2. Gathering and Assessing Pieces of Evidence

Finding and assessing evidence is core to making effective decisions. The three key elements of assessing any evidence are the rigour of the information, the trust in the reliability and objectivity of the source, and the relevance to the question under consideration. Evidence may originate from a range of sources including experiments, case studies, online information, expert knowledge (including local knowledge and Indigenous ways of knowing), or citizen science. This chapter considers how these different types of evidence can be assessed.