Natural resource management is challenging. The decision-making process often requires building a common understanding of complex problems and potential solutions over large landscapes with multiple land uses. It also usually involves comparing alternative management actions that could be undertaken at different scales, with contributions from multiple partners that have management authority over only part of the landscape, while the resource of interest typically occurs across many administrative boundaries.

The production of data-driven maps at different scales can provide everything from high-resolution details for site-based project assessment and planning to big-picture analyses of programmatic results; placing even large management programs in the context of the full landscape containing the problem that is being addressed. Since all real-world problems have geographic components, as they are tied to specific locations, map-based analyses help to keep potential solutions grounded in reality, illustrating potential opportunities as well as major constraints. Data visualizations provide an equally important role in providing context, summary, and integration of information that is too complex to illustrate in tables or narrative. 

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