Keynote Presentations from the 2nd AVEC International Summer School, Peyresq, 18-30 September 2005

Speaker: Anne C. de la Vega-Leinert
ac.delavega<at>gmail.com
Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Telegrafenberg C4, 14473 Potsdam, Germany

Title of the talk: How to integrate stakeholders´ needs in Vulnerability Assessments?

Summary of the talk by Willem Rienks: Students´ summary (pdf)

Abstract

How to integrate stakeholders´ needs in Vulnerability Assessments?

Global change research plays an important societal role by raising key questions on the way people apprehend their environment and use its resources. In the past decades the realisation that human activities were having an immense impact on nature and the capacity of ecosystems to function properly was largely spurred by the endeavour of ecologists and other natural scientists. This led to a vast and rich societal debate, which in industrial countries resulted in dramatic changes in legislation and management practice. Scientists involved in bringing climate and then more largely global change to the public arena were long chiefly concerned with understanding the earth system, the mechanisms leading to climate change, and its potential impacts on ecosystems and the human population. In the last two decades Vulnerability Assessments have developed as a important discipline, the aim of which is not only to study the potential impacts of certain changes, but also possible mitigation (e.g. finding ways to minimise the changes) and adaptation (e.g. finding ways to prevent or minimise damages) avenues. To achieve this ambitious goal, scientists not only need to work increasingly in interdisciplinary teams, but to engage in a dialogue with societal actors (i.e. stakeholders), such as policy makers, economic sectors representatives, environmentalists and the wider public.

So why do scientists need to engage with stakeholders?

• To better take into account the multiple societal drivers of change (including social, political, economic and cultural aspects);
• To better understand the way global change affects people and their activities;
• To identify what information and which modelling scales and indicators are more useful for stakeholders;
• To explore ways to address uncertainty;
• To better adapt scientist results or the communication of these, so that they can be used by stakeholders.

When and how to engage with stakeholders?

There are many ways to engage stakeholders, each one responding to a specific Vulnerability Assessment need.

• At the designing stage of a project: to tease out important scientific and societal research questions;
• During a project: to discuss and evaluate the way the research is going and adapt it to include specific stakeholders’ needs;
• At the end of a project: to raise awareness on the results obtained and stimulate a societal debate.

• By creating platforms of discussion, where scientists and stakeholders meet;
• By producing targeted syntheses and disseminating these;
• By designing dedicated tools for stakeholders.

In summary: a Vulnerability Assessment is a bridge between fundamental and applied sciences, as is user-oriented, although it provides solid and innovative scientific understanding on complex systems and their possible evolution. Since it is aimed at transferring and exchanging knowledge between scientists and stakeholders, it is important to include stakeholders judiciously in the shaping, the making and the evaluating of the Vulnerability Assessment to be performed.

Recommended background literature on this presentation:

• Alcamo J, Kreileman R, Leemans R (1996) Global models meet global policy. Global Environmental Change, 6 (4):255-259. doi:10.1016/S0959-3780(96)00031-3.


• Webler T, Kastenholz H, Renn O (1995) Public participation in impact assessment: a social learning perspective. Environmental Impact Assessment Review 15:443-463. doi:10.1016/0195-9255(95)00043-E.


• Kerkhof M van de, Leroy P (2000) Recent environmental research in the Netherlands: towards post-normal science? Futures 32:899-911. doi:10.1016/S0016-3287(00)00038-0.

• Berkhout F, Hertin J, Jordan A (2002) Socio-economic futures in climate change impact assessment: using scenarios as ’learning machines’. Global Environmental Change, 12 (2), 83-95. doi:10.1016/S0959-3780(02)00006-7


• Harrison SR, Qureshi ME (2000) Choice of stakeholder groups and members in multicriteria decision models. Natural Resources Forum, 24:11-19.


• Walker B, Carpenter S, Anderies J, Abel N, Cumming G., Janssen M, Lebel L, Norberg J, Peterson GD, Pritchard R (2002) Resilience management in socialecological systems: a working hypothesis for a participatory approach. Conservation Ecology., 6 (1):14. Online at http://www.consecol.org/vol6/iss1/art14


• Pahl-Wöstl C (2002) Participative and stakeholder-based policy design, evaluation and modeling processes. Integrated Assessment 3,1: 3-14


• Dürrenberger G, Kastenholz H, Behringer J (1999) Integrated assessment focus groups: bridging the gap between science and policy? Science and Public Policy 26, 5:341-349


• Hukkinen J (1993) Bayesian analysis of agricultural drainage problems in California´s San Joaquin Valley. Journal of Environmental Management 37:183-200. doi:10.1006/jema.1993.1015

• Borsuk M, Clemen R, Maguire L, Reckhow K (2001) Stakeholder values and scientific modelling in the Neuse River watershed. Group Decision and Negotiation, 10:355-373. doi:10.1023/A:1011231801266


• van Daalen E, Thissen W, Berk M (1998) The Delft process: experiences with a dialogue between policymakers and global modellers. In: Global Change Scenarios for the 21st Century. Results from the IMAGE2.1 Model [Alcamo J, Kreileman E, Leemans R(eds.)]. Pergamon Press, Oxford, United Kingdom, pp. 267-286.

AVEC is a EU FP5 Concerted Action No. EVK2-CT-2001-20010

back to the AVEC Summer School Programme back to AVEC