Improving monitoring and assessment for environmental decision-making (original) (raw)
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8.0 EXAMPLES OF ELECTRON IC TOOLS 8.1. Group Systems Software 8.2. Newtownabbey Online-Basic example of a functional and informative city web page 26 8.3. Virtual Slaithwaite-Online GIS based forum for public commentary on town needs 8.4. Pilsen Design Visualization Project-Online survey of residents' perceptions of neighbourhood 8.5. Imagine New York-Online idea forum 8.6. Conclusions on electronic means of structuring public involvement 9.0 CONCLUSIONS 10.0 REFERENCES 2.0 Directive 2003/35/EC This report takes its lead from Council Directive 2003/35/EC which replaces previous Council Directives 85/337/EEC and 96/61/EC providing for public participation in respect of the drawing up of certain plans and programmes relating to the environment. member states will be required to comply with its provisions by 25 th June 2005. The Directive states that "Effective public participation in the taking of decisions enables the public to express, and the decision-maker to take account of, opinions and concerns which may be relevant to those decisions, thereby increasing the accountability and transparency of the decision making process and contributing to public awareness of environmental issues and support for the decisions taken". This clearly emphasises that participation is fundamental to the negotiation and decision making stage of environmental proposals, plans and programmes.
Changing role of citizens in national environmental monitoring
European Handbook of Crowdsourced Geographic Information, 2016
During the last few decades the role of citizens in environmental monitoring has changed remarkably in Finland. In this chapter, we briefly describe this change by using examples of both traditional and modern monitoring systems. According to our findings, there are at least four important drivers challenging traditional monitoring systems. First, the monitoring is undergoing a rapid process of globalisation and e.g. the systems that earlier focused on national problems are today controlled by European legislation or influenced by international problems, agreements and practices. Second, public obligations for monitoring have grown much more rapidly than economic resources and it requires the monitoring systems to have a new kind of ability to adapt to changes. Third, the migration of people from rural areas to towns has reduced the potential of a voluntary workforce. The forth driver is the aging of the volunteers. All drivers, without new monitoring strategies, challenge both the performance and geographical coverage of monitoring systems. We expect that a combination of new technologies, such as remote sensing, the Internet of Things and Big Data, can empower new groups of volunteers and increase the
Policy Studies Journal, 2006
Knowing how people think about public participation processes and knowing what people want from these processes is essential to crafting a legitimate and effective process and delivering a program that is widely viewed as meaningful and successful. This article reports on research to investigate the nature of diversity among participants' perceptions of what is the most appropriate public participation process for environmental assessment and decision making in 10 different cases. Results show that there are clearly distinct perspectives on what an appropriate public participation process should be. We identified four perspectives: Science-Centered Stakeholder Consultation, Egalitarian Deliberation, Efficient Cooperation, and Informed Collaboration. The literature on public participation tends to presume that there are clear and universal criteria on how to “do” public participation correctly or that context is the critical factor. This study has revealed that even within a specific assessment or decision-making effort, there may be different perspectives about what is viewed as appropriate, which poses a challenge for both theorists and practitioners. Among the active participants in these 10 case studies, we found limited agreement and strong differences of opinions for what is a good process. Points of consensus across these cases are that good processes reach out to all stakeholders, share information openly and readily, engage people in meaningful interaction, and attempt to satisfy multiple interest positions. Differences appeared about how strongly to emphasize science and information, how much leadership and direction the process needs, what is the proper behavior of participants, how to tackle issues of power and trust, and what are the outcome-related goals of the process. These results challenge researchers and practitioners to consider the diversity of participant needs in addition to the broad context when conceptualizing or carrying out participatory processes.
Increasing citizen participation in sustainability-centred environmental assessment follow-up
2004
This paper reports on research into ways to strengthen the follow-up stage of environmental assessment. Lessons are drawn from three case study communities where citizen efforts have been integral to environmental monitoring, assessment and management initiatives. Common problems and strategies from the case studies are identified and implications for environmental assessment practice are discussed. Finally, recommendations from the Niagara Escarpment Biosphere Reserve 10-year review are examined in the context of emergent themes to identify ways in which this research can be applied to the development of management strategies for biosphere reserves.
Public Involvement in Environmental Assessment: The Case of the Nonparticipant
Environmental Management, 2002
Public involvement is recognized by legislators, practitioners, academics, nongovernment organizations and, most importantly, affected communities, as a fundamental component of environmental assessment (EA) processes. Experience with public involvement in EA has proven, however, that despite good intentions, there are formidable barriers to participation. This paper examines this issue, largely through a case study of a new Can$120 million hog processing facility in Brandon, Canada. Primary data were collected in three phases, using multiple methodological techniques, including document review, qualitative interviews, and a mail questionnaire. Results included a diverse list of barriers to involvement, grouped into two primary categories: structural and individual. A significant structural barrier was a belief that becoming involved would not make a difference as the ultimate decision in the case was a foregone conclusion. An important individual barrier was that people did not know about the EA. Finally, the results indicated that lack of interest was not an important reason for nonparticipation.
2010
1. Solutions to the global environmental crisis require scientific knowledge and responses spanning different spatial scales and levels of societal organization; yet understanding how to translate environmental knowledge into decision-making and action remains limited. 2. We examined 104 published environmental monitoring schemes to assess whether participation in data collection and analysis influences the speed and scale of decision-making and action. 3. Our results show that scientist-executed monitoring informs decisions within regions, nations and international conventions. However, decisions typically take 3-9 years to be implemented. 4. We also show that scientist-executed monitoring has little impact at the village scale, where many natural resource management decisions are made. 5. At the village scale, monitoring schemes that involve local people, and relate to resource utilization at the village level, are much more effective at influencing decisions; these decisions typically take 0-1 year to be implemented. 6. Synthesis and applications: Involving local stakeholders in monitoring enhances management responses at local spatial scales, and increases the speed of decision-making to tackle environmental challenges at operational levels of resource management.