Knowledge transfer in science-policy process: Case study on remote sensing technology in disaster management

Environmental policies often strongly depend on environmental monitoring data, yet these increasing datasets are not always used effectively in enacting and implementing public policy. Because two different types of actors which are scientists and policy makers involved, we assumed that the knowledge transferring is one of the obstacles to make the science-policy process effectively. In the view of this, this paper addresses to clarify what are the obstacles to make the process difficult and factors to make it smooth. We discussed the roles of scientific information in terms of scientists´ seeds and policy makers´ needs. We used the process of applying advanced land observing satellite (ALOS) to disaster management in Japan as a successful case study on bringing the new scientific technology into damage control policy. As a result, it reveals that the scientific information gives big efforts not only to implement the policy but also to make policies. However, whether the information would transform into policy relevant knowledge or not depends on how policy makers perceive it. This transformation process can be expressed by a two-by-two matrix to show the relation between scientists´ seed and policy makers´ need. If policy makers think the information provided by scientists is useful, the information successfully transferred into policy-relevant scientific knowledge. If it is not, it causes the gaps: distance or direction.