A typology of stakeholders and guidelines for engagement in transdisciplinary, participatory processes

© 2016 Newton and Elliott. This paper fulfils a gap in environmental management by producing a typology of stakeholders for effective participatory processes and co-design of solutions to complex social–environmental issues and then uses this typology for a stepwise roadmap methodology for balanced and productive stakeholder engagement. Definitions are given of terminology that is frequently used interchangeably such as “stakeholders,” “social actors,” and “interested parties.” Whilst this analysis comes from a marine perspective, it is relevant to all environments and the means of tackling environmental problems. Eleven research questions about participative processes are addressed, based on more than 30 years of experience in water, estuarine, coastal, and marine management. A stepwise roadmap, supported by illustrative tables based on case-studies, shows how a balanced stakeholder selection and real engagement may be achieved. The paper brings these together in the context of several up-to-date concepts such as complex, nested governance, the 10 tenets for integrated, successful, and sustainable marine management, the System Approach Framework and the evolution of DPSIR into DAPSI(W)R(M) framework. Examples given are based on the implementation of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive, the Water Framework Directive, the Environmental Impact Assessment Directive, the Framework Directive for Maritime Spatial Planning, as well as for Regional Sea Conventions. The paper also shows how tools that have been developed in recent projects can be put to use to implement policy and maximize the effectiveness of stakeholder participation

Ecosystem services: A bridge or barrier for UK marine stakeholders?

Ecosystem services conceptualises the multiple interactions between ecosystems and the people and communities benefitting from their direct or indirect use, aiming to provide stakeholders and scientists with a common language. While some users appear to have adopted this language and terminology, there are concerns that the complexities associated with the concept make it inaccessible and, rather than providing stakeholders with a tool to explain complex relationships, the language and terminology itself may disengage. Through surveying UK-based coastal and marine stakeholders (n = 158), this study examines stakeholders’ perceptions of the concept of ecosystem services and its role and usefulness within the marine and coastal science-policy-practice interface. Overall, stakeholders provided favourable opinions, with findings similar across respondents with the exception of industry; which used it less, was less confident with it and believed it to be less important. The results provide an evidenced argument for the benefits of the ecosystem services approach, including communication, supporting management and linking environment to humans. The analysis also details the required advancements to ensure effective future use, including improved terminology, pluralistic valuation and shared learning. Finally, the paper highlights challenges and benefits relating to the term, creating links to ongoing discussions about effective scientific communication for marine and coastal management

Urban Sanitation: New Terminology for Globally Relevant Solutions?

Progress toward Sustainable Development Goals for global access to safe sanitation is lagging significantly. In this Feature, we propose that misleading terminology leads to errors of categorization and hinders progress toward sanitation service provision in urban areas. Binary classifications such as “offsite/onsite” and “sewered/nonsewered” do not capture the need for “transport to treatment” or the complexity of urban sanitation and should be discarded. “Fecal sludge management” is used only in the development context of low- or middle-income countries, implying separate solutions for “poor” or “southern” contexts, which is unhelpful. Terminology alone does not solve problems, but rather than using outdated or “special” terminology, we argue that a robust terminology that is globally relevant across low-, middle-, and upper-income contexts is required to overcome increasingly unhelpful assumptions and stereotypes. The use of accurate, technically robust vocabulary and definitions can improve decisions about management and selection of treatment, promote a circular economy, provide a basis for evidence-based science and technology research, and lead to critical shifts and transformations to set policy goals around truly safely managed sanitation. In this Feature, the three current modes of sanitation are defined, examples of misconceptions based on existing terminology are presented, and a new terminology for collection and conveyance is proposed: (I) fully road transported, (II) source-separated mixed transport, (III) mixed transport, and (IV) fully pipe transported

Pathways to Linking Science and Policy in the Field of Global Risk

One of our current aims at the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER) is to understand the norms, values and approaches that bridge global risk with policy engagement. More specifically, to strengthen our capabilities in translation and application of our research into practical policy recommendations and proposals. Therefore, we have developed this report to help guide and enhance the policy engagement efforts of researchers at CSER and other global risk research institutions. Based on insights from academic experience, in this report readers will find: insights into academic perspectives on policy engagement; definitions of terminology; study cases, topics in demand; institutions interested in global catastrophic risks; and skills; as well as a checklist and step-by-step guidance that may inspire and help you to lead your research activities towards more impactful policy engagements. Through six cases of engagement with policy, CSER has identified a number of skills that are highly relevant to successful policy engagement: project management skills, communication skills, networking and interpersonal skills, expertise in specialist topics and familiarity with the policy research landscape, knowledge of parliamentary language and processes, knowledge of the process for drafting bills and legislation and knowledge of policy-making and how to frame policy interventions in a palatable way. Policy engagement can help you gain new skills, increase your network, and enhance the reputation of your institution and yourself. It can lead to research and funding opportunities, and enhance your future career options. This work is part of our project A Science of Global Risk which is focused on safeguarding humanity’s long-term future by being rigorous and creative; open to diverse groups; and capable of producing concrete proposals for risk management that can be implemented within the existing policy landscape

A proposed unified framework to describe the management of biological invasions

Managing the impacts of invasive alien species (IAS) is a great societal challenge. A wide variety of terms have been used to describe the management of invasive alien species and the sequence in which they might be applied. This variety and lack of consistency creates uncertainty in the presentation and description of management in policy, science and practice. Here we expand on the existing description of the invasion process to develop an IAS management framework. We define the different forms of active management using a novel approach based on changes in species status, avoiding the need for stand-alone descriptions of management types, and provide a complete set of potential management activities. We propose a standardised set of management terminology as an emergent feature of this framework. We identified eight key forms of management: (1) pathway management, (2) interception, (3) limits to keeping, (4) secure keeping, (5) eradication, (6) complete reproductive removal, (7) containment and (8) suppression. We recognise four associated terms: prevention; captive management; rapid eradication; and long-term management, and note the use of impact mitigation and restoration as associated forms of management. We discuss the wider use of this framework and the supporting activities required to ensure management is well-targeted, cost-effective and makes best use of limited resources

Strategic Shift to a Diagnostic Model of Care in a Multi-Site Group Dental Practice.

BackgroundDocumenting standardized dental diagnostic terms represents an emerging change for how dentistry is practiced. We focused on a mid-sized dental group practice as it shifted to a policy of documenting patients' diagnoses using standardized terms in the electronic health record.MethodsKotter's change framework was translated into interview questions posed to the senior leadership in a mid-size dental group practice. In addition, quantitative content analyses were conducted on the written policies and forms before and after the implementation of standardized diagnosis documentation to assess the extent to which the forms and policies reflected the shift. Three reviewers analyzed the data individually and reached consensuses where needed.ResultsKotter's guiding change framework explained the steps taken to 97 percent utilization rate of the Electronic Health Record and Dental Diagnostic Code. Of the 96 documents included in the forms and policy analysis, 31 documents were officially updated but only two added a diagnostic element.ConclusionChange strategies established in the business literature hold utility for dental practices seeking diagnosis-centered care.Practical implicationsA practice that shifts to a diagnosis-driven care philosophy would be best served by ensuring that the change process follows a leadership framework that is calibrated to the organization's culture

Policy-centric integration and dynamic composition of autonomic computing techniques

This paper presents innovative work in the development of policy-based autonomic computing. The core of the work is a powerful and flexible policy-expression language AGILE, which facilitates run-time adaptable policy configuration of autonomic systems. AGILE also serves as an integrating platform for other self-management technologies including signal processing, automated trend analysis and utility functions. Each of these technologies has specific advantages and applicability to different types of dynamic adaptation. The AGILE platform enables seamless interoperability of the different technologies to each perform various aspects of self-management within a single application. The various technologies are implemented as object components. Self-management behaviour is specified using the policy language semantics to bind the various components together as required. Since the policy semantics support run-time re-configuration, the self-management architecture is dynamically composable. Additional benefits include the standardisation of the application programmer interface, terminology and semantics, and only a single point of embedding is required

The KINDRA project. A tool for sharing Europe’s groundwater research and knowledge

Hydrogeology-related research activities cover a wide spectrum of research areas at EU and national levels. The KINDRA project (Knowledge Inventory for hydrogeology research, Grant Agreement No. 642047) seeks to create a critical mass for scientific knowledge exchange of hydrogeological research, to ensure wide applicability on research results - including support for innovation and development - and to reduce unnecessary duplication of efforts. A new terminology and classification methodology for groundwater R&D results and activities (Hydrogeological Research Classification System: HRC-SYS) has been developed based on a hierarchical structure using keywords derived from EU directives and scientific journals. This classification allows the population of a European Inventory of Groundwater Research (EIGR) of research results, activities, projects, and programmes to be used to identify critical research challenges and gaps, for better implementation of the Water Framework Directive

Harmonised Principles for Public Participation in Quality Assurance of Integrated Water Resources Modelling

The main purpose of public participation in integrated water resources modelling is to improve decision-making by ensuring that decisions are soundly based on shared knowledge, experience and scientific evidence. The present paper describes stakeholder involvement in the modelling process. The point of departure is the guidelines for quality assurance for `scientific` water resources modelling developed under the EU research project HarmoniQuA, which has developed a computer based Modelling Support Tool (MoST) to provide a user-friendly guidance and a quality assurance framework that aim for enhancing the credibility of river basin modelling. MoST prescribes interaction, which is a form of participation above consultation but below engagement of stakeholders and the public in the early phases of the modelling cycle and under review tasks throughout the process. MoST is a flexible tool which supports different types of users and facilitates interaction between modeller, manager and stakeholders. The perspective of using MoST for engagement of stakeholders e.g. higher level participation throughout the modelling process as part of integrated water resource management is evaluate