Public Participation in Environmental Assessment and Decision Making (2008) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
7 Context: The Issue
7 Context: The Issue
Pages 157-186
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 157... ...
We consider contextual factors under five broad categories of attributes that cover much of the variation: the purpose of the process (assessment or decision making) ; the environmental issue under consideration; the state of the relevant science, including scientific uncertainties and disagreements; the responsible agency and the laws and external organizations that affect the assessment or decision; and the interested and affected parties.
|
From page 158... ...
Such diagnosis can form the basis for tailoring participation processes for more successful results. PURPOSE OF THE PROCESS: ASSESSMENT OR DECISION MAKING The evidence indicates that the determinants of successful public participation are largely the same for processes focused on assessment and those focused on decision making.
|
From page 159... ...
There are relatively few careful analyses comparing different degrees of public participation in comparable environmental assessments. As we note
|
From page 160... ...
study of global change assessments similarly noted the advantages of broad participation but also noted costs in terms of efficiency. A review of several European environmental assessments found that stakeholder participation has increased the knowledge base of modelers and added credibility to both the assessment process and the concerns of stakeholders (Welp et al., 2007)
|
From page 161... ...
Subject Matter Subject matter has little direct effect on the results of participation. Public participation is used in environmental assessment and decisionmaking processes related to highly diverse substantive issues: air quality standards, biotechnology policy, brownfields remediation, climate change, dam relicensing, forest planning, habitat restoration, highway construction, oceans policy, water allocation, wetlands protection, and many other topics.
|
From page 162... ...
For example, temporal and spatial scales associated with an issue may affect the number of interested and affected parties and who among them is able to participate. Such characteristics as complexity of the issues, qualitative characteristics of the hazards, and collective action and common-pool attributes can also affect the complexities of the relationships among the parties and the processes of organizing and deliberating necessary for an effective public participation process.
|
From page 163... ...
. The limited available evidence suggests that the success of public participation processes does not depend on whether the issue is local, regional, or national.
|
From page 164... ...
Although research is limited on the role that temporal and spatial scales play in the outcomes of public participation processes, scale clearly affects the level of effort required to get adequate participation by the range of relevant parties.
|
From page 165... ...
It was this feature of the conflict more than the environmental issue itself that made a difference. Langbein's finding for regulatory negotiations may also apply to many, if not most, other environmental contexts, such as water resource use plans, climate change policy, and transportation projects, in which there may be many sides.
|
From page 166... ...
Characteristics of the environmental issue that generate involvement can make it easier to secure participation from otherwise silent segments of the public. However, there are cases in which high motivation is accompanied by substantial mistrust of either the agency involved or of other participants, and that mistrust can make effective participation very difficult.
|
From page 167... ...
The other is that what is learned from experiences with public participation in one problem area can be transferred to others: strategies for addressing potential difficulties may be transferable across environmental issues. THE SCIENCE Although scientific complexity and uncertainty are often cited as barriers to effective public participation and although scientific knowledge is nearly always limited relative to the question being asked, the available evidence fails to support the contention that incomplete or difficult science precludes effective public participation.
|
From page 168... ...
Each of these is present to some degree in nearly every environmental assessment and decision process. Box 7-1, which draws on this classification, identifies four key sets of questions about the available scientific information that are diagnostic in the sense that the participatory processes can benefit from being designed differently depending on the answers.
|
From page 169... ...
these contextual factors may make it more difficult to achieve the attributes of good public participation described in Chapters 4-6 unless processes are designed to address them. The research literature includes numerous examples of problems that can arise from the inadequacy of science in environmental assessment and decision processes.
|
From page 170... ...
recommendations from practitioner experience emphasize processes that are likely to build mutual understanding about the data available, develop new information to fill gaps, and increase confidence that the information is adequate for the decision. And to reiterate a point from Chapters 2 and 6, public participants often bring important context-specific knowledge to the process.
|
From page 171... ...
National Assessment of the Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change, in which participants in several regions worked together to reframe the focus of the entire assessment from one focused solely on
|
From page 172... ...
. Practices commonly used to establish a shared framing or focus for a public participation process include interviews with potential stakeholders to understand their perspectives, drafting a formulation in terms of how to achieve interests at stake rather than whether to accomplish something proposed by one side, publishing and requesting comments on the proposed scope of a process in such publications as the Federal Register, holding organizational workshops in the planning phase of a public participation process, and organizing process steering committees.
|
From page 173... ...
Limitations in the available information, including a lack of some information that is seen as desirable by participants, does not by itself preclude effective public participation any more than it precludes effective decision making by government agencies. Rather, what seems crucial is that public participation processes address the inadequacies in the science so as to build mutual trust and understanding between the scientists and the public.
|
From page 174... ...
. Thus, more needs to be learned about how to provide useful information about scientific uncertainty to participants in environmental assessment and decision-making processes, particularly about the potentials of formal techniques and process-based, analytic-deliberative ones.
|
From page 175... ...
? 2 Indeed, some have suggested that carefully structured public participation processes can help in reducing uncertainty in decision-making processes (Lourenço and Costa, 2007)
|
From page 176... ...
As discussed in Chapter 6, there are ways of structuring the participation process that can enhance effective public engagement even in the face of uncertainty. Accessibility and Comprehensibility of Information A fundamental requisite of public participants' making effective use of scientific information is that the information is available to them.
|
From page 177... ...
Other techniques used in public participation processes to increase accessibility include summarizing technical materials in plain language, providing technical assistance grants to citizen groups, public education workshops or "open houses," and including someone with technical expertise and broad credibility on the staff of the participation process to serve as a translator. In several advisory committees convened by the U.S.
|
From page 178... ...
. In an attempt to resolve water allocation issues on the Truckee and Carson Rivers in western Nevada, experts from the private sector, agricultural interests, environmental groups, and federal, tribal, and state agencies shared water supply forecast models with one another and made multiple
|
From page 179... ...
. Available evidence indicates that the complexity of scientific issues does not by itself present a significant barrier to effective public participation.
|
From page 180... ...
• The determinants of success are largely the same for participatory environmental assessments and decision-making processes. • The environmental subject matter has little direct effect on partici
|
From page 181... ...
Concerns about procedural fairness and trust are more salient with scientific uncertainty, and it is therefore important to ensure that public participation processes provide for open and balanced consideration of the scientific issues, including gaps in knowledge, and to provide information in ways that facilitate understanding by nonscientists. • Some contextual factors can create the potential for serious conflict among the parties.
|
From page 182... ...
Limiting the breadth of participation can have serious negative consequences for the overall process, as discussed in Chapter 5. Chapter 6 details practices that can aid in making scientific information useful in a linked process of analysis and deliberation and thus provides guidance on how to make scientific information accessible to those with limited scientific backgrounds.
|
From page 183... ...
TABLE 7-1 Diagnostic Guide to Difficulties Related to the Issue in Public Participation Contextual Principles That Become More Illustrative Practices for Addressing Factor Difficult to Achieve Difficulties Difficultiesa Issue Factors Long temporal scale Inclusiveness Number of interested and Create new, longer-lasting affected parties institutions Ability to participate (e.g., future generations) Large spatial scale Inclusiveness Number and range of interested Workshops in multiple locations and affected parties Internet participation Study circles Deliberative polling Blue Ribbon commissions Large spatial scale Clarity of purpose Multiple agencies with Interagency work groups Commitment to use the process jurisdiction over parts of the to inform decisions issue Complexity Clarity of purpose Diversity of perspectives can Frame issues in terms of Collaborative problem increase with the complexity reconciling interests formulation of the issue Include multiple issue framings Collective action and common- Inclusiveness Motivation to participate is pool resources lower among those who stand to benefit or lose only a little Science Factors Inadequate information Collaborative problem Missing information may make Joint fact finding formulation it difficult either to define the Iterative processes, with steps problem clearly or to solve it to solicit information from stakeholders Expert panels or "fishbowl" techniques at workshops Continued 183
|
From page 184... ...
Scientific uncertainty Explicitness about analytic When uncertainty is poorly Formal characterization of assumptions and uncertainties characterized, it is hard to uncertainty estimate the consequences of Adaptive management choices
|
From page 185... ...
Accessibility of information Availability of decision-relevant Participants may be Summarize information in plain information unfamiliar with where to language find information in peer- Provide technical assistance to reviewed journals or it may participants who need it be too costly to obtain the Organize public education information workshops or "open houses" Information may be written in Include a technical expert on the highly technical language and facilitation team to serve as a may be difficult for the public "translator" or individuals from other Put information on the web disciplines to interpret Information may not be trusted Explicitness about analytic Models and other scientific Invite scientists to explain assumptions and uncertainties methods are or are perceived limitations of available science Good-faith communication as manipulated to justify Develop scenarios as an alternative a decision made for other to models when predictive reasons models are inadequate Analyses make simplifying Form a technical work group of assumptions that obscure experts trusted by all sides and issues of importance to develop or vet information and participants analyses through that group Models focus only on what Invite stakeholder nominations for can be quantified easily, peer review groups unintentionally prioritizing Invite stakeholder comments on certain variables, leading selection of members of expert to incomplete or inaccurate panels to ensure confidence that analyses, or contributing to a all scientific views are included perception of bias Engage in joint fact finding aEvidence is inadequate to recommend any of these practices as effective, or as preferable to practices that are not listed. They are listed to suggest some of the practices that might be considered for addressing particular difficulties.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.