Because the module is designed to operate on PCs, the system can be shared with local communities and other collaborators to develop information together and work out management strategies. The modules include a collection of web links to resources on environmental justice issues, tribal information, and analytical methods through the Internet. It also contains a library of social science documents, methods and guidance for human dimensions analyses. At present, there are few socioeconomic data sets directly collected by the Forest Service that require migration. Social science specialists can, however, add data from local sources to the module, if needed, by following uniform data migration procedures.
Migrated data are then available and can be used by any module user.
In the future, the Human Dimensions module will enable users to create themes covering social and economic data using ArcView. Users may need additional hard disk space, depending on the volume of data retrieved from the central repository. A network connection is needed for data downloads and web access. The Human Dimensions module is developing tools to facilitate analysis and interpretation to meet business needs. Tools are evolving to meet certain requirements and may consist of specific analysis programs, ArcView extensions, customized retrievals or reports, or computer-aided analysis protocols.