Citizen or community participation is a guiding principle for environmental
decision-making, but in practice it is often compromised and contradictory
. Two themes in participation can be defined. One is in the 'product' or ou
tcome of decision-making, and aims for more effective and appropriate evalu
ations and decisions. The other is participation in the 'process', where de
volved decision-making itself can serve wider social and economic goals. Al
though both strands are crucial for the practice of 'integrated assessment'
in environmental governance, a clearer view is needed of the scope and lim
its of such participation. This paper explores such scope and limits by app
lying a conceptual 'integrated assessment' framework. This is drawn from a
major case study on sustainable development for a city-region in the north
of the UK. Such a framework helps to identify the many roles of citizen par
ticipation from a complex systems perspective. Selected examples of current
practice highlight the problems and opportunities for citizen participatio
n in environmental governance.