A value-based framework for risk management decisions involving multiple scales: a salmon aquaculture example

Abstract

This paper proposes and illustrates an approach to characterizing a risk management framework for risk problems that involve linkages across multiple scales of influence and impact, and multiple levels of institutional and regulatory control. The approach involves three principle steps, informed by writing on decision making and by applied experience: (i) characterizing the multiple levels at which regulatory decisions arise and linkages among them, as well as the institutions responsible for these decisions, the legal and regulatory frameworks in which they operate, and the interested stakeholders at each level; (ii) characterizing the means and ends objectives important from the views of the stakeholders at each level, and (iii) characterizing performance measures for these decisions as a basis for assessment and evaluation. The paper illustrates these points through a case study of risk management concerns associated with salmon aquaculture in British Columbia. The paper discusses multiple levels at which regulatory decisions arise, the legal and regulatory frameworks, and interested stakeholders. It then reviews objectives (ends and means) at each major level of institutional control, and develops illustrative performance measures for relevant risk management decisions. Finally, it discusses how this framework can be used to clarify information needs and create new alternatives for risk management that help address issues across scales.