Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
process, the specification of resolution space and specification of the policy to be
tested. The tests also gave insights about the importance of pedagogical tools which can
favour mutual understanding and debate among the actors to improve the process.
An additional recommendation is to sufficiently account for the political,
economic, social and scientific context in which the assessment is embedded.
For this it is essential to find out the needs of potential users, to take notice of past
experience and institutional history, and to ensure appropriate participation in the
assessment process. If not, there is a risk of not achieving stakeholders' involvement
(Hilborn
1979
; Mintzberg
1980)
.
Conclusions
To perform impact assessments (IAs) of policy proposals is gradually becoming an
important instrument in European policy making. The IA procedure in the European
Commission stems from a governance concept which assumes that policy programs
should be the product of complex interaction between government and non-government
organizations (researchers included), each seeking to influence the collectively
binding decisions that have consequences for their interest. The idea of IA is based
on the assumption of 'co-production of knowledge'.
In order to make a system like SEAMLESS-IF applicable in a European
decision-making process, interaction with potential users of the system is needed
during its course of development. With the objective to make use of potential users'
opinions, different forms of interaction to enable user involvement in the development
of the framework have been performed. The learning that came out of discussions
with officers in the EU administration participating in the SEAMLESS User Forum
and representatives of regional administrations setting up assessments in test situations
in France lead us to the following conclusions.
The discussions at the EU level confirmed that the proposed framework
developed by the SEAMLESS project is matching the potential users' overall needs.
The feedback on the prototypes served the development of SEAMLESS-IF with
specifications of requirements on interface and visualisations needed. It also led to
the identification of the need for different user interfaces and the adaptation of these
according to procedural requirements in the EC's assessment work. The interactions
further assisted in priority setting within the project and greatly triggered the timely
thinking about continuity, maintenance, extension and dissemination.
Testing of the assessment procedures at the regional level revealed that
scientists, specializing in modelling or systems analysis, can play an important
role to facilitate the integration of different types of knowledge into the definition
of a policy problem. Although the general experience from setting up test cases is
promising, critical stages in the assessment procedure which have to be further
developed became visible. Three particular steps in the process deserve attention:
the framing process, the specification of resolution space and the specification
of policy to be tested.
