Abstract:
Wider stakeholder participation is an increasingly important feature of
sustainable water resources planning and management. Despite regulatory and
commercial recognition of the benefits of wider participation, there is
considerable variation regarding interpretation and successful practical
application of participative planning activities. Research in this field has
concentrated on the identification of alternative methods and tools to improve
both the quality of engagement and associated outcomes with Social Learning
attracting significant attention. Rather less attention has been paid to the
homogeneity and consequently the usefulness of the stakeholder group as a
social and professional unit.
This thesis explores the constituency concerns of four prominent stakeholder
groups relevant to water resource management, namely: lay public, regulators,
managers and researchers via a social learning model of participative planning.
Based on a collaborative learning framework a conceptual model is developed
and used to illustrate and analyse the relationships between individual and
group concerns, opinions and intervention preferences. A questionnaire based
survey was used to identify how constituency concerns vary, allowing the four
groups’ expectations and opinions regarding the planning and management of
water resource projects to be compared and contrasted.
Results show that there is significant variation of attitude and opinion within
stakeholder group communities on a large number of issues. A greater than
expected level of agreement between stakeholders from different constituencies
on some topics was also observed. The results of the research inform
contemporary debates about the design and management of stakeholder
engagement processes and challenge existing assumptions about the
robustness of a ‘stakeholder group’ in terms of having a distinct set of opinions.
The conceptual model is then revised to suggest a more appropriate process
and content for participatory planning, based on the social learning model used.
