Improving Understanding and Management of Uncertainty in Science-Informed Collaborative Policy Processes

Linda Lilburne, Melissa Robson-Williams and Ned Norton
Additional contact information
Linda Lilburne: Manaaki Whenua–Landcare Research, P.O. Box 69040, Lincoln 7640, New Zealand
Melissa Robson-Williams: Manaaki Whenua–Landcare Research, P.O. Box 69040, Lincoln 7640, New Zealand
Ned Norton: Land Water People, P.O. Box 70, Lyttelton 8841, New Zealand

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 10, 1-23

Abstract: Decision making in natural resource management must deal with uncertainty. This can be very challenging when there is high uncertainty in the system being managed, particularly when participatory processes are used that potentially involve a wide range of stakeholders with competing interests and values, and where technical resources are limited. In the first phase of the research, a formal review of how uncertainty was managed in a collaborative and community-centred policy process to set water quality and water quantity limits in the Selwyn Waihora catchment in New Zealand. Three recommendations for improvement were identified: (i) increase the transparency of the nature and level of uncertainty considered, (ii) expand the types or sources of uncertainty considered, and (iii) apply a systemic and systematic approach to identifying and prioritising uncertainties. In the second phase, this led to the development of a five-stage conceptual framework incorporating a number of steps and tools designed to facilitate understanding, communicating, and managing uncertainty. The framework was tested and refined using the data from the original Selwyn Waihora policy process. This paper describes our framework, which was found to support understanding, managing, and communicating uncertainty in collaborative processes tasked with developing new environmental policy, despite time and resource constraints.

Keywords: locations of uncertainty; unknowns; natural resource policy; collaborative process (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/10/6041/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/10/6041/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:10:p:6041-:d:816732

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().