Planning of an environmental-impact statement: a scientific and political dilemma

Abstract

The consistent and predictable progression of larger and more complex projects is often disrupted by conflicts of interests. Major confrontations during the realization of a project can obstruct the economic allocation of resources, and push a well managed project into a state of being ‘thrown-together’ and reactive. Therefore, the management of the unmanageable, i.e. the conflict of interests, requires more than just good management tools. The paper describes different aspects of ‘dialogue management’, and illustrates this by the planning of an environmental-impact statement (EIS). The planning of larger projects that require an EIS is not a major planning problem, because the procedure of creating an EIS is well defined by legal regulations. Nevertheless, as the goal of a well prepared EIS is that of winning a broad acceptance for the project, the reliable management of an EIS includes the planning of dialogue and the understanding of the counterparts involved. Under these circumstances, an unusual project-management strategy is required that is based on a philosophical understanding of human intentions, reactions and interests. The strategy must take into account the fact that the establishment of opinions follows rules that are different from those of normal working operations.