摘要：Sustainability planning requires an understanding of social and physical systems and theirinteractions. However, there is a mismatch between the methods of the social sciences and those of thenatural sciences. Although there have been numerous attempts to adapt the methods of the natural sciencesfor use in the social sciences, the results are usually unsatisfactory. Key features of societies such asinstitutions and power relationships, and of individuals such as the rich symbolic systems by whichindividuals transmit knowledge, do not lend themselves to the standard analytical methods of the naturalsciences. We argue that rather than transfer the methods of one discipline to the other, an appropriate goalcan be to seek "matching methods" that work at the boundary between the social and natural sciences. Wediscuss how knowledge elicitation tools (KnETs) can be used to develop matching methods. An explicitexample is provided by combining a KnETs-derived decision tree with a physical water allocation modelthat was built using the scenario-based Water Evaluation and Planning (WEAP) software. We concludethat, through a relatively weak link, the social and physical domains can be effectively combined forintegrated planning using matching methods, thereby permitting a more holistic approach to sustainableresource planning
