IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/jenpmg/v43y2000i2p163-183.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Framework for Understanding and Improving Environmental Decision Making

Author

Listed:
  • Bruce Tonn
  • Mary English
  • Cheryl Travis

Abstract

This paper presents a framework for understanding and improving public sector environmental decision making. Within the framework, four interrelated components are discussed: (1) the environmental and cultural context-understanding this context includes understanding what people consider to be environmental problems, the goals and values that they bring to environmental problems and decision processes, specialized and common knowledge about environmental problems, and the institutional settings within which problems are addressed; (2) planning and appraisal activitiesthese activities include forecasting and monitoring exercises, evaluations of past decisions, and decisions that processes ought to be launched to solve specific environmental problems; (3) decision-making modes-these include six typical ways of conducting an environmental problem-solving process, modes which, in the framework, are called emergency action, routine procedures, analysis-centred, elite corps, conflict management and collaborative learning; (4) decision actions-these include five generic steps that are undertaken, formally or intuitively, in virtually any decision-making situation: issue familiarization; criteria setting; option construction; option assessment; and reaching a decision. In the course of describing the framework, we show a decision-making process can be adapted to incorporate sustainability concerns, including fostering sustainable environmental and social systems, meeting obligations to future generations, and searching for robust and reasonable (rather than rigidly optimal) decisions. The framework also helps to illuminate intriguing questions regarding institutional responsibility, decision process complexity and paradigms for environmental decision making.

Suggested Citation

  • Bruce Tonn & Mary English & Cheryl Travis, 2000. "A Framework for Understanding and Improving Environmental Decision Making," Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(2), pages 163-183.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:jenpmg:v:43:y:2000:i:2:p:163-183
    DOI: 10.1080/09640560010658
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09640560010658
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/09640560010658?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Richards, Daniel R. & Warren, Philip H. & Maltby, Lorraine & Moggridge, Helen L., 2017. "Awareness of greater numbers of ecosystem services affects preferences for floodplain management," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 138-146.
    2. Johnson, Fred A. & Jensen, Gitte H. & Madsen, Jesper & Williams, Byron K., 2014. "Uncertainty, robustness, and the value of information in managing an expanding Arctic goose population," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 273(C), pages 186-199.
    3. Shirin Malekpour & Rebekah R Brown & Fjalar J de Haan, 2017. "Disruptions in strategic infrastructure planning – What do they mean for sustainable development?," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 35(7), pages 1285-1303, November.
    4. Cameron Montgomery & George Stone, 2009. "Revisiting Consumer Environmental Responsibility: A Five Nation Cross-Cultural Analysis And Comparison Of Consumer Ecological Opinions And Behaviors," International Journal of Management and Marketing Research, The Institute for Business and Finance Research, vol. 2(1), pages 35-58.
    5. Hannah Whitley, 2024. "Exogenous, Endogenous, and Peripheral Actors: A Situational Analysis of Stakeholder Inclusion within Transboundary Water Governance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(9), pages 1-28, April.
    6. Walter, Alexander I. & Helgenberger, Sebastian & Wiek, Arnim & Scholz, Roland W., 2007. "Measuring societal effects of transdisciplinary research projects: Design and application of an evaluation method," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 325-338, November.
    7. Hermann Lion & Jerome Donovan & Rowan Bedggood, 2013. "Environmental Impact Assessments from a Business Perspective: Extending Knowledge and Guiding Business Practice," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 117(4), pages 789-805, November.
    8. Fred A. Johnson & Mitchell J. Eaton & James H. Williams & Gitte H. Jensen & Jesper Madsen, 2015. "Training Conservation Practitioners to be Better Decision Makers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(7), pages 1-20, June.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:jenpmg:v:43:y:2000:i:2:p:163-183. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/CJEP20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.