The main purpose of public participation in integrated water resources modelling is to improve decision-making by ensuring that decisions are soundly based on shared knowledge, experience and scientific evidence. The present paper describes stakeholder involvement in the modelling process. The...

Many islands face problems in regard to sustainable development, both environmentally and economically. Due to geographical isolation energy is often imported from the mainland. Focusing on local energy use may help islands to identify sustainable strategies and solutions. Islands in transition...

The article attempts a general description (outline) of long-standing practice of foresight in Japan. Describing the main changes which have taken place there since the 1970s, it tries to show how Japan, through consistent application of foresight exercises, heading for participatory planning...

Since the liberalisation of its investment regime in the 1990s, Argentina has seen a rise in foreign direct investment into large-scale exploration and exploitation of mineral resources. However, many social groups (local communities, grassroots movement and the church) often strongly oppose new...

The Chinese government adopted more specific and stringent environmental impact assessment (EIA) guidelines in 2011, soon after the widespread ethnic protests against coal mining in Inner Mongolia. However, our research suggests that the root of the ethnic tension is a sustainability problem, in...

Understanding public support for ecosystem restoration is critical to its successful implementation because the sustainability of sound resource management is rooted in stakeholders’ support. The contingent valuation method was used to measure participants’ willingness to contribute, both in...

From the World Bank to the Occupy Movement, support for greater citizen participation in social policy decisions has become ubiquitous. This paper argues that existing typologies of participation are problematic in that they do not recognise the plurality of competing participatory logics that...

Labour governments from 1997 to 2010 sought to promote joined-up thinking with the goal of ultimately improving governance and service delivery. It is within this context that this article analyses the emergence of New Labour’s Community Planning agenda in Scotland during the period...

Objective: we want to explore values and methods of public participation in land use planning through analysis on values of public participation and case of Ji’an County in Jiangxi Province. Methods: document and data method, case analysis method, qualitative and quantitative combined...

Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) can assist local decision processes towards selecting renewable energy systems as it is able to manage qualitative data and offers opportunities to integrate knowledge from local stakeholders. However, little experience is available regarding practical...