Mountain Goat Removal in Olympic National Park: A Case Study of the Role of Organizational Culture in Individual Risk Decisions and Behavior

Using a case study, the authors explore the mediating role of organizational culture in individual Risk-taking decisions and behaviors. They argue that organizational culture can establish unique conditions that lead to highly reliable performance of high-Risk, undesired tasks. The authors also discuss the need for further research and its implications for Risk management

ASSESSING THE RISKS OF A FUTURE RAPID LARGE SEA LEVEL RISE: A REVIEW

Our aim is to make an appropriate characterization and interpretation of the risk problem of rapid large sea level rise that reflects the very large uncertainty in present day knowledge concerning this possibility, and that will be useful in informing discussion about risk management approaches. We consider mainly the potential collapse of the West Antarctic ice sheet as the source of such a sea level rise. Our review, characterization and interpretation of the risk makes us conclude that the risk of a rapid large sea level rise is characterized by potentially catastrophic consequences and high epistemic uncertainty; effective risk management must involve highly adaptive management regimes, vulnerability reduction, and prompt development of capabilities for precautionary reduction of climate change forcings.sea level rise, West Antarctic ice sheet, climate change, adaptive management, epistemic uncertainty, risk management arenas, vulnerability

Radioactive wastes and the social amplification of risk

A significant problem in radioactive waste facility siting is that apparent small risks or minor risks events produce substantial public concern and social impacts. The reasons for this difference in public health and societal impacts is not well understood. This paper explores the issues involved in the social amplification of risk, using the risk associated with site characterization as the example. Noteworthy as sources of amplification are the infomation flow associated with risks and risk events including the large volume of information, the extent of dispute, and misinformation and rumor. Such information passes through the mass media and interpersonal networks. The major mechanisms involved in risk amplifications are discussed and their likely impacts on society described

Agricultural trade publications and the 2012 Midwestern U.S. drought: a missed opportunity for climate risk communication

The Midwestern United States experienced a devastating drought in 2012, leading to reduced corn and soybean yields and increased instances of pests and disease. Climate change induced weather variability and extremes are expected to increase in the future, and have and will continue to impact the agricultural sector. This study investigated how agricultural trade publications portrayed the 2012 U.S. Midwestern drought, whether climate change was associated with drought, and whether these publications laid out transformative adaptation measures farmers could undertake in order to increase their adaptive capacity for future climate uncertainty. We performed a content analysis of 1000 media reports between April 1, 2012 and March 31, 2014, sampled from ten agricultural trade publications. The results lead us to suggest that trade publications’ 2012 U.S. Midwestern drought discussion lacked information that would allow farmers and agricultural advisors to assess climate change risk and subsequent potential adaptive management strategies. Agricultural risk from climate change is very real, and farmers will need to adapt. The agricultural trade publications studied missed an opportunity to convey risk from climate change and the transformative adaptation practices necessary for a sustainable and resilient agricultural system

Resilience from a lived-experience perspective in the regional context of Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland

Within the UK, academics and practitioners’ understanding of resilience have been increasingly nuanced, particularly after the introduction of the Civil Contingencies Act (CCA) 2004. However, there remain debates and variations in how resilience is conceptualised that creates confusion in how resilience building is operationalised in practice by stakeholders. To address this concern, this study explores the meaning of resilience from the perspectives of people with a lived experience of flooding, through the lens of adaptive capacity, which is a key dimension of resilience as identified in Scottish policy frameworks. Insight from a literature review combined with empirical data collected from forty-three participants, suggests that resilience to natural hazards is a function of two inter-related aspects: ‘information’ and ‘response’ mechanisms. Further analysis suggests that resilience enhancement begins following receipt of risk information from either experience or other sources that shapes the understanding of a hazard and what protective steps to take. This understanding prompts behavioural responses influenced by ‘risk attitude’, ‘skills’ and ‘access to resources’ to enhance the adaptive capacity of the receiver. The paper engages in the complex debate about how resilience is conceptualized from the social sciences perspective. It presents a simplified account of what resilience means and sets out policy and practical implications of this

Risks, alternative knowledge strategies and democratic legitimacy: the conflict over co-incineration of hazardous industrial waste in Portugal.

The decision to incinerate hazardous industrial waste in cement plants (the socalled ‘co-incineration’ process) gave rise to one of the most heated environmental conflicts ever to take place in Portugal. The bitterest period was between 1997 and 2002, after the government had made a decision. Strong protests by residents, environmental organizations, opposition parties, and some members of the scientific community forced the government to backtrack and to seek scientific legitimacy for the process through scientific expertise. The experts ratified the government’s decision, stating that the risks involved were socially acceptable. The conflict persisted over a decade and ended up clearing the way for a more sustainable method over which there was broad social consensus – a multifunctional method which makes it possible to treat, recover and regenerate most wastes. Focusing the analysis on this conflict, this paper has three aims: (1) to discuss the implications of the fact that expertise was ‘confiscated’ after the government had committed itself to the decision to implement co-incineration and by way of a reaction to the atmosphere of tension and protest; (2) to analyse the uses of the notions of ‘risk’ and ‘uncertainty’ in scientific reports from both experts and counter-experts’ committees, and their different assumptions about controllability and criteria for considering certain practices to be sufficiently safe for the public; and (3) to show how the existence of different technical scientific and political attitudes (one more closely tied to government and the corporate interests of the cement plants, the other closer to the environmental values of reuse and recycling and respect for the risk perception of residents who challenged the facilities) is closely bound up with problems of democratic legitimacy. This conflict showed how adopting more sustainable and lower-risk policies implies a broader view of democratic legitimacy, one which involves both civic movements and citizens themselves

The Planning Process: Lessons of the Past and a Model for the Future

SUMMARY Development planning, as practised over the last 25 years, has been technocratic, politically isolated and naive. Planners have entered a blind alley, described as ‘narrow?planning’, where professionalisation and division of labour have led to a concentration on documents rather than real?world changes. Narrow?planning is contrasted with ‘broad?planning’, where data collection, the consultation of relevant interest groups, forecasting, the definition of objectives, plan construction, authorisation, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation, are linked, providing a model of a continuous, integrated planning process. The preconditions for the success of this model are discussed, and it is emphasised that planning is essentially a political process. RESUME Le processus de planification: leçons du passé et modele pour I'avenir. La planification du développement, telle que pratiquée au cours des 25 dernières années, a été technocratique, isolée politiquement et naïive. Les planificateurs se sont engagés dans une impasse, qualifiée de “planification étroite”, où la professionalisation et la division du travail a résulté en une concentration sur les documents plutôt que sur les changements du monde concret. A cette forme de planification étroite, l'auteur oppose une “planification large”, où le rassemblement des données, la consultation des groupes d'intérêt appropriés, les prévisions, la définition des objectifs, la mise au point des projets, l'autorisation, la mise en oeuvre, le contrôle et l'évaluation sont des activités liées les unes aux autres, fournissant le modèle d'un processus de planification continu et intégré. L'auteur examine les conditions préalables nécessaires au succès de ce modèle, en soulignant que la planification est essentiellement un processus politique. RESUMEN El Proceso de Planif icación: Las lecciones del pasado y un modelo para el futuro La planificación del desarrollo, según se ha venido practicando durante los ultimos 25 años, ha sido tecnocrático, políticamente aislado y ingenuo. Los planificadores han entrado en un callejón sin salida, que se conoce como “planificación estrecha”, en que el profesionalismo y la división de trabajos han resultado en una acumulación de documentos, pero sin producir cambios reales y prácticos. Se compara la “planificación estrecha” con la “planificación amplia”, en que van unidas la recopilación de datos, la consultación con los diferentes grupos afectados, previsión, la defición de objetivos, la formulación de planes, autorización, implementación, control y evaluación, resultando en un modelo de planificación integrada y continua. Se comenta sobre las condiciones previas para que este modelo resulte un éxito, y se hace hincapié para que la planificación sea básicamente un proceso político