Enhancing Community Environmental Decision Making

Poster

This poster presentation integrates existing resources to educate citizen leaders to facilitate environmental decision-making. The environmental decision-making framework and Tools to Aid Environmental Decision Making developed by the National Center for Environmental Decision-Making Research (NCEDR) serve as the foundation for this project.

The environmental decision-making framework involves: (1) Identifying the environmental problem/issue; (2) Identifying values - the attitudes, beliefs, and preferences of the stakeholders involved and/or impacted; (3) Characterizing the setting - describing environmental conditions; the social, cultural, and political dimensions; and applicable laws and regulations; (4) Developing Goals or criteria for a good decision. (5) Identifying options - developing alternative approaches to address the environmental problem/issue, based on stakeholder values and the environmental, social, cultural, political, and legal setting; (6) Assessing options - evaluating different alternative approaches based on criteria, including potential impacts if implemented; and(7) Making a decision - choosing a course of action based on a consensus approach. This session will report on the training and implementation of the model by 4 community based teams in Kansas.