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Program 

 Decisions 



Program 

 Needs 



Information 

 Requirements 



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Indicators and 

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Study Criteria 

 Development 



Design 



Specifications 



521 



Technical Analysis 

 (Continued on Figure 2) 



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:^ Information Flow 

 -► Feed-Back Pathways 



Figure 1. Institutional analysis components in a schematic network of information 



flow and feedback pathway in the development of ecological information for 

 use in habitat protection. Legal mandates (laws, regulations, executive 

 orders, court decrees), together with program needs (such as Coal Manage- 

 ment or Renewable Resource Assessments} determine Study Criteria, 

 which transmit specifications to the Technical Analysts Components (Fig. 2) 

 for further processing. The production of the specified information through 

 technical analysis steps feeds Program decisionmaking. 



through technical analysis steps feeds Program decisionmaking. Let us explore these 

 components a little further. 



Laws, regulations, court decisions, and executive orders provide guidance on the 

 scope and focus of public interest. Federal Programs (such as Coal M anagement) are 

 used to implement Legal Mandates: program action decisions (such as tract leasing) 

 define the specific information needed. The papers in this section and the rest of the 

 monograph describe selected examples of both Legal Mandates and Program Needs. 

 The last component of the institutional segment can be called Study Criteria 

 Development. Inputs from legal mandates include general and (occasionally) specific 

 indicators. Such inputs can be considered classes of variables to track as information 

 output.' Constraints are inputs from both legal mandates and program needs. They 

 take various forms such as agency responsibilities, geographic scope, timing of 

 outputs or actions, or fiscal and manpower limitations. 



