|
“With
challenges, come opportunities.”
– Eluid Martinez,
Ex-Commissioner, Bureau of
Reclamation
Resource
managers often find themselves challenged on three fronts:
- To
increase the institutional effectiveness for managing resources;
- To
utilize the current understanding of ecological interrelationships as best
as possible; and
- To
balance the changing public values with implementable and affordable
solutions.
Resource
management challenges arise from complex natural systems, inadequate data,
changing public values, and a need for integration across multiple resources
and knowledge areas. On one hand, problems are multi-faceted due to
differences in stakeholders' views on facts (things that are regarded to be
true) and values (things that are regarded as desirable). On the other hand,
solutions need to be consensus-based, affordable, equitable, implementable,
and sustainable.
The first step
to meet these challenges is to understand the problems at a higher level of
abstraction. The problem wheel
shown on the right shows four broad types of problems that can arise due to
stakeholders’ agreements and disagreements on facts and values.
Political
Problems: When stakeholder agree on facts (i.e. data), but disagree on values
(e.g. what is the right thing to do).
Computational
Problems: When stakeholder agree on both facts and values and are trying to
find out the best technical solution to the problem.
Legal
Problems: When stakeholder disagree on facts (i.e. data), but agree on values
(e.g. what is the right thing to do).
Cultural Problems: When stakeholder disagree on both facts and values and
are trying to find common ground for cooperation.
At
WRIME, Inc., our understanding of your problems and challenges and our
commitment to work with you to find solutions makes us unique.
Our
many years of project experience with water agency clients taught us that the
traditional single-resource management approach can’t meet these challenges.
To
know about some approaches that we developed in collaboration with our
clients, click here.
“
Seek First to Understand.”
-Stephen Covey
|
