ABSTRACT
Any environmental scientist, or scientist of any type for that matter, knows that the effectiveness of communication directly corresponds with the success of the real-world application of their research findings. Among the most important indicators of how society will utilize the work that has been conducted by any environmental scientist is the extent to which scientific outcomes are integral to the practical needs of the communities that are to be served by the scientific outputs. Contemporary approaches are going well beyond the concepts of “stakeholders” and “delivery” of knowledge, to a less biased and more integrative and collaborative approach to understanding and solving problems in a way that emanates from the needs of communities and people. Such approaches can be controversial, and by no means is there unanimity in these integrative community approaches, and chief among the challenges for utilizing more integrative approaches to collaboration is that these approaches are not always easily quantified or characterized.
