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Changing Public Behavior > Audiences > Local decision-makers

84 Total Findings

A decision-making process that accepts the assumption that the people most involved with a particular issue are the ones best equipped to make decision is likely to lead to constructive solutions to land use concerns.

A decision-making process that is constructed based on local perceptions for how to make decisions can lead to grower acceptance of specific land use actions.

A two-way flow of activities between college students and a watershed coalition can create a distinctive, mutually enhancing partnership that can lead to the development of new tools and resources as well as heightened awareness of needs by both students and local stakeholders.

Adapt course design over time using multiple feedback methods.

Apply group decision analysis (including needs and opportunities of stakeholders) in the long-term watershed planning process. Steps include: develop an understanding of watershed issues, problems, constraints and capabilities; consult about management strategies and alternatives; and prioritize strategies and alternatives.

As watershed organizations develop, facilitate a form of governance that is democratic and able to generate outcomes considered legitimate by all affected parties:

Assess patterns or organizational similarities that may facilitate the linkage among organizations to coordinate their actions at the river basin or ecosystem scale.

Assess the democracy merits of collaborative public management by watershed partnerships in terms of: inclusiveness, representativeness, impartiality, transparency, deliberativeness, lawfulness, and empowerment.

Assess watershed organizations to channel future research and to better approximate the organizational dynamics, issue concerns, and information needs unique to the organization.

Bayesian Belief Network decision support systems are most effectively used as part of a participatory process. It is imperative to get active involvement of stakeholders in this process for a proper construction of variables, selection of states, identification of links, etc.

Before designing training, survey local officials to learn if they:

Build interorganizational leadership skills among watershed management team members that addresses the inherent tension between the nurturing and steering functions of leadership in network settings. Focus on an effective but at the same time democratic leadership style that empowers participants to respectfully engage during discussions, allowing for constructive disagreement to enrich both dialogue and action.

Build skills among water outreach professionals to ask the right questions about the:

Build water leadership capacity among young professionals, especially:

Build watershed management team member ownership of a certain action by focusing on actions where consequences are more immediately visible, such as those that can have an impact on watershed sub-units or on communities of interest.

Capable institutions are an essential element of effective integrated water resource management.  An institutional assessment process investigating policy, organizational and operational elements, are effective tools when designed and analyzed by stakeholders.  Assessment criteria include:

Define both technical and collaborative management targets for watershed management.

Design partnership development training to build understanding and skills for partnership success factors and themes identified through the Leach and Pelky (2001) meta-analysis of empirical literature. (see Table 2, p. 382 for detailed list of these associated with each factor).

Focus on factors influencing partnership success:

Develop collaborative advantage in watershed management by working to develop and emphasize benefits not only for the partnership as a whole, but also for every individual and organization involved (e.g. access to credible data, learning opportunities, support for individual initiatives, local relevance, etc).

Drinking water education for citizens and the private sector can build capacity for implementing groundwater protection by increasing individual knowledge and skills for protecting groundwater, and assessing the credibility of policy and financial initiatives.

Drinking water education for managers and government officials should address proper management in 5 risk categories: technical, financial, institutional, political, and social.  These include: appropriate hydrogeological analyses required for local groundwater protection planning; allocation of adequate resources for groundwater protection; the quality of laws, regulations, policies, plans, and organizational structure that governs groundwater protection; leadership that can provide vision, direction, and partnerships with other communities; and the quantity and quality of citizen particiation in groundwater protection initiatives.

Educate stakeholders to help them fully understand planning tools available to protect open space, the benefits of planning, and planning and collaborative techniques.

Education to protect drinking water quality should focus, at least in part, on water utility managers and local government officials responsible for ensuring reliable and safe drinking water.

Enable students to personalize their education objectives (through pre-course interviews)

Encourage community groups

Establish an evaluation system for collaborative watershed management that takes into consideration not only the quality and quantity of water resources, but also the quality and quantity of interorganizational alliances, capacity and knowledge of each partner organization.

Explicitly recognize the implications of organizational affiliation when designing policies that foster collaboration in watersheds. Organizational culture and preexisting constituent relationships may dictate definitions of the problem and the range of preferred alternatives in agency-affiliated partnerships.

Facilitate public access to land that is owned or managed by water utilities for purposes of protecting the watershed, in order to allow public scrutiny of forest/watershed management practices. Public engagement is critical to the success of source water protection programs, where citizens with experience of the land can effectively share views about topics such as no-cut zones around streams and protection for existing old forests.

Facilitate school-based watershed education programs through interactive resources and communication among groups using an interactive website

Focus on a contextual approach to prescribing widespread stakeholder involvement in collaborative environmental management. Prescriptions calling for broad community participation in all cases are unwise; recognize which objectives are likely to be met by broader participation, and which are not.

Gather data about policy maker skills and preferences prior to designing training

Identify and provide additional support for group-designated water "experts"

In advising watershed councils and technical teams, provide training to enhance quality efforts in the following parameters of the collaborative process: centralization vs decentralization of the decision-making process; the tension between local/lay knowledge and expert knowledge; scale and inclusiveness of collaborative decision-making; tensions between ecological/scientific time frames and management/constituent time frames; expenses and agency resources required for collaborative decision making.

In facilitating development of a watershed group, consider these potential indicators of success:

In facilitating development of a watershed group, encourage participation from a balance of public versus private sector stakeholders. More balanced (mixed public/private) groups are more likely to be engaged in planning and research, group development and maintenance, and watershed restoration and protection, than are citizen-based groups. Citizen-based groups may be more likely than mixed groups to achieve government pressure as a primary accomplishment.

In social marketing projects, focus communication messages on sources of water pollution and actions that must be taken, when the public is already aware that they should care about water quality.

In stormwater communication efforts, focus on TV media time during local news; and use radio to target specific markets.

In stormwater communication efforts, focus the media buy on specific regions where action is most needed, rather than statewide, and provide local programs events and activities that encourage public behavior change.

In the long-term watershed planning process, assess and analyse different stakeholders’ preferences in order to prioritize various strategies and alternatives. For example, use an analytical hierarchy process (AHP) or a social choice function (SCF) process. The analytical hierarchy process is best used with expert groups and includes (1) the structuring of a problem into a hierarchy consisting of a goal and subordinate features, (2) pairwise comparisons between elements at each level, and (3) propagation of level-specific, local priorities to global priorities. The intensity of preference between any two elements is assessed by integers ranging from 1 to 9 (Saaty, 1980, 1990).  The social choice function is based on pairwise comparisons on the number of voters between pairs of strategies. It assumes that all assertions of preference between two strategies carry equal weight.

In water-related organizations, include stakeholders as Board members

In watershed partnerships, negotiate indicators of evaluation among stakeholders. Watershed partnerships bring together multiple stakeholders with a diversity of goals, values and expectations, and each may bring different perspectives regarding what a ‘successful’ partnership entails, what type of scientific knowledge is ‘valid’, and how ‘progress’ should be measured.

Involve citizens in a watershed planning group by facilitating their understanding of the problem/situation.

Local understanding about place and identity can provide coherence and justification for the creation and function of an organization as well as for individual or policy decisions about land use.

Participating as part of community and watershed groups is more likely to lead to learning new information and making management changes.

Provide course activities with direct application to work responsibilities (appropriate to local context)

Provide face-to-face meeting opportunities: to allow for learning from others and to provide camaraderie (networking and moral support).

Provide instructor feedback

Provide policy makers with a link to local information sources.

Provide strategies and practice for differentiating objective information sources from biased information sources

Provide students with autonomy in determining content and timing of learning activities.

Social learning refers to the growing capacity of a social network to develop and perform collective actions. In promoting social learning in watershed management, it is important to frame information in such a way that a convergence of views becomes possible through interaction and collective learning processes, e.g. maps illustrating the impacts of water releases, as perceived by the users; graphs showing flow/time relationship and details of the hydrological regime; and field trips and video sessions to allow participants to see the impact of water releases on fish reproduction. Other useful tools include, for example, tools to communicate a vision about water management such as might be accomplished with a 3D model of a hydro-electric dam, a3D chart localizing all the dams on the river, video cassettes and measuring instruments, which testify that the water management authority cares about people’s safety, and stakeholder involvement in data gathering.

Social learning refers to the growing capacity of a social network to develop and perform collective actions. In promoting social learning in watershed management, use technical information in a way that supports local actors to explore and clarify their own understanding of the river basin. Beware of information or communication tools that are either poorly designed or used inadequately, for example with too much technical content. Those can act as a barrier by overwhelming actors with technical information which is not relevant or understandable for them.

Strengthen public participation by addressing: lack of resources (time, money, staff), lack of rules of participation, lack of in-depth involvement of authorities, lack of hands-on use of Bayesian Belief Network decision support systems for stakeholders, and a lack of professional supervision of the decision-support process.

Support watershed planning groups with assistance from agencies.

The use of Bayesian Belief Network decision support systems for groundwater management requires full involvement of stake holders during the inplementation phase. Bayesian Belief Network decision support systems organise the body of knowledge in any given area by mapping out cause-and-effect relationships among key variables and encoding them with numbers that represent the extent to which one variable is likely to affect another.

To address problems characterized by high degrees of ecological and social complexity, uncertainty and indeterminacy, as well as conflicts over values and interests; and to generate positive change in dynamic social-ecological systems, compliment public involvement processes, e.g., public comment periods, public registries, open houses, and public hearings -- with a focus on inclusive and integrated efforts that can be aligned with environmental and social objectives of sustainability, and which may include such processes as visioning practices, information flows, and leadership styles.

To address problems characterized by high degrees of ecological and social complexity, uncertainty and indeterminacy, as well as conflicts over values and interests; and to generate positive change in dynamic social-ecological systems, consider applying social learning approaches, i.e., adaptive and participatory approaches that facilitate learning by the individuals and social organizations involved in resource and environmental governance. Social learning takes place within collaborative management strategies and may focus on building assessment, planning, implementation, monitoring, adapting, communicating, and understanding skills; using management interventions as learning platforms, enabled by active community facilitation, conflict resolution, negotiated settlements, mutual learning, convergence of goals, monitoring, and concerted action; or generally relate to interacting and overlapping processes: participation, negotiation, integration, systems orientation, and reflection.

To address the complexity of water resource management problems, combine the technological dimension with the social dimension, based on stakeholders involvement; use decision-support tools in a shared platform through which the debate is organised and the different sources of knowledge are integrated.

To address the complexity of water resource management problems, engage stakeholders in structuring, i.e. systematizing the knowledge which emerges during the participative process, in order to make it comprehensible for the other participants and functional for the decision process. Cognitive mapping (concepts linked to form chains of action-oriented argumentation) and analysis is an example of a system that can be used to produce different points of view and information, in order to enrich a collective ‘‘knowledge base’’ with creative ideas and concepts around the problem.

To assure that watershed groups can play a valuable substantive role in states’ watershed management programs, encourage active recruiting to include a variety of perspectives. As collaborative policies are developed, sponsors must strike a balance to achieve an appropriate balance of participants to address each concern.

To assure that watershed groups can play a valuable substantive role in states’ watershed management programs, encourage and maintain heterogeneous participation in watershed partnerships as they work through assessment, planning or day-to-day operations of the partnership, wrestle with internal differences, and establish new collective goals and strategies to achieve them.

To enhance local conservation planning, facilitate development of an organized public interest group who can speak on behalf of conservation initiatives.

To enhance participation in water resource and watershed management, assess small landholder water related needs to orientate the public participation process.

To enhance participation in water resource and watershed management, create small-scale user forums to improve the internal organization among small landholders and give them a voice.

To facility collaborative watershed management, design a multi-level communication strategy that addresses inter-personal, inter-organization, and community needs.

To help landowners learn new information, about riparian areas, landowners prefer that staff characteristics include knowledge about riparian management and understanding of the practicalities of living and working near riparian areas.

To increase US public acceptance of water reuse, such as high awareness of treatment technology, trust in local government; and of the challenges and opportunities of water reuse in the US:

To integrate different types of knowledge in watershed management, such as experiential knowledge with technical/scientific knowledge, provide group members and resource people (technical expert) with a forum where each can give their input on an equal basis, maximizing the depth of input from each type of expertise.

To teach recognition of key aquatic insects use narrated slide discussion and provide a live insect for reference

Understand factors facilitating and constraining groundwater protection: local governmental leadership, financial resources, building linkages among key stakeholders and organizations, appropriate institutional arrangements and public support.

Use Bayesian Belief Network decision support systems for complex decision-making, including structural learning, strategic integration and breakdown of barriers between different domains.  But high level of frustration can occur when citizen input meetings lack structure and trail off into local and personal problems.

Use audience assessment strategies to identify which, if any, water and watershed governance strategies interest households and landowners. Build participatory opportunities around specific topics of interest. Consider household and landowner response to strategies such as: pollution control, lowering prices, protecting flood plains, improving storage facilities, improving repairs and maintenance and introducing enforced metering.

Use key informant interviews of local leaders to aid understanding for how to engage leaders in planning for conservation of open space.  Consider attitudes, issues, and obstacles.

Use website resources:

Watershed management participatory methods include, scenario workshops (develops ideas and actions based on visioning processes), mediated modeling (problem definition, conceptualization, specification, and policy analysis), and social multicriteria evaluation (compliments decision-making processes with social science techniques including institutional analysis, interviews,questionnaires, obeservation, polls, and focus groups). Scenario workshops and mediated modeling are well-suited to the early stages of the planning process (problem solving and identification of goals and alternatives) and good at educating participants and building capacity, but not as effective at resolving long-standing conflicts and achieving consensus.  Social multicriteria evaluation is better able to address the evaluation of alternatives, reveal trade-offs, and aid convergence between divergent stakeholder's views; however, implementation is heavily reliant on experts, and allows for less participation and deliberation than scenario workshops or mediated modeling  in the goal-setting stage.  A hybrid of participatory methods may be the best approach.

When applying group decision analysis processes in the long-term watershed planning process, facilitate development of/effective operation of a watershed council in order to enhance coordination among the stakeholders when choosing long-term watershed management alternatives.

When considering ecosystem outcomes from a collaborative watershed management process, develop evaluation criteria that can account for the influence of scale and better reflect the potential contributions of the watershed team to their broad, longterm vision for the watershed.

When considering social outcomes of a collaborative watershed management process, consider individual as well as organizational outcomes.

When implementing group decision analysis results in the long-term watershed planning process, facilitate development of awareness and cooperation of all stakeholders, especially governmental agencies and local communities.

When implementing provide education programs focused on general community awareness programs (to build public support) as well as programs targeted to potential groundwater contamination contributors.

When working on riparian issues, allow the local community to drive the process, identify the timelines, and identify the way in which they wish to manage riparian areas. Use awareness, team and tool building, community-based action, and monitoring.

When working on riparian issues, employ multiple interactions and a mix of many extension methods to offer opportunities for diverse information and ideas and methods of providing them, and to meet individualized learning needs. Methods may include presentations, field days, workshops, individual landowner visits, riparian health inventories and reports, written materials, technical advice, and web site information on riparian areas and grazing management.

When working on riparian issues, give the community the opportunity to build a relationship with extension staff, to build trust and understanding, and to allow enough time for multiple interactions to occur.

Work with a collaborative to provide consistent storm water messages across neighborhoods in a large city.


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