Deliberative Policy Analysis and Policy-making in Urban Stormwater Management

Abstract

The Philadelphia Water Department is the first US water utility to propose a ‘green stormwater infrastructure’ (GSI) approach to managing urban stormwater. Given that many actors individually make decisions regarding the surface texture of urban watersheds, planning and installing an urban-scale GSI programme is both complex and uncertain. Whether and how water utility officials interact with watershed stakeholders introduces important questions about methodologies for participation, both in the policy process and the analysis thereof. We critically examine a participatory process employed in a Philadelphia neighbourhood in terms of Deliberative Policy Analysis (DPA). Informed by interpretive methodology, our analysis is two-fold: (1) we examine the potential as well as the challenges of using DPA in the analysis and practice of policy-making and, at the same time, (2) we consider the use of DPA under adverse circumstances, including extreme inequality and distrust. We outline some ways in which DPA is better suited than more traditional forms of policy analysis to address the complexity and uncertainty inherent in environmental issues as well as some ways in which DPA is particularly challenging. We heed a call for a reorientation of policy analysis that brings empirical and normative inquiry into closer interaction.