Structured Decision Making : A Practical Guide to Environmental Management Choices

This book is about the creative and messy process of making environmental management decisions. The approach we describe is called Structured Decision Making, a distinctly pragmatic label given to ways for helping individuals and groups think through tough multidimensional choices characterized by uncertain science, diverse stakeholders, and difficult tradeoffs. This is the everyday reality of environmental management, yet many important decisions currently are made on an ad hoc basis that lacks a solid value-based foundation, ignores key information, and results in selection of an inferior alternative. Making progress - in a way that is rigorous, inclusive, defensible and transparent - requires combining analytical methods drawn from the decision sciences and applied ecology with deliberative insights from cognitive psychology, facilitation and negotiation. We review key methods and discuss case-study examples based in our experiences in communities, boardrooms, and stakeholder meetings. Our goal is to lay out a compelling guide that will change how you think about making environmental decisions.

Robin Gregory, Senior Researcher, Decision Research

Lee Failing, Principal, Compass Resource Management

Michael Harstone, Principal, Compass Resource Management

Graham Long, Principal, Compass Resource Management

Tim McDaniels, University of British Columbia

Dan Ohlson, Principal, Compass Resource Management

Foreword vii

Preface ix

1 Structuring Environmental Management Choices 1

2 Foundations of Structured Decision Making 21

3 Decision Sketching 47

4 Understanding Objectives 69

5 Identifying Performance Measures 93

6 Incorporating Uncertainty 122

7 Creating Alternatives 150

8 Characterizing Consequences 173

9 Making Trade-Offs 208

10 Learning 239

11 Reality Check: Implementation 262

12 Conclusion 282

Index 289