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The environmental management and planning community is struggling with a gap between knowledge and policy making. To bridge this gap,`decision support systems',`planning support systems', and other computer tools have been developed to make knowledge about complex issues more accessible for policy makers. However, the use of these systems in practice is limited. One major reason for this is that these systems are designed for well-defined problems, whereas in practice there is often a lack of stakeholder consensus on the problem structure. The aim of this paper is to present, and explore the potential of, a new approach for decision and planning support. The Quasta tool aims at facilitating participatory problem structuring through computer-supported cognitive mapping. The tool, allowing qualitative exploration of scenarios and simultaneous forecasting and backcasting, is tested in four participatory problem-structuring workshops, in which various environmental issues have been discussed. Evaluations of these workshops show that this approach (1) helps stakeholders to become aware of causal relationships, (2) is useful for a qualitative exploration of scenarios, (3) identifies the need for further (in-depth) knowledge, and (4) has a low threshold for nontechnicians.

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Interactive Problem Structuring with ICZM Stakeholders SummaryIntegrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) is struggling with a lack of sciencemanagement integration. Many computer systems, usually known as "decision support systems", have been developed with the intention to make scientific knowledge about complex systems more accessible for coastal managers. These tools, allowing a multidisciplinary approach with multi-criteria analyses, are designed for well-defined, structured problems. However, in practice stakeholder consensus on the problem structure is usually lacking. Aim of this paper is to explore the practical opportunities for the new so-called Quasta approach to structure complex problems in a group setting. This approach is based on a combination of Cognitive Mapping and Qualitative Probabilistic Networks. It comprehends a new type of computer system which is quite simple and flexible as well. The tool is tested in two workshops in which various coastal management issues were discussed. Evaluations of these workshops show that (1) this system helps stakeholders to make them aware of causal relationships, (2) it is useful for a qualitative exploration of scenarios, (3) it identifies the quantitative knowledge gaps of the problem being discussed and (4) the threshold for non technicians to use this tool is quite low. JEL Classification: Q5We would like to thank Silja Renooij for her feedback on QPN-related issues, Marek Druzdzel and his Decision Systems Laboratory for allowing us to use QGeNIe as a graphical user interface. The 'Sustainable living in the Dutch coastal zone' project has been supported by the Dutch foundation Leven met Water, TNO, the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency and other consortium partners. The workshop in Chile was only possible because of Victor Marín as a Spanish-speaking chairman and the support of Elena Ianni in making the diagrams. Finally, we would like to thank all of the participants of the workshops who have taken the efforts to fill in the questionnaire and to answer our questions.Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) is struggling with a lack of science-management integration. Many computer systems, usually known as "decision support systems", have been developed with the intention to make scientific knowledge about complex systems more accessible for coastal managers. These tools, allowing a multi-disciplinary approach with multi-criteria analyses, are designed for well-defined, structured problems. However, in practice stakeholder consensus on the problem structure is usually lacking. Aim of this paper is to explore the practical opportunities for the new so-called Quasta approach to structure complex problems in a group setting. This approach is based on a combination of Cognitive Mapping and Qualitative Probabilistic Networks. It comprehends a new type of computer system which is quite simple and flexible as well. The tool is tested in two workshops in which various coastal management issues were discussed. Evaluations of these workshops show that (1)...