How online decision dashboards can make evidence more accessible for decision-makers

There is often a disconnect between science and decision-making, as the data needed to support planning — particularly local project and monitoring data — are either scattered, inaccessible or not adapted to policy needs. At the Spatial Data Science and Applied Learning Lab (SPACIAL) at World AgroForestry, we have been advancing the concept of decision dashboards to address this challenge.

Decision dashboards are open access online interfaces that use data visualization to present important metrics and key performance indicators. Consolidating and presenting data in this way offers decision-makers a practical resource they can use to obtain a quick overview of a situation and respond with appropriate and effective strategies…