Conceptual Diagrams

Creating a framework for reporting ecological conditions

The knowledge gained through Vital Signs monitoring needs to be communicated to a broad community of scientists, managers, and stakeholders. Effective scientific communication to such a diverse audience requires appropriate synthesis, visualization, and context. Conceptual diagrams, or ‘thought drawings’, are an excellent tool for achieving these goals. Conceptual diagrams use symbols to generate self-explanatory, self-contained figures that present synthesized concepts and knowledge (Figure 5). The diagramming process can be used to clarify thinking, to communicate complex messages in a simple and informative manner, and to identify gaps in knowledge and data that should become priorities of monitoring activities.

One of the key aspects of conceptual diagrams is the use of symbols. Symbols are one of the most ancient forms of human communication and remain a common feature of everyday life. They are very useful at depicting unequivocal messages that can transcend cultures, languages, and times, and when arranged into a diagram, they can augment or replace content-driven text. Recent 'click & drag' technological advances have made it possible to use existing symbol libraries to quickly generate conceptual diagrams without graphic art training or specialized equipment (www.ian.umces.edu/symbols/). A NCRN Vital Signs Workshop was convened in May 2005 to outline the essential stories (or ‘vignettes’) concerning NCRN parks in the form of conceptual diagrams. Workshop participants included staff and scientists from the NCRN I&M Program, Center for Urban Ecology, Integration and Application Network (IAN) of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES), and NCRN Park Managers.

After learning the basic principles and concepts of science communication using conceptual diagrams, the participants were tasked with defining the natural resource challenges to the region as a whole and to the 11 individual parks in the NCRN. Based on the idea that a picture is worth a thousand words, draft conceptual diagrams were constructed to represent these vignettes. The process of developing first drafts of conceptual diagrams provided a central focus in working towards consensus on the key structural and functional properties of the different ecosystems. Following an intensive editing process involving several rounds of feedback, conceptual diagrams were finalized that relate Vital Signs monitoring to regionally dominant natural resource vignettes (pages 9-10), and a newsletter was published. The park-based diagrams contained in this booklet (pages 11-32) additionally provide a geographic/spatial context to these stories and will be used to help guide I&M Vital Signs monitoring.

The NCRN Vital Signs Workshop newsletter "Creating a Framework for Reporting Ecological Conditions", www.ncrvitalsigns.net/publications/

NCRN Vital Signs Workshop participants, May 2005.
Photo: NPS