Integrating technical, economic and cultural impacts in a decision support tool for energy resource management in the Navajo Nation

Energy resource management decisions will encounter situations where the interaction of culture and the environment play an integral role in management decisions. These decisions are highly complex, requiring tradeoffs among multiple objectives and supported by science that is often uncertain and incomplete. Decision aids can facilitate informed choices across a range of domains and levels of user skills. This paper focuses on the Navajo Nation, exploring a range of energy-development options, estimating their impacts on natural resources and the environment, and connecting these effects to impacts on Navajo cultural resources through an interactive decision support tool for Navajo citizens and leadership. We provide an alternative to methods based solely on economic valuation, willingness-to-pay, or related monetization methods that may be incompatible with some cultural values and may strip meaning or misrepresent the culture under consideration. The tool allows the user to make adjustments regarding fossil fuel and renewable resource development from nine predetermined energy-development scenarios. Displayed in the outcomes to the user are environmental impacts on land, water, and emissions, the associated utility costs on the reservation, and impacts on cultural resources such as grazing lands, medicinal herbs, and sacred sites. The tool may serve as a point of reference for energy and environmental decision support aids in communities where important cultural resources, values, and traditions are potentially impacted by energy management decisions.