Creating simple predictive models in ecology, conservation and environmental policy based on Bayesian belief networks

Predictive models are often complex to produce and interpret, yet can offer valuable insights for management, conservation and policy-making. Here we introduce a new modelling tool (the R package ‘BBNet’), which is simple to use, and requires little mathematical or computer programming background. By using straightforward concepts to describe interactions between model components, predictive models can be effectively constructed using basic spreadsheet tools and loaded into the R package. These models can be analysed, visualised, and sensitivity tested to assess how information flows through the system’s components and provide predictions for future outcomes of the systems. This paper provides a theoretical background to the models, which are modified Bayesian belief networks (BBNs), and an overview of how the package can be used. The models are not fully quantitative, but outcomes between different modelled scenarios can be considered ordinally (i.e. ranked from ‘best’ to ‘worse’). Parameterisation of models can also be through data, literature, expert opinion, questionnaires and/or surveys of opinion, which are expressed as a simple ‘weak’ to ‘very strong’ or 1–4 integer value for interactions between model components. While we have focussed on the use of the models in environmental and ecological problems (including with links to management and social outcomes), their application does not need to be restricted to these disciplines, and use in financial systems, molecular biology, political sciences and many other disciplines are possible.