|
|
 |
Case Study : NEW PUBLIC INVOLVEMENT FRAMEWORK FOR FLOOD RISK DECISION MAKING
The events surrounding Hurricane Katrina were a brutal shock to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps). Subsequent investigations showed that the levees failed because they were built in a disjointed fashion, using outdated data. The Chief of Engineers, Lt. General Strock, issued an apology on behalf of the Corps saying "This is the first time that the Corps has had to stand up and say, "We've had a catastrophic failure." Strock reported that the Corps had undergone a period of intense introspection and was "deeply saddened and enormously troubled by the suffering of so many."
Based on the analysis of what went wrong, Corps senior management issued a 12-step action plan titled Actions for Change (shown in Appendix A), designed to make the changes the Corps needed to deal more effectively with flood risk. Two of the action items were: effectively communicate risk; establish public involvement risk reduction strategies.
As part of the implementation for these actions, the Corps issued a contract to a consultant team to develop recommendations for how the Corps can improve public involvement in Corps decision making. This team consists of external experts with expertise in public participation, flood risk management, risk communication, social vulnerability, environmental justice, and assessment of other social effects. Jim Creighton serves as team leader, under subcontract to CDM.
Creighton and the team have produced a Phase 1 report containing the initial conclusions and recommendations of the consultant team. The Phase 1 report is intended to be a concept paper, a precursor to a more detailed framework and methods report still to be prepared in phase 2.
The conclusions of the Phase 1 report were:
Conclusion 1: The Corps must employ early and continuous public involvement throughout the flood risk management decision making process - involvement aimed at fostering informed dialogue and problem solving among stakeholders - if it is to achieve the goal of a collaborative, risk-informed process for managing flood risk.
Conclusion 2: The Corps goals for public involvement in flood risk management cannot be met without effective partnership with other agencies and associations.
Conclusion 3: To be an effective flood risk manager, the Corps must learn to view flood risk in a community as a social as well as a physical phenomenon, and develop expertise in understanding the role of values, perceptions, and community vulnerability and capacity when developing programs for addressing risk.
Conclusion 4: The goal of involving those people most likely to be affected by flood risk decisions will require engaging segments of society that have been particularly difficult to reach in the past. This will require proactive efforts to engage these participants, continuing research on effective methods of engagement and may require programs to build capacity in these communities to participate effectively.
Conclusion 5: There needs to be effective public involvement at each stage of a project's life cycle. The need for public involvement is not confined to planning; substantial issues of public concern may arise in design, construction, operations and maintenance.
Conclusion 6: Mechanisms need to be established to provide opportunities for the community to be informed about and participate in post-authorization decisions about design changes that could affect the level of flood risk.
Conclusion 7: Ensuring that the community remains informed of residual risk after construction will require a continuous program of education once construction is completed.
Conclusion 8: A survey of communication programs about flood risk conducted by other U.S. agencies and organizations shows that there are numerous creative approaches for educating the public, but fewer models for engaging the public in decision making.
Work on the Phase 2 Implementation Plan is expected to start late summer 2009.
The Corps has also issued a contract to Fulton Communications to conduct a comparable study of best practices in the risk communication field.
In addition the Corps has contracted with Fulton Communications and Jim Creighton (under subcontract to Fulton) to develop a public participation and risk communication training course, and train an internal cadre of Corps staff to teach the training course nationally. Keith Fulton and Sandy Martinez, owners of Fulton Communications, are the project leads. The Fultons and Creighton have developed the course materials and are well along with training the Corps staff. William L. Peoples heads the project for the Corps, assisted by Nancy Stricht, of the Corps' Jacksonville District.
The next step is for the Corps instructors to teach five pilot courses, with the Fultons and Creighton available as co-instructors.
Main Case Studies Page
|
|
