WICKED PROBLEMS
Associated Links:
From Principles of Environmental Science; Cunningham & Cunningham; McGraw-Hill, 2002:
Adaptive Management = "learning by doing;" "...policies are designed from the outset to use scientific principles to examine alternatives and assess outcomes." "...monitoring how conditions are changing, and what effects our actions (or inactions) are having on both target and nontarget elements of the system. The goal of adaptive management is to enable us to live with the unexpected [i.e. uncertainty]. It aims to yield understanding as much as to produce answers or solutions."
"One reason why plans need to be conditional and why management should incorporate scientific experiments is that many environmental problems have no simple answer. Questions such as "What does ecosystem health mean?" or "How clean is clean?" don't have clear right or wrong answers. They depend on [one's] worldview and how [one] define[s] these terms."
"Environmental scientists describe these issues as being "wicked problems," not in the sense of having malicious intent, but rather as obstinate or intractable dilemmas... The definition of both the problem and the solutions differ for various stakeholders."
Characteristics of wicked problems:
Complex
Serious consequences---DIYD, DIYD
Unpredictable---"best available science" does not give us the answer
Multiple stakeholders (hence multiple worldviews/value systems)
No simple solutions---one solution leads to the next problem; dynamic process
Time-sensitive---need to act (or decide NOT to act now)
"Often the best solution comes from community-based planning and consensus building. Inherent uncertainty gives these questions no clear end point."
(All emphases and unquoted remarks mine. SR)
LINKS TO WEBSITES DISCUSSING WICKED PROBLEMS:
And...as we work through wicked problems...we best apply: