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Starkl, M; Brunner, N; Flögl, W; Wimmer, J; .
(2009): Design of an institutional decision-making process: the case of urban water management.
J Environ Manage. 2009; 90(2):1030-1042 FullText FullText_BOKU

Abstract:: Urban water infrastructure expenditures cause a major financial burden to municipalities. In the opinion of many policy-makers, public funds may alleviate this burden and facilitate environmental policies. However, practice has shown that despite ambitious policies, funding often follows traditional cost-dominated thinking. In Austria, national policy-makers were interested in new guidelines for funding that increase the transparency of the planning, ensure the adequate treatment of ecological problems, and foster stakeholder involvement, but keep the process as simple as possible, and require minimal changes of the current guidelines. An interdisciplinary project team conducted such a study. Its outcome was tested in two pilot projects. Based on these experiences, policy-makers finally implemented the recommended guidelines for the funding of communal urban water infrastructure projects. A general observation about the policy-making process was a conservative attitude of policy-makers. They prefer simple constraints (precautionary principle) and flexible negotiations (delegation) to complex assessment and decision-aid methodologies. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Authors BOKU Wien:: Brunner Norbert; Starkl Markus
Find related publications in this database (using NML MeSH Indexing): Austria;Decision Making, Organizational*;Guidelines as Topic;Organizational Objectives;Program Development;Waste Management*;Water Supply*;
Find related publications in this database (Keywords): Case study; Decision-making process; Environmental planning; Game theory; Participation; Public choice; Risk assessment; Stakeholder analysis; Sustainability; Technology assessment; Water policy; Wastewater management