The benefits of systematic mapping to evidence-based environmental management

Reviews of evidence are a vital means of summarising growing bodies of research. Systematic reviews aim to reduce bias and increase reliability when summarising high priority and controversial topics. Similar to systematic reviews, systematic maps were developed in social sciences to reliably catalogue evidence on a specific subject.

Rather than providing answers to specific questions of impacts, systematic maps aim to produce searchable databases of studies, along with detailed descriptive information. These maps consist of a report, a database, and sometimes a geographical information system and can prove highly useful for research, policy and practice communities by providing assessments of knowledge gaps (subjects requiring additional research), knowledge gluts (subjects where full systematic review is possible), and patterns across the research literature that promote best practice and direct research resources towards the highest quality research.