Environmental managers often deal with uncertainty while making decisions. This uncertainty can be reduced by allocating resources towards learning about the system through monitoring. Gaining more information through monitoring does not necessarily contribute to better decision making though.

In some cases, allocating resources towards monitoring is spending money that could otherwise be spent on acting. But when is existing knowledge sufficient to make a good decision? And when is it more effective to invest resources in monitoring? Els will approach these questions by investigating case studies retrospectively in order to reveal whether extra monitoring contributed significantly to decision making.