Brownfield regeneration in Europe: Identifying stakeholder perceptions,concerns, attitudes and information needs

Brownfield areas are a major concern in Europe because they are often extensive, persistent in time and compromise stakeholders’ interests. Moreover, due to their complex nature, from the decision-making point of view, the regeneration of brownfields is a challenging problem requiring the involvement of the whole range of stakeholders. Many studies, projects and organisations have recognised the importance of stakeholder involvement and have promoted public participation. However, comprehensive studies providing an overview of stakeholders’ perceptions, concerns, attitudes and information needs when dealing with brownfield regeneration are still missing.This paper presents and discusses a participatory methodology applied to stakeholders from five European countries to fill this research gap, to develop a system to support the categorisation of the needed information and to support the understanding of which typology of information is the most relevant for specific categories of stakeholders also in relation with their concerns.The engagement process consists of five phases: (i) planning and preparatory work, (ii) identification of stakeholder categories, (iii) engagement activities (e.g. focus groups and workshops), (iv) submission of a questionnaire and (v) provision of feedback to the involved stakeholders.Thanks to this process, appropriate stakeholders have been identified as well as their perceptions, concerns, attitudes and information needs. Stakeholders’ perceptions proved to be different according to the country: German and Italian stakeholders perceive brownfields as complex systems, where several issues need to be addressed, while Romanian stakeholders consider contamination as almost the only issue to be addressed; Czech and Polish stakeholders address an intermediate number of issues. Attitudes and concerns seemed to be quite similar between countries. As far as information needs are concerned, similarities between some groups of stakeholders have been noticed: site owners and problem holders are primarily interested in information on planning and financing, while authorities and services providers are interested in more technical aspects like investigation, planning and risk assessment. Some outstanding outcomes emerged from the scientific community and research group, which showed an interest for remediation strategies and options and socio-economic aspects.The research outcomes allowed to create a knowledge base for the future development of tailored and customised approaches and tools for stakeholders working in the brownfield regeneration field.     

Integrating preferences and social values for ecosystem services in local ecological management: A framework applied in Xiaojiang Basin Yunnan province,China

Previous works have made great progress in mapping and assessing ecosystem services (ES) that are directed toward exploring various aspects of ecological changes and economic values. These preferences, however, may neglect the important role of people who are the direct beneficiaries in this ecosystem. Therefore, including these stakeholders in ES assessment identifies their relations and perceptions between ecosystem services and society. In order to quantify and map these relations and perceptions, we designed and implemented an analytical framework based on the Public Participatory Geographic Information System (PPGIS) method to explore local stakeholders’ (Farmers, Government managers/Experts, and Company employees) similarities and differences in recognition of preferences and social values for ecosystem services in a typical Karst basin. Our results showed that remarkable differences appeared in preferences for ES across three groups. Farmers gave more preferences to provisioning services, Government managers/Experts to regulating and cultural services, and Company employees’ preferences were individualized. The spatial distributions and relations of social values for ES also showed great differentials. Provisioning services were always related to specific natural conditions, regulating services to forests, and cultural services to specific locations around tourism localities, forest, and wetland parks. The three stakeholder groups perceived more synergies than tradeoffs between the different ecosystem services. Landscape beauty was the most influential service in Farmers’ and Company employees’ perceptions, while Local climate change regulation was the most influential service in those of Government managers/Experts. The local stakeholders’ surveys can improve the enthusiasm of the local people to participate in environmental management and provide more socio-ecological information to help the managers alleviate the conflicts among different stakeholders.     

跨区水资源调配与区域利益关系分析——以南水北调中线工程为例

基于利益相关方理论,提出了跨区水资源调配中区域利益相关方的圈层式结构,并以南水北调中线工程为例,分析了南水北调水资源调配中不同层次利益主体及其区域利益关系的变化,旨在加强受水区和调水区之间的合作,调节区域间的利益关系     

Towards understanding and resolving the conflict related to the Eastern Imperial Eagle (Aquila heliaca) conservation with participatory management planning

Conflicts often arise in relation to the conservation of protected predator species. If stakeholders are well defined and involved in participatory processes, their views and perceptions can be incorporated and steps can be made towards resolving such conflicts. In this paper, a case from Hungary is presented. In this case, a participatory management planning process was initiated in the Jászság Special Protection Area of European importance (SPA), within the frame of a LIFE+ project focusing on the conservation of the Eastern Imperial Eagle (Aquila heliaca). It provided a good opportunity to address a complex conflict situation between nature conservationists, game managers and farmers. We identified structural conflicts such as contradictions between direct agricultural payments and nature conservation goals, conflicts related to different views of the main influencing factors, relational problems between various stakeholders, and even differences in value orientation. The participatory management planning process was successful in clarifying the conflict situation and making productive steps toward a common understanding and resolution. Besides the mutually agreed conservation measures, the establishment of an administrative and financial incentive such as the high nature value area (HNVA) scheme proved to be an especially important factor for mitigating the conflict. It also contributed to a more successful realisation of nature conservation objectives in an area dominated by private land owners. However, continued interaction and cooperation are needed to stabilise this progress. Our paper also shows that stakeholder involvement in conservation management planning can transcend the strategic dimension of participation, and address broader common values besides the interests of land user groups.     

How do individuals and groups perceive wetland functioning? Fuzzy cognitive mapping of wetland perceptions in Uganda

Wetlands are critical natural resources around the globe, providing many direct and indirect benefits to local communities. However, wetland degradation and conversion to other land uses are widespread. Sustainable wetland management requires an understanding of stakeholders’ perceptions of the ecosystem and its management. This paper uses fuzzy cognitive mapping to capture individual stakeholder perceptions and group knowledge of wetland ecosystems in order to assess areas of consensus and opposing interests between different stakeholders and to develop future management scenarios. For this purpose, the Rushebeya-Kanyabaha wetland, which is one of the few wetlands in southwest Uganda that is still largely intact, is used as a case study. Our findings reveal differences in perceptions between different resource users. Papyrus harvesters, beekeepers, fishermen, wetland non-users, and hunters associate the largest livelihood benefits with a wetland conservation scenario, while farmers and government officials perceive increased agricultural production in the wetland area to be more livelihood enhancing. This poses a challenge to sustainable wetland management. The scenario results also suggest that centralized top-down laws and rules on wetland use are not sufficient for maintaining the wetland ecosystem. Therefore, there is a need to develop shared understanding through bottom-up approaches to wetland management that are nested within national regulatory frameworks, ideally combined with awareness building and knowledge sharing on the ecological benefits of the wetland.     

Approaches to identifying stakeholders in environmental management: Insights from practitioners to go beyond the ‘usual suspects’

Stakeholder analysis and engagement processes are recognised as essential in environmental and natural resources management (ENRM). Underpinning these processes is the identification of stakeholders, an often tacit process which finds the practitioner responsible for stakeholder analysis or engagement sifting through all of society to determine who is awarded stakeholder status for the given project or issue. While the ENRM literature provides guidance for stakeholder analysis and engagement, there has not been the same level of examination of the practical approaches to—and assumptions underlying—stakeholder identification by practitioners working in the field. This research extends on the ENRM stakeholder analysis and engagement literature by exploring the approaches to identification as used by ENRM practitioners. Semi-structured interviews (n = 20) were conducted with ENRM practitioners, leading to the classification of eight approaches to stakeholder identification. These approaches are discussed as the ‘art’ and ‘science’ of stakeholder identification. Practitioners’ conceptualisations of the terms stakeholder, community, and the citizenry are discussed, and differences in understandings of these critical terms are outlined based on the broad domain of ENRM in which the practitioner is operating (land use change versus agricultural extension or community engagement). The social structures of relevance to stakeholder identification (individual, social constituency, group, organisation) are presented, and practitioners’ perspectives on the role of groups are discussed. Through explicating the approaches to identification of stakeholders, this research offers new perspectives on a significant element of ENRM. These insights provide greater clarity on the practices which shape stakeholder analysis and engagement in ENRM, and highlight the importance of acknowledging the privileged position of the practitioner in deciding who is awarded stakeholder status in a project or issue.     

我国农业用水利益相关者研究进展与展望

[目的]我国农业用水占全国总用水量的60%以上,农业是耗水大的产业,而农业用水的利用率低、浪费严重,是长期存在的问题。近年来逐渐聚焦利益相关者研究,希望通过探究农业用水系统中各利益相关者的互动行为,来提高改革效率、改善治理方式,从而实现水资源的高效利用。[方法]文章利用文献分析法,通过搜集国内农业用水利益相关者研究的相关文献,总结利益相关者界定、利益诉求确定和利益主体博弈上的研究成果,提炼研究方法,为未来的研究提供指导。[结果]该文总结已有文献中提出利益相关者共19个,并提出了各利益相关者在研究中出现的频次。利益相关者的研究方法主要运用了"Mitchell的评分法""文氏图法"和"利益相关者图解法"。[结论]目前,国内对于农业利益用水利益相关者的研究非常有限,存在主要问题包括:利益相关者理论单一、研究内容较为宏观、研究不够深入。在未来研究中可以实现多学科理论的结合,同时选择研究对象时可以更有针对性,研究更加深入。     

What matters most? Stakeholders’ perceptions of river water quality

The need to integrate stakeholders’ views into environmental policy is increasingly gaining attention because this offers the opportunity to design sustainable and synergistic environmental strategies. Understanding and integrating the views of resource users into policy design and implementation could help address the most important challenges, gain community support, enhance project ownership, and avoid policies being rejected by local people. As a result, research in environmental management has focussed on stakeholders’ perceptions of river water quality and how to integrate such views into policy. While existing studies offer insights into the different ways in which stakeholders evaluate river water quality and potential factors influencing judgements, they appear to be limited in a number of ways. First, most of these studies focus on developed countries and may have limited contextual relevance to the developing world. Moreover, past studies focus on segments of society such as farmers and mainly on wastewater for agriculture. These shortcomings may limit our understanding of the topic and our ability to design effective policies to address water quality problems. Drawing on survey data from the Wenchi municipality in Ghana, we examine public perceptions of what constitute important measures of river water quality as well as factors influencing such judgements. Results suggest that while variables such as taste, colour, smell and litter are important, the presence of faecal matter in and/or around the river was rated the most important measure of river water quality while depth of river was the least important. Results further suggest that education, age, number of years a person had lived in a community, depth of river and the presence of aquatic vegetation influence water quality judgements. The findings of this research provide insights into what policymakers and regulators need to consider when attempting to influence behaviours in relation to water resources. We note, however, that while public perceptions of river water quality could guide water management policies, scientific measurements of water quality must not be replaced with stakeholder perceptions. This is because aspects such as ecological integrity may not be important to segments of the public but are an important aspect of water management. This is reinforced in the present study as there seems to be a lack of concern among the participants regarding river depth – an important factor for habitat provision and pollution dilution.     

水务一体化改革进程中利益相关者责任关系研究

为了更好地深化水务改革,从改革的目的和内涵出发,以利益相关者偏好理论为研究视角,探讨政府、水务企业以及社会公众在水务一体化管理进程中的偏好和责任要求,由此形成利益相关者的责任关系结构。针对现实中不同利益相关者之间责任关系存在的问题,从建立权责挂钩的考核制度、完善监督管理体系和社会监督平台、强化社会监督力量对于政府和水务企业的外部约束等方面提出了对策建议。