Finding a Balance Between Meaningful and Useful Participation by Improving Information Provision

Finding a balance between meaningful and useful participation by improving information provision Assessing the effectiveness of information provision approaches in participatory value evaluation on empowering participants to give informed input on urban climate adaptation projects Sem Nouws Delft, August 7th 2020 4281993 Finding a balance between meaningful and useful participation by improving information provision Assessing the effectiveness of information provision approaches in participatory value evaluation on empowering participants to give informed input on urban climate adaptation projects Master thesis submitted to Delft University of Technology in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE in Complex Systems Engineering and Management Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management by Sem Nouws Student number: 4281993 To be defended in public on August 24, 2020 Graduation committee Chairperson : Prof.dr.mr.ir. N. Doorn, Section Ethics/Philosophy of Technology First Supervisor : Dr.ir. J.S. Timmermans, Section Policy Analysis Second Supervisor : Dr.mr. N. Mouter, Section Transport and Logistics External Supervisor : Dr. A.V. Itten, Section Organisation & Governance ii Preface In this report, the final results and conclusions of my master thesis are presented. This master thesis is written as final step in completing my masters Complex Systems Engineering & Management. At the start of the research of this master thesis, I would have never thought this would be the end result. I started with a vague idea on wanting to do something with urban climate adaptation and how citizens are involved in the process of designing and implementing adaptation measures. And since I am convinced that using a range of different research methods – both quantitative and qualitative – in one research is of added value I wanted to use a mixed methods approach. It provides for an enriched image of the object research. Looking at this master thesis, I can say that all these elements come back: a research on the use of the consultative participation method PVE in urban climate adaptation by combining different research methods. However, none of this was possible without the guidance and supervision of my graduation committee. Neelke, thank you for your understanding in these times of lockdown and your feedback on the choices made for my research design. Jos, thank you for helping me writing more concise and to the point and indispensable input on the content of urban climate adaptation. Niek, for helping me grasp PVE and pushing me to improve the foundations of this research. Anatol, thank you for sharpening the conceptual basis of my thesis and for your approachability. A special word of gratitude to Martine Rutten. Although not part of my graduation commission, you helped me a lot in defining the basis of my research design and finding a case study. Furthermore, I want to thank Perry Borst and Ruth Shortall for their flexibility and swiftness in supporting me in working with the PVE webtool. I would like to thank Daan Vermeer, Luuk van der Burgt and Eline van Weelden for their trust in me to perform the experiment in Reyeroord and their support in designing the PVE-survey. Moreover, I thank all my friends and family for tips, tricks, testing my experiment and their critical reviews. But most of all, I would like to thank my parents and sister for their wholehearted support and for putting everything into perspective. Sem Nouws Delft, August 8th 2020 iii Page intentionally left blank iv Summary The climate is changing globally, and this will have major effects on our cities. Heat and water stress, water scarcity, pluvial flooding and many other impacts will influence our daily life more in the future. Mitigation as a strategy for coping with climate change is no longer enough, we also have to adapt to the related impacts, so-called urban climate adaptation (UCA). UCA can be defined as “adjustments in ecological-social-economic systems in response to actual or expected climatic stimuli, their effects or impacts” (Smit et al., 1999, p. 200) in an urban context. Public participation can contribute to the effectiveness of UCA, for example, by giving a democratic foundation to decisions, by enhancing the quality of measures through mobilizing local knowledge, by increasing the awareness on climate change effects among participants or by increasing the legitimation of decisions. Public participation is defined as “securing the active involvement of a broad range of stakeholders in decision-making and action. Such participation encompasses input into formal decision-making structures, as well as into the deliberative democratic fora” (Few et al., 2007, p.47). When implementing public participation for a complex subject such as urban climate adaptation (UCA), designing the information provision is key. Policy makers select and present information on basis of the available information and a perception of what participants need to participate. But most of all, the supply of information is based on the perception of useful participation of facilitators – i.e. the objectives to be achieved with participation. On the other side, participants have a need for a selection and presentation of information in order to give informed and motivated input. This demand of information is based on the notion of meaningful participation – does the information enable participants to give substantiated input in order to have influence in the participation process. Connecting meaningful and useful participation – by designing an optimal information provision – can lead to effective participation. However, designing the information provision is challenging and therefore often does not empower participants to state their preferences. The problems associated to information provision in public participation materialize in complex subjects such as UCA. UCA is a complex subject matter that asks a lot from participation with regard to knowledge, whereas it is the policy maker who possesses this knowledge. First of all, quite some knowledge on climate change and adaptation is required to assess the uncertainty and risks involved and how that effects local communities. This complicates the inclusion of citizens that have no or limited prior knowledge on UCA. Likewise, the interrelatedness with other urban challenges and the multi-level governance needed, makes UCA hard to grasp for people that are not working on UCA on a daily basis. This translates in participation processes that tend to have an overrepresentation of high educated people with knowledge of legal processes. A similar pattern is observed in Participatory Value Evaluation (PVE). PVE is a webtool-based participation method that is used to increase participation by others than the usual suspects. In PVE, respondents are asked to allocate a budget or points to a portfolio of projects that reflects real policy options, therewith evaluating the projects by stating their preferences. By presenting the trade-offs to be made by policy makers, it provides insight in the complexity of subjects such as UCA. However, the provision of information in PVE on complex subjects is still characterized by some problems such as susceptibility by framing, misinterpretation and self-selection. It is evident that participation is effective when the environment in which the participation occurs meets the requirements of both useful and meaningful participation. Information and knowledge can play a key role in making participation in a complex subject as UCA in PVE more effective. However, it is still unknown how information or knowledge should be presented and selected in PVE to empower participants and let meaningful and useful participation coincide. The research question that follows from this knowledge gap is: v How to provide information to participants – with little prior knowledge on a complex subject such as UCA – in PVE in order to provide for both meaningful and useful participation? The aim of this research is to gain insight in what information approaches can be used to connect useful and meaningful participation. In other words, to find out how facilitators of participation should design information provision in order to arrive at effective participation. A mixed methods approach is used to answer the research question. First an exploratory research is executed to identify what information provision approaches for complex subjects are described in scientific literature and are used by facilitators of participation. Thereafter, an information manipulation experiment is performed in which these approaches are tested by translating them into treatments that are applied in a PVE-survey. Subsequently, the explanatory research starts. In this phase of the research the effects of the treatments on the stated preferences of participants and on their evaluation of (the meaningfulness of) participation is analysed. Besides, an evaluation by policy makers is performed to provide insight in whether the approaches reflect their perception of useful participation. The research is executed among citizens of Reyeroord. Reyeroord is a neighbourhood in the city of Rotterdam in which a water storage is realized – to prevent water nuisance because of climate change – in a green area that will be redeveloped. From the exploratory research – a literature review, expert interviews and a document analysis were performed to compare theory and practice – it follows that the flow of information between facilitator and

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