MULTIATTRIBUTE UTILITY ANALYSIS AS A FRAMEWORK FOR PUBLIC-PARTICIPATION IN SITING A HAZARDOUS-WASTE MANAGEMENT FACILITY

In an attempt to facilitate the resolution of contentious environmenta l problems, public and private organizations are experimenting with co llaborative approaches wherein stakeholders participate in the decisio n-making process. A dilemma for the design of collaborative approaches is the technical complexity of many environmental problems. How can m embers of the public play a meaningful role in decisions that involve complicated scientific arguments? This paper describes a public partic ipation exercise in which stakeholders used an approach based on multi attribute utility analysis to select a site for a hazardous waste mana gement facility. The key to success was the ability to separate and ad dress two types of judgments inherent in environmental decisions-techn ical judgments regarding the likely consequences of alternative choice s and value judgments regarding the importance or seriousness of those consequences. The approach enabled technical specialists to communica te the essential technical considerations and allowed stakeholders to establish the value judgments for the decision. Although rarely used i n public participation, the multiattribute utility approach appears to provide a useful framework for the collaborative resolution of comple x environmental decision problems.