PLANNERS AS A PUBLIC IN WATER RESOURCES PUBLIC PARTICIPATION PROGRAMS1

This paper suggests a number of benefits in identifying urban and regional planners as a public in public participation programs of water resources planning studies. A perspective on public participation is presented. Recent trends and developing concepts are identified: emphasis on the need to coordinate urban and regional planning activities with water resources planning, increasing system complexity, the goals and objectives orientation of planning, planning for multi-objectives, the evaluation of a broader range of alternatives, and the consideration of water alternatives as only one set of measures to further society's aspirations. One way to assist in capitalizing on these trends is to seek out participation of those in other planning efforts who are involved in planning but on a different level. Because of their intimate knowledge of an areas history, growth and development, political climate, local perceptions of needs and desires, and major problems and issues they are able to contribute a great deal of insight in making the water resources planning effort more responsive at the local level. The paper describes one of the first major efforts at working-level public-planner contact which was carried out as part of the Susquehanna River Basin Study. A regional survey team comprised of an engineer and an economist from a federal agency and a state water resources planner met informally with planners, city managers, and local planning commissions to discuss issues related to water resources and the growth and development of local areas. This effort while only part of the overall public participation program yielded a number of benefits and if expanded and refined would be a very useful experience in other studies.     

RIVER BASIN WATER PLANNING ORGANIZATIONS IN THE 60's1

ABSTRACT: The 15 federal-state interagency river basin studies (designated as Type 2 or Level B in the planning program of the Water Resources Council) of the 1960's brought together in each of the study regions, in many cases for the fist time, state and federal water resources agencies, and afforded an opportunity for coordination. Examination of the studies, however, reveals that many organizational problems remain to be solved in preparing truly comprehensive plans that effectively integrate and balance the diverse values held by study participants and concerned citizens. Burgeoning changes in state and federal laws, in planning concepts, and in public attitudes influenced the studies. Increased interest in the environment and greater emphasis on a multiple objective approach to planning for example, had significant effect. The type of organization used for carrying out these studies was a coordinating committee with one of the agencies - in most cases, the Corps of Engineers, - serving as lead agency. Some of the observed weaknesses of this arrangement were the lack of an effective mechanism for screening individual agency project proposals; unbalanced participation of agencies - for example, construction vs. non-construction, state vs. federal; agency representatives without sufficient delegated authority; insufficient control of the planning organization over individual agency participation and punctuality; and lack of emphasis on plan formulation and public participation. Suggested improvements, some of which are already being implemented in more recent studies include centralized planning staff and funding, formalized work agreements, a dynamic and continuous planning process with mechanisms for monitoring technological and social changes and evaluating planning effectiveness, planning guidelines and evaluative criteria, and a formalized training program for planners.     

Effect of public opinion on national park planning in Turkey: A case study

National park plans are mainly prepared by a central planning team of the National Parks of Turkey. In this article, a model is presented that proposes a different approach to preparing national park plans. The study is based on a questionnaire distributed among the residents of the villages just outside a selected national park in Turkey and the relevant local and general authorities who are interested in the national park in their region, to find out the effect of public opinion on national park planning. Four basic strategies that represent the four main alternative approaches to forming policies in the planning of the park were identified. Respondents were asked to choose one and to suggest their own ideas. As this is a first attempt of such a study in Turkey, the results of the survey have been very encouraging. Therefore, this paper suggests that the assessment of public opinion should be borne in mind throughout the planning process in Turkey.     

Tracking collaboration: forest planning and local participation on the San Juan National Forest,Colorado

The proliferation of community-based collaborative approaches to public land management and planning has spawned many questions regarding issues of community representation and the effects of participation for local residents. This paper presents a longitudinal assessment of local resident participation in collaborative forest planning on local community–forest relations in southwestern Colorado. Using survey data of participants involved in the San Juan National Forest's forest plan revision community study groups from 1998 to 2003, we assess participation in terms of community representation and the effects of community-based collaboration upon individuals' forest uses, forest values, and the level and form of involvement in forest management and planning activities. Results show that community representation remains slanted towards existing active stakeholders, and that while forest values, uses, and frequencies of involvement change little, participants cite positive effects in terms of the development of new knowledge, personal relationships, and greater confidence to engage in forest management affairs.     

Developing alternative land-use scenarios to facilitate natural resource management across jurisdictional boundaries

Scenario planning is an effective approach for examining possible futures by exploring the implications and consequences of different policy responses to landscape stressors. We present here a case study that explores plausible futures of urban growth in Southern Nevada, USA that illustrates how scenario analysis can be used to inform region-wide resource management by spatially modeling drivers of change, resource impacts, and potential policy responses. Using a suite of energy, water and biodiversity impact models, we assess the outcomes of the various futures on priority resources, resulting in a clear basis of comparison between alternative policies and their potential outcomes. This case study demonstrates the utility of scenario modeling for natural resource management by exploring crucial policy decisions that might be made in the near-term that could have lasting and sometimes conflicting influences on regional resources over the long term.     

Fusing strategic risk and futures methods to inform long-term strategic planning: case of water utilities

Risks and futures methods have complementary strengths as tools for managing strategic decisions under uncertainty. When combined, these tools increase organisational competency to evaluate and manage long-term risks, improving the flexibility and agility of the organisation to deal with gross uncertainties. Here, we set out a framework to guide the assessment of strategic risks for long-term business planning, based on its application at Portugal’s largest water utility, Empresa Portuguesa das Águas Livres. Our approach extends strategic risk assessment by incorporating scenario planning—a futures approach used to help the utility move beyond single point forecast of risks to focus on critical dimensions of uncertainty that are fundamental to the resilience of corporate objectives and their vulnerability to external pressures. We demonstrate how we combine two complementary approaches—risk and futures—and use them to assess (i) how a set of baseline strategic risks for a water utility evolves under alternative futures, (ii) the aggregate corporate-level risk exposure, and (iii) the process and responses needed to manage multiple, interdependent strategic risks. The framework offers a corporate approach to evolving strategic risks and improves a utility’s (i) knowledge of uncertainties, (ii) ability to assess the impacts of external developments over long time horizons and the consequences of actions and (iii) degree of flexibility to adapt to possible future challenges. The framework supports risk managers in their long-term strategic planning, through the appraisal and management of multiple, interdependent long-term strategic risks and can be replicated in other organisational contexts to bridge operational and corporate perspectives of enterprise risk.

     

Regional governance and hazard information: the role of co-ordinated risk assessment and regional spatial accounting in wildfire hazard mitigation

With the threat of wildfire hanging over many communities in the Western and Southern United States, wildfire mitigation is evolving into a significant public responsibility for rural and urban edge county governments. Regional governance is an important piece of the effort to reduce wildfire risks although still weakly developed as a policy arena. This project explores two dimensions in which planning support systems can support regional governance: assessing patterns of wildfire risk accumulation; and, evaluating land use planning alternatives and their effects on cumulative risk levels. These tools are examined for regional governance using a prototype planning information system, the Alternative Growth Futures (AGF) tool, a scenario-building approach developed at the University of Colorado Denver. The project develops a hybrid urban growth model that integrates logistic regression techniques and methods for simulation of growth alternatives. This model is used to evaluate the attractiveness of undeveloped building sites with respect to natural amenities, distance to primary urban services and site characteristics such as slope. The model and scenario-testing framework are reasonably robust and suggest that regional spatial accounting methods have potential as a framework for inter-governmental and public discussion around wildfire planning.     

SOME PROBLEMS IN STOCHASTIC HYDROLOGY1

In order to decrease the uncertainty that results in water resource planning and management studies due to the assumed recurrence of historical hydrological sequences, considerable study of stochastic processes in hydrology has taken place during the past 10 or 15 years. The general objective has been to develop a capability for generating a number of valid sequences, each of which could as resonably occur as could a recurrence of past events. A number of serious problems have been encountered, the consequence of which has been a serious lag in the application of stochastic processes to real planning and management problems. These problems include: a. an inability to generate droughts in some cases that are as extreme as have occurred historically, b. the generation of inconsistent values of stream flow at 2 locations on the same stream, c. the lack of mathematical techniques for the management of incomplete data sets, d. a great increase in the required computation for planning and management studies, and e. theoretical and computational difficulties in expanding the scope of stochastic hydrology from monthly quantities to short-period quantities. This paper discusses these problems and various approaches used in attempting their solution.     

Theoretical orientations in environmental planning: An inquiry into alternative approaches

In the process of devising courses of action to resolve problems arising at the society-environment interface, a variety of planning approaches are followed, whose adoption is influenced by—among other things—the characteristics of environmental problems, the nature of the decision-making context, and the intellectual traditions of the disciplines contributing to the study of these problems. This article provides a systematic analysis of six alternative environmental planning approaches—comprehensive/rational, incremental, adaptive, contingency, advocacy, and participatory/consensual. The relative influence of the abovementioned factors is examined, the occurrence of these approaches in real-world situations is noted, and their environmental soundness and political realism is evaluated. Because of the disparity between plan formulation and implementation and between theoretical form and empirical reality, a synthetic view of environmental planning approaches is taken and approachesin action are identified, which characterize the totality of the planning process from problem definition to plan implementation, as well as approachesin the becoming, which may be on the horizon of environmental planning of tomorrow. The suggested future research directions include case studies to verify and detail the presence of the approaches discussed, developing measures of success of a given approach in a given decision setting, and an intertemporal analysis of environmental planning approaches.     

Regional planning acceptance by residents of Northern New York,USA

This study compares the effectiveness of two regional planning agencies in terms of public support for various planning activities. The Adirondack Park Agency and the Temporary State Commission on Tug Hill have fundamentally different approaches to planning. The Adirondack Park Agency has implemented a restrictive regulatory program with little citizen participation by Adirondack residents. The Tug Hill Commission has implemented an advisory and coordinating program with an emphasis on public input. Residents of two towns in each region were surveyed to determine environmental concern and support for regional planning activities. Respondents from both regions favored a planning agency that incorporates citizen input; controls air, water, and toxic waste pollution; and develops recreation areas. They strongly opposed an agency that regulates private land-use. Basic demographic characteristics and levels of environmental concern were similar in all four towns, but receptivity to various planning activities was consistently greater among residents of the Tug Hill Region. Paired comparisons of the four towns demonstrated no differences between towns of the same region and significant differences between towns of different regions. Public support for regional planning is greater in the Tug Hill Region than in the Adirondack Park.     

Participatory and multi-level governance: applications to Aboriginal renewable energy projects

As provinces across Canada seek to diversify their domestic electricity supply and cope with the accelerating effects of anthropogenic climate change, new models of sustainability-focused economic development are being pursued. One critically important emerging paradigm involves First Nation (a Canadian term for indigenous) collaboration and leadership in renewable energy projects. In this comparative case study analysis, we consider two different governance approaches pursued in distinct renewable energy project contexts: the clean energy projects of the Ojibway Pic River First Nation band in northwestern Ontario and the NaiKun Offshore Wind Project proposed in the ocean territory of the Haida Nation off the coast of British Columbia (BC). Focusing on themes of participation and multi-level governance, the case studies highlight the importance of authority and control in decision processes, the primacy of ensuring that scale and quality of design are carefully scoped, and the shaping role of inclusiveness in planning for wholly sustainable energy futures. Taken together, these cases illustrate that fluid governance arrangements which exploit the particular capacities of each actor may give rise to trust that ultimately forms the foundation of a co-produced model of renewable energy governance. We argue that while collaboration might aim to be inclusive of all interested actors, it is important to consider the extent to which a project design might sufficiently incorporate a community's long-term vision. We conclude that truly sustainable renewable energy development requires a project design that reflects community values, incorporates community control, and incentivises indigenous ownership.     

Assessing Societal Impacts When Planning Restoration of Large Alluvial Rivers: A Case Study of the Sacramento River Project, California

Studies have shown that ecological restoration projects are more likely to gain public support if they simultaneously increase important human services that natural resources provide to people. River restoration projects have the potential to influence many of the societal functions (e.g., flood control, water quality) that rivers provide, yet most projects fail to consider this in a comprehensive manner. Most river restoration projects also fail to take into account opportunities for revitalization of large-scale river processes, focusing instead on opportunities presented at individual parcels. In an effort to avoid these pitfalls while planning restoration of the Sacramento River, we conducted a set of coordinated studies to evaluate societal impacts of alternative restoration actions over a large geographic area. Our studies were designed to identify restoration actions that offer benefits to both society and the ecosystem and to meet the information needs of agency planning teams focusing on the area. We worked with local partners and public stakeholders to design and implement studies that assessed the effects of alternative restoration actions on flooding and erosion patterns, socioeconomics, cultural resources, and public access and recreation. We found that by explicitly and scientifically melding societal and ecosystem perspectives, it was possible to identify restoration actions that simultaneously improve both ecosystem health and the services (e.g., flood protection and recreation) that the Sacramento River and its floodplain provide to people. Further, we found that by directly engaging with local stakeholders to formulate, implement, and interpret the studies, we were able to develop a high level of trust that ultimately translated into widespread support for the project.     

ALTERNATIVE FUTURES USING THE WOLLMAN-BONEM MODELS1

Alternative futures are defined to be mutually consistent alternative combinations of assumed sets of future conditions. Alternative futures are employed in conjunction with the Wollman-Bonem model to project future water use. The model solutions under different alternative futures provide an indication of the direction and relative magnitude of changes in water use, both in quantity and quality, that may result from changes in policy-influenced variables, technology, and other data. The Wollman-Bonem model is employed in this paper as a tool to illustrate the alternative futures concept. The model can best be cast as an economic model. The model solutions are not given as a set of formal projections, but as various possible water-use-over-time curves. This should aid in disspelling the erroneous idea that it is possible to make distant projections of water use as a single curve. Multiple curves suggest that water use is really a function of many variables.     

Perceived landscape values and public participation in a road-planning process – a case study in Sweden

The European Landscape Convention indicates that assessment of different dimensions that exist in landscapes should be taken into account in planning. In this study, we first investigated ecological, cultural and social values as perceived by the local people in a highway-planning process in Sweden. Next, we explored which factors influenced the local people's participation in the road-planning process. We used questionnaires, planning documents and the Theory of Planned Behavior to investigate the relations between different factors and local people's participation in the planning process. The results showed that people presumed the ecological values in the landscape to be adversely affected by the new road, while the social values would remain the same. Landowners had heard of the participatory-process, but few participated. Those who lived within 300 m of the road were more active in the planning process than people living further away. The findings suggest that people living within a few hundred metres of the road should be treated as key stakeholders in the planning process. The involvement of other stakeholders, and when in the public participation process stakeholders should be involved, is also discussed.     

COOPERATIVE COMMUNITY-UNIVERSITY WATER RESOURCE PLANNING: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH1

ABSTRACT. This paper outlines an approach to planning the management of a lake heavily used for recreation and of substantial importance to the tourist economy of Northeastern Wisconsin. A framework, utilizing a three dimensional matrix, is developed to analyze levels of public concern, management alternatives and action agencies. Structural and non-structural alternatives are examined and evaluated on the basis of social and economic criteria, long- and short-term environmental impact and legal-political feasibility. Data requirements which created the necessity for an interdisciplinary approach involving social, physical, and biological sciences are enumerated. The authors examine the role of universities in assisting communities with resource management planning and detail the attributes of academic institutions which desire to successfully attack resource planning problems.     

THE ENGINEER'S ROLE IN WATER RESOURCES PLANNING1

Engineers have traditionally led the planning effort in water resources developments. The engineer's leadership role in water resources, as well as in many other planning activities, has been challenged by technical and scientific people as well as by the general public for insensitivity to social, aesthetic, ecological, and political problems created by planning. The paper draws attention to the fact that the engineer cannot continue to expect the role of leadership to fall to him unless he prepares himself properly for that role. However, it is brought out that the engineer, by his education and training, is still the best qualified among all the representatives of the various disciplines associated with water resources planning to lead the planning effort if he prepares himself for the task. The requirements for preparation for leading water resources planning are outlined.     

Harnessing community energy: the keys to climate mitigation policy adoption in US municipalities

Many US municipalities are engaged in climate change mitigation planning or efforts to reduce their communities' greenhouse gas emissions. However, most have adopted very few policies to implement their climate change mitigation goals, and many others are not pursuing climate change mitigation at all. This study examines municipalities' approaches to energy and climate issues and identifies the “keys to success” that influence the extent to which they adopt climate change mitigation policies.

Prior researchers have characterised climate change mitigation efforts as an example of multi-level governance, in which policies are formulated through a variety of networks and interactions between government actors and civil society. I find that municipalities that engage community interests and coordinate with neighbouring jurisdictions in their energy and climate planning processes are far more likely to adopt meaningful policies and conclude that such multi-level governance approaches are actually critical to the success of climate change mitigation planning.     

Planning for compact urban forms: local growth-management approaches and their evolution over time

Urban growth is a key issue for spatial planning as it influences urban patterns and disrupts open landscapes. To effectively steer urban growth towards compact urban forms, many growth-management policies have been developed over recent decades. However, few studies have assessed how municipal policy mixes have evolved over time. In our representative Swiss-wide survey, we evaluated the prevalence and the time of introduction of 18 policies. Our results indicate that large municipalities use a broad range of reinforcing policies over decades. In contrast, small municipalities mostly rely on conventional land-use regulations. The lack of innovative, incentive-based policies casts doubt on small municipalities' ability to effectively manage urban growth. However, our analyses reveal recent efforts by small municipalities to diversify approaches to growth management and adopt innovative policies. These efforts should be supported by guiding small municipalities in their policy choices, and providing support to those lacking planning capacity.     

APPLICATION OF CRITICAL PATH METHOD TO WATER RESOURCES PLANNING1

ABSTRACT. The task of resource management, in this case water resources, is rapidly becoming more complex, particularly because decision making is often contingent upon various prior activities and sets of data. Comprehensive planning is required in order to prevent misallocation of resources or mismanagement in resource development. Such planning involves five general phases which are applicable to any problem faced by society: (1) problem identification; (2) formulation of alternatives; (3) evaluation of alternatives; (4) implementation; (5) review. There have been many attempts to simplify the planning process and effectively carry out these five phases. The experience of the Alberta Water Resources Division has been that the Critical Path Method is one of the most useful tools available today for planning. It involves two basic steps: (1) preparation of a network diagram which (a) identifies all the activities necessary for the completion of a project, (b) correctly sequences these activities, (c) allocates resources; and (2) mathematical computations for scheduling the activities. In other words, this approach breaks a task down into smaller units or activities for easier organization, scheduling, and performance for eventual completion of the project. This paper will illustrate the effectiveness of the Critical Path Method by discussing its application to actual water resources projects.