Flood papers Citizen participation in flood reduction planning: Strategic choices in Peterborough, Ontario Greg Oulahen & Brent Doberstein March 2010 ICLR Research Paper Series No. 47
Abstract: This paper explores the role of citizen participation in a post-disaster flood hazard mitigation planning program in Peterborough, Ontario. Recognizing that citizen participation is an integral element of hazard mitigation planning, a review of the relevant literature identifies six strategic planning choices that should be considered in the design of a citizen participation program. The strategic choices include (from Brody, Godschalk & Burby, 2003):
1. Administration whether or not to include participation in the planning process and how to staff citizen involvement efforts; 2. Objectives whether to simply educate citizens, seek their ideas and preferences, or actually grant them influence in decision making; 3. Stage when to start encouraging and allowing citizen participation in the planning process; 4. Targeting which types of stakeholder groups and segments of the population to invite to participate in the planning process; 5. Techniques what types of approaches are employed to generate citizen participation; 6. Information what types of information and dissemination processes are used to inform participants.
The study uses this framework to analyse the strategic choices made during the Flood Reduction Master Plan (FRMP) process undertaken in Peterborough following a severe flood event in 2004. Many successful elements and several opportunities for improvement of citizen participation in the planning program are found. Based on a simple four-point scale (excellent, good, fair, poor) the study evaluates the level of success of the decisions made for each strategic choice in terms of the standards set in the literature:
Administration excellent Targeting fair Objectives fair Techniques excellent Stage excellent Information good
The analysis performed by this case study can be generalized to make recommendations that would apply to other hazard mitigation planning programs that include citizen participation. The first five recommendations are based on successful aspects of citizen participation in the FRMP process. Recommendations six to eight are based on aspects of citizen participation that limited the potential of the planning process.
1. Include citizen participation at the earliest stages of the planning process. 2. Depoliticize the planning process by granting the project team freedom from political and administrative pressure in conducting the study and creating the plan. 3. Hire additional consultants with specialized skills and experience if necessary. 4. Use a wide variety of participation techniques to generate and foster citizen participation. 5. Promote honesty to build trust in the working relationship between project team and citizen participants. 6. Clearly define the intended level of citizen participation early in the planning process. 7. Establish a Technical Review Committee before the terms of reference are set and ensure that the committee is involved in setting the terms. Provide the opportunity for the committee to conduct a technical peer review of the engineering calculations and models used in the planning process. 8. Employ both social targeting and geographic targeting as strategies to generate citizen participation.
Two additional recommendations aim to contribute to the development of accepted citizen participation theory, specifically Arnsteins Ladder of Citizen Participation (1969) and the six strategic choices identified by Brody et al. (2003), and were developed through the experience of applying that theory to the case study.