Department of Geography, McGill University, 805 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, QC, H3A 0B9, Canada.
Department of Environmental Studies, New York University, 285 Mercer Street, New York, NY, 10003, USA.
Ambio. 2024 Aug;53(8):1234-1245. doi: 10.1007/s13280-024-02004-9. Epub 2024 Apr 5.
Addressing the 'wicked problem' of nutrient pollution requires coordinated policies spanning across diverse sectors and environmental systems. Using a case study of Canadian legislation, we apply semantic network analysis to identify thematic links across an inventory of 245 nutrient-related policies. Our analysis identifies twelve topics with unique types of connections across multiple facets of Canadian society. 'Hub' policies include broad environmental protection, land use planning, and climate-related legislation with close ties to multiple other topics. 'Bridge' policies create connections among otherwise disconnected topics in the network, representing opportunities to inform new policy proposals. Some legislation, such as food processing regulations, indirectly relates to nutrient use but could inform policy integration towards more coordinated and holistic nutrient management across the food system. A computational text network approach can be useful for addressing challenges in complex policy analysis, including by identifying unique entry points to guide more cross-cutting nutrient policy development.
解决营养污染这一“棘手问题”需要跨越多个部门和环境系统的协调政策。我们以加拿大的立法为例，运用语义网络分析方法，从 245 项与营养相关的政策中确定主题之间的联系。我们的分析确定了 12 个主题，这些主题在加拿大社会的多个方面具有独特类型的联系。“枢纽”政策包括广泛的环境保护、土地利用规划和与气候相关的立法，与多个其他主题密切相关。“桥梁”政策在网络中建立了原本不相关的主题之间的联系，为提出新的政策建议提供了机会。一些立法，如食品加工法规，虽然与营养利用间接相关，但可以为更协调和全面的营养管理提供信息，以整合整个食品系统的政策。计算文本网络方法对于解决复杂政策分析中的挑战非常有用，包括确定独特的切入点，以指导更具跨领域的营养政策制定。
