Collaborative Modeling for Decision Support in Water Resources: Principles and Best Practices

Collaborative Modeling for Decision Support integrates collaborative modeling with participatory processes to inform natural resources decisions. Practitioners and advocates claim that the approach will lead to better water management, balancing interests more effectively and reducing the likelihood of costly legal delays. These claims are easy to make, but the benefits will only be realized if the process is conducted effectively. To provide guidance for how to conduct an effective collaborative modeling process, a task committee cosponsored by the Environmental Water Resources Institute (EWRI) of the American Society of Civil Engineers and by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Institute for Water Resources developed a set of Principles and Best Practices for anyone who might convene or conduct collaborative modeling processes. The guidance is intended for both conflict resolution professionals and modelers, and our goal is to integrate these two fields in a way that will improve water resources planning and decision making. Here, the set of eight principles is presented along with a selection of associated best practices, illustrated by two different case examples. The complete document is available at: http://www.computeraideddisputeresolution.us/bestpractices/ .     

How to encourage conflict in the environmental decision-making process: imparting lessons from civic environmentalism to local policy-makers

The literature on civic environmentalism suggests that the environmental decision-making process must be perceived by citizens to be inclusive, transparent, and legitimate in order to avoid conflict and encourage stakeholder collaboration. We suggest that studies of environmental decision-making must apply this framework to three key variables: agenda setting, conflicts of interest, and politicised institutions, which impact the potential for citizen collaboration at the local level. Using content analysis of newspaper articles, participant observations, and informal field interviews, we evaluate a case study of citizen opposition to a power plant air permit. We demonstrate how citizen perceptions of agenda setting by local officials, conflicts of interest, and the inability of citizens to affect final decisions after winning in multiple legal and administrative venues, creates conflict by not embodying these civic environmentalist principles. We conclude with policy suggestions for creating a less conflict-riddled process.     

For the sake of the lake: multi-signification and improvisation in the practices of two lake restoration projects in Finland

In many countries over the last decades, state initiatives have emerged to promote and support public participation in policy-making. Despite the emphasis on participation and deliberation, there are groups that remain outside the participatory proceedings. We follow through two case studies from Finland on how active citizen groups became excluded in the policy processes but decided to act nevertheless. Conceptually, the article tells two stories about multi-signification and improvisation in nature conservation processes from the citizen participation point of view. Using practice-oriented policy analysis, we explore the actors' conflicting interpretations of acting for “the sake of the lake”. We argue that in these kinds of complex policy processes, improvisation should be given more space.     

Rendering reform: local authority planners and perceptions of public participation in Great Britain

Public participation in planning is frequently linked to ideas of environmental justice and sustainability; yet, despite the voluminous literature on the topic, the reaction of frontline planning professionals to the broadly pro-participation agendas of central and devolved government in Great Britain has not been sufficiently examined. This is important because of their role in implementing such agendas, and the space for frontline professionals to shape the contours of reform. Drawing on extensive empirical material, I explore the reaction of local authority planners to participation policies, finding divided opinion as to whether more participation is needed to improve planning, but a strong framing of participation as something requiring careful management. I conclude that planners are broadly supportive of participation so long as they are in control, which can be understood through an institutionalist perspective that suggests there will be a similar reaction to further, ongoing, efforts to make planning more participatory.     

Book review

Drawing on the example of community forestry in British Columbia, Canada, this paper conceptualises and empirically assesses key contributors to successful community economic development, with a special emphasis on the role of local community support and inclusive participation. Relevant scholarship highlights the importance of these factors for achieving success with any community economic development (CED) initiative. While the initial experiences of 10 community forest initiatives under British Columbia's Community Forest Pilot Project offers evidence to corroborate this view, it is also evident that expertise and leadership, even of the exclusive variety, can substitute for community support and participation, if the goal of CED is to create a profitable community enterprise capable of delivering jobs and revenues to community members.     

Risk and the neoliberal state: why post-Mitch lessons didn't reduce El Salvador's earthquake losses

Although El Salvador suffered light losses from Hurricane Mitch in 1998, it benefited from the increased international aid and encouragement for advance planning, especially mitigation and prevention interventions. Thus, one would have supposed, El Salvador would have been in a very advantageous position, able more easily than its economically crippled neighbours, Honduras and Nicaragua, to implement the 'lessons of Mitch'. A review of the recovery plan tabled by the El Salvador government following the earthquakes of early 2001 shows that despite the rhetoric in favour of 'learning the lessons of Mitch', very little mitigation and prevention had actually been put in place between the hurricane (1998) and the earthquakes (2001). The recovery plan is analysed in terms of the degree to which it deals with root causes of disaster vulnerability, namely, the economic and political marginality of much of the population and environmental degradation. An explanation for the failure to implement mitigation and preventive actions is traced to the adherence by the government of El Salvador to an extreme form of neoliberal, free market ideology, and the deep fissures and mistrust in a country that follow a long and bloody civil war.     

ENHANCING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN DEFINING WATER RESOURCE POLICY1

ABSTRACT: Federal regulations require agencies administering water resource projects to inform and educate citizens so that they will understand and participate effectively in local programs. Government officials and public involvement specialists have proposed positive outcomes which should derive from agency educational efforts. Eleven interdependent educational goals are identified in this study such that achievement of each goal improves the likelihood of achieving others. Evaluations indicate that educational programs are inadequate and goals are not attained fully. The incorporation of mechanisms employed by professional educators is a potential remedy. Educational and social psychology contain an abundance of effective educational devices and methodologies appropriate for use in informal adult educational programs. An individualized educational program is recommended to meet the needs of a heterogeneous adult audience.     

EMERGING CONCEPTS FOR THE CONDUCT OF STATE WATER RESOURES PLANNING1

ABSTRACT: The development of water resources planning at the state level is discussed. Although there are significant specific differences among state planning programs, some common general principles of state water resources planning are emerging over time. In the interest of reconciling conflict over water allocation states are engaged in policy clarification, mediation of interst group conflict, and provision of baseline information.     

A FUZZY SETS MODEL FOR MEASURING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN WATER RESOURCES PLANNING1

Mathematical modeling of complex water resources System problems, particularly water pollution control, is aided by fizzy set theory. Public participation in large scale federally funded water resources and pollution control projects is now a federal requirement and practice of various planning agencies. However, no systems based model for quantifying and measuring the effectiveness of public participation is known to exist. In this paper, we report a fuzzy set based model developed for doing this in areawide water resources planning The model is essentially cascade in nature and employs the concepts of fuzzy pessimistic and optimistic aggregations to cluster and analyze the evaluations of the basic factors. Sample computations of the model are provided.