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Public Participation in Environmental Assessment and Decision Making (2008) / Chapter Skim
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Executive Summary
Pages 1-6

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From page 1...
... The term "public participation," as used in this study, includes organized processes adopted by elected officials, government agencies, or other public- or private-sector organizations to engage the public in environmental assessment, planning, decision making, management, monitoring, and evaluation. These processes supplement traditional forms of public participation (voting, forming interest groups, demonstrating, lobbying)
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From page 2...
... PUBLIC PARTICIPATION PRACTICE The panel offers four recommendations for carrying out public participation processes that embody six principles of program management, four principles for the conduct of participation, and five principles for integrating science and participation. Recommendation 2: When government agencies engage in public par ticipation, they should do so with
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From page 3...
... Recommendation 4: Environmental assessments and decisions with substantial scientific content should be supported with collaborative, broadly based, integrated, and iterative analytic-deliberative processes, such as those described in Understanding Risk and subsequent National Research Council reports. In designing such processes, the responsible agencies can benefit from following five key principles for effectively melding scientific analysis and public participation: 1.
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From page 4...
... Routine, well-designed evalua tion of agency public participation efforts is one of the most important contributions they can make. Because public participation makes a useful test bed for examining basic social science theory and methods, the National Science Foundation should partner with mission agencies in funding such research, following the model of the successful Partner ship for Environmental Research of the National Science Foundation and the Environmental Protection Agency.
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From page 5...
... Arrows indicate lines of influence: principles and contextual factors contribute to diagnosis; principles, diagnosis, and collaborative choice influence the selection of tools and techniques; the tools and collaborative choice determine what is monitored and how; monitoring leads to iteration; and iteration, via collaborative choice, feeds back to the selection of tools and techniques.
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Key Terms

  • collaborative choice
  • environmental assessments
  • environmental assessment
  • contextual factors
  • scientific analysis

  • agency public
  • mission agencies
  • change practices
  • examining basic
  • participation efforts

  • choice determine
  • simultaneously promote
  • pation processes
  • basic social
  • decision challenges

  • shared understanding
  • agency officials
  • choice influence
  • processes supplement
  • key principles

  • widely shared
  • quality refers
  • science theory
  • five key
  • panel offers

  • participation improves
  • systematically consider
  • traditionally delegated
  • decision contexts
  • promote quality


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