Concepts and Approaches for Integrating Stakeholder Involvement in Comparative Risk Assessment Processes: A German Perspective. M. Clauberg, P. M. Wiedemann, H. Schuetz, and J. Mertens; Forschungszentrum Juelich, Germany and University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Efficient and effective environmental decision-making requires that choices be made. Not all of society’s risks can be mitigated at all costs. Rather, resources for risk management are limited and must be distributed and apportioned to an actively selected list of risks. Choosing which risk deserves how much attention, mitigation effort, and funding is the fundamental issue of environmental decision-making. To reach decisions that are both scientifically / technically defensible, as well as publicly justifiable, means that risks must be compared to one another and stakeholders must be identified and involved in these activities. Our research provides integrative concepts towards stakeholder involvement approaches in comparative risk assessment, as well as findings of expert and layperson workshops which have focused on the necessary elements of comparative risk assessment such as selection of specific palettes of protective goals, evidence assessment, and multidimensional optimization of contrasting options. Additional consideration has been given to the impacts of risk communication on stakeholder involvement in comparative risk, as well as the impact of attempting to integrate and operationalize the precautionary principle in a risk-based, stakeholder decision-making context.
This research is sponsored by the German Federal Office for Radiation Protection (Bundesamt fuer Strahlenschutz) under Project StSch 4217.
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