NEGOTIATING SCIENCE AND VALUES WITH STAKEHOLDERS IN THE ILLINOIS RIVER BASIN¹

Abstract

Current research in the Illinois River Basin is designed to develop and test a policy formulation protocol that will foster watershed management policy that is fully legitimated (i.e., policy that is technically effective, economically efficient, administratively implementable, politically feasible, and socially acceptable). This paper describes the results of the initial baseline impact assessment that includes physical, biological, economic, legal, and social systems as well as the development of a watershed management decision support system that is used to integrate technical information and analyses, and to facilitate policy maker and stakeholder negotiation workshops. Numerically modeled and visually simulated environmental impacts serve as the basis for developing alternative policy maker scenarios for prospective watershed management policies. These scenarios, which will be subjected to stakeholder review and negotiation, will undergo iterative review and amendment by policy makers and stakeholder groups to produce a recommended watershed management policy that satisfies all five substantive legitimation criteria. Preliminary results from the baseline social impact assessment indicate that fully legitimated policy is indeed obtainable.

Flood Risk, Uncertainty, and Scientific Information for Decision Making: Lessons from an Interdisciplinary Project

“…Another case we examined is Fort Collins' Meo et al 2002;Overpeck et al 2002a,b;NRC 2004). Such partnerships create an iterative, bidirectional process, from decision making to applications to research and back again, in which the participants collectively assess the fit between science and decision making and coproduce knowledge and tools (e.g., Hunt and Shackley 1999).…”

Everything Cannot Be Equal: Ranking Priorities and Revealing Worldviews to Guide Watershed Management

“…These values , beliefs, and experiences provide context and legitimacy to information and facts. The instructor may choose to discuss how Meo et al ( 2002 ) used Q-sort as an example of its application to other water -management scenarios. 7.…”

“…-Read a journal article that applies Q-sort and write a refl ection on the fi ndings of the paper based on their in-class experience as a "research subject" (e.g., Meo et al 2002 ;Previte et al 2007 ;Webler et al 2009 ). -Discuss case studies in environmental management that reveal how differences in worldviews were important to effective action (e.g., Webler et al 2009 ).…”

“…Background and instructions are provided in Electronic Supplementary Materials (ESM) A. For additional context, Meo et al ( 2002 ) and Previte et al ( 2007 ) provide examples of Q-sort applications to environmental policy and water management.…”

A Decision Support Tool for Stakeholder Involvement in Sustainable Water Resource Development

“…Educated decision-making, with the involvement of all stakeholders, is increasingly accepted as a reasonable approach to use natural resources sustainably and preserve them for future generations [7], [16]. The effectiveness and efficiency of such decisionmaking depends on the degree of relevant knowledge perceived by the stakeholders.…”