Value-focused thinking for environmental risk consultations

This paper reviews the use of a structured, value-focused decision approach for involving public and expert stakeholders in environmental risk-management consultations. We argue that a structured process provides the foundation for achieving a high-quality, participatory decision making process. We review several key elements of a structured approach to eliciting stakeholders' values, use examples from case studies to illustrate analytical techniques that have proven particularly helpful in linking analysis and deliberation, and discuss results from a small-group experiment that compares the quality and type of participants' input from conventional and structured value elicitations. In a concluding section we note some of the perils, promises, and challenges of using a structured, value-focused approach to incorporate and communicate stakeholder views as part of environmental risk-management decisions.