeastern States of USA / Southern Plains States of USA / Southern States of USA / Southwestern States of USA / stochastic models / United States of America / USA / West North Central States of USA / West South Central States of USA / Western States of USA / Yukon
• ISBN: 1780643594, 9781780643595