Supporting the Constructive Use of Existing Hydrological Models in Participatory Settings: A Set of “Rules of the Game”

Supporting the Constructive Use of Existing Hydrological Models in Participatory Settings: A Set of “Rules of the Game”

Bots, P.W.G.
Bijlsma, R.
Von Korff, Y.
Van der Fluit, N.
Wolters, H.

Technology, Policy and Management

Multi Actor Systems

2011-12-31

When hydrological models are used in support of water management decisions, stakeholders often contest these models because they perceive certain aspects to be inadequately addressed. A strongly contested model may be abandoned completely, even when stakeholders could potentially agree on the validity of part of the information it can produce. The development of a new model is costly, and the results may be contested again. We consider how existing hydrological models can be used in a policy process so as to benefit from both hydrological knowledge and the perspectives and local knowledge of stakeholders. We define a code of conduct as a set of “rules of the game” that we base on a case study of developing a water management plan for a Natura 2000 site in the Netherlands. We propose general rules for agenda management and information sharing, and more specific rules for model use and option development. These rules structure the interactions among actors, help them to explicitly acknowledge uncertainties, and prevent expertise from being neglected or overlooked. We designed the rules to favor openness, protection of core stakeholder values, the use of relevant substantive knowledge, and the momentum of the process. We expect that these rules, although developed on the basis of a water-management issue, can also be applied to support the use of existing computer models in other policy domains. As rules will shape actions only when they are constantly affirmed by actors, we expect that the rules will become less useful in an “unruly” social environment where stakeholders constantly challenge the proceedings.

case study
conflict
hydrological model
institutions
Netherlands
participation
policy process
water management

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:4a00a3a8-d4de-4318-887a-2459e3565a5b

Resilience Alliance

1708-3087

http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/articles/3643.html

Ecology and Society, 16 (2), 2011

Institutional Repository

journal article

© 2011 The Author(s)
Published under license by the Resilience Alliance