Stakeholder engagement in dredged material management decisions.

Area of Science:

• Environmental Management
• Decision Science
• Conflict Resolution

Background:

• Dredging and disposal projects frequently face stakeholder conflicts due to competing interests, leading to decision-making deadlock.
• Resolving these disputes requires methodologies to move beyond entrenched positions and the status quo.
• Such conflicts can be effectively framed as multi-stakeholder, multi-criteria decision problems.

Purpose of the Study:

• To apply multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) in a multi-stakeholder setting for dredged material placement.
• To generate recommendations for the Long Island Sound's Dredged Material Management Plan.
• To increase stakeholder involvement and consensus in the site prioritization process.

Main Methods:

• A working group of diverse stakeholders collaboratively built an MCDA model.
• The model incorporated alternatives, criteria, sub-criteria, and metrics reflecting stakeholder interests.
• Stakeholder values were elicited through criteria weighting.

Main Results:

• Stakeholders generally agreed on the importance of all criteria.
• Strong agreement was observed on the preference order among diverse stakeholder groups.
• The iterative model development increased knowledge and consensus on site-specific criteria.

Conclusions:

• MCDA provides a structured approach to resolve complex dredging and disposal disputes.
• Collaborative model building enhances stakeholder buy-in and promotes consensus.
• This methodology facilitates informed decision-making for dredged material management plans.