Final answer:
The characteristic of useful information missing for Chuck Hewitt's sewage management responsibilities is timeliness, as the data he uses is five days old, delaying efficient adjustment for population surges.
Step-by-step explanation:
In the scenario presented, Chuck Hewitt, the town sanitation engineer of Razzmataz, Wisconsin, faces a problem with adjusting the sewage processing volume to accommodate the surge in population during the summer tourist season. The information used for this adjustment is based on tourist population data that is five days old, and the adjustments themselves take a week to implement. The characteristic of useful information that is absent in this situation is D) Timely. Timeliness refers to information being available within a timeframe that is relevant for its use. Since Chuck needs current data to manage the sewage processing volume efficiently, the five-day delay makes the information outdated by the time he receives it, and thus not as useful for immediate decision-making.
The importance of timely information is evident in tourism geography, where understanding population fluctuations due to tourism is crucial for areas like Razzmataz. The tourist attractions mentioned, such as beaches, historic sites, and malls, all require appropriate infrastructural adjustments to handle the varying volumes of visitors efficiently.