The purpose of this research was to determine the potential capacity for improved participation through community-based approaches to small hydroelectric development in the Indian Himalayas. The objectives of the research were: (1) to establish the current roles of the civic, public and private sectors in small hydro development; (2) to examine the potential for learning through participation during the development of small hydro projects; (3) to determine the potential for using community-based environmental assessment in future projects; (4) to investigate the benefits of community-driven small hydro development, and (5) to determine the implications of the findings for environmental policy and decision-making. Data were gathered using Participatory Rural Appraisal methods including semi-structured interviews, transect walks, and landscape analysis. There were five case study projects (Niti, Bampa, Jumma, Malari and Bamini/Badrinath), each in the Indo-Tibetan border region of the Indian Himalayas. The plants are all run of river, and range in capacity from 25 kW to 1.2 MW. Four of the villages had no electricity prior to the development of the small-hydro plants, while one had a prior connection to the state electrical grid (Bamini/Badrinath). The villages are inhabited by Bhotia tribespeople, and are occupied only during the summer growing season. The residents travel to lower altitude villages for the winter months. The most successful project examined, in the village of Malari, was one where community development and energy needs were considered simultaneously, and where the local community was highly involved in planning, construction and operation. The less successful projects were those where community involvement and development, sound planning, and detailed geographic information about the site were lacking in their development and operation; such as was observed in the village of Jumma, where the plant never began operations because it was damaged by an avalanche prior to its inauguration. PLEASE NOTE: As of January 2007 the State of Uttaranchal was renamed Uttarakhand. The change is not reflected in this thesis. / May 2007

Over the last few decades, thermal treatment of municipal solid waste (MSW) has been strongly opposed in North America. The reasons for public opposition are complex and could vary from community to community. Typically, public antagonism towards thermal treatment option is clearly revealed during the planning process of energy-from-waste facilities. Concepts such as NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) have become synonymous with the siting of MSW thermal treatment facilities. Given the highly controversial nature of such projects, effective organization and conduct of the municipal planning process is of high importance. The literature suggests that public opposition can be fuelled by the perception of unfair outcome and unfair planning process. Therefore, the equity dimension of the planning process has gained importance. This research explores the planning processes surrounding the development of thermal treatment plants for MSW in the province of Ontario, Canada by focusing on the equity dimension. The research aims to reveal the role and the nature of substantive equity, procedural equity, and cost and time efficiency, as well as the role of contextual elements in planning processes. Additionally, the research intends to provide recommendations on the effective incorporation of the equity dimension into the waste management planning processes. Through a review of the literature on planning controversial facilities with a focus on waste disposal plants, it was revealed that the clear delineation of substantive and procedural equity as well as the identification of the main elements that fall under these notions are absent. Different studies present various elements of substantive and procedural equity, but they fall short in consolidation and analysis of linkages among the elements. In addition, it was revealed that the study of the contextual elements in relation to substantive and procedural equity has been quite limited. Three research questions were identified that were informed by two assumptions derived from the consulted literature. To answer the research questions, three cases of planning thermal treatment plants in Ontario were investigated using qualitative research methods. The first case studied the Halton region thermal treatment project that was initiated in 2006 but was soon dropped without reaching the stage of full environmental assessment. The second case study focused on the Niagara-Hamilton thermal treatment project that was a joint effort between the city of Hamilton and the regional municipality of Niagara to find a local solution to the waste problem. An environmental assessment was conducted; however, before its completion the parties decided to stop the project and concentrate on other waste management alternatives. Finally, the third case studied the Durham-York thermal treatment project that underwent a full environmental assessment process and is currently close to completion. This research contributes towards expanding the conceptual discourse about the role of equity in planning waste disposal facilities with a particular emphasis on thermal treatment plants. More specifically, the thesis contributes towards delineating the notions of substantive and procedural equity and distinguishing their elements. It introduces the notion of context and explores those contextual elements that influence substantive and procedural equity during planning processes for thermal treatment facilities. As a result, the thesis develops a comprehensive analytical framework that consolidates the major elements that fall under the domains of substantive equity, procedural equity, and context that have previously been dispersed in the literature. In addition, the research establishes linkages among the elements within each domain and across domains. Based on the findings of the case studies, the notion of distributional equity is reconsidered. Whereas the distributional aspect of the equity dimension is undoubtedly important, the thesis concludes that the substantive equity should go beyond the locational aspect of planning. The existence of cross-domain linkages and their importance and diversity confirms that the notion of equity should be studied and discussed in broader terms which acknowledge not only procedural or distributional issues, but also contextual elements and efficiency questions. The existing scholarship places particular emphasis on locational considerations (siting) and procedural issues; however, it fails to present a comprehensive and multidimensional view of equity and explain how this is embedded within the broader context. This research is an attempt to present equity with all its diversity and complexity and build a foundation upon which further work in this direction can be conducted. More broadly, this research contributes to the better understanding of the perceptions and motivations behind public opposition towards infrastructure projects, and particularly waste management facilities. Given the complex nature of public opposition phenomenon, the research addresses the need to build an in-depth understanding of public motivations and perceptions that shape attitudes towards proposed projects.

It might seem obvious that public opinions should be included in the planning process. However, it is not clear to what extent. Statutory forms of public participation attract little interest since many people feel that it is hard to make a difference. The purpose of this study was to engage those that normally do not get to speak their mind in the planning process. In this study, two methods for conducting “on-street surveys” were investigated. The place for the “on-street surveys” was Centralplan in Gävle. The two methods had different approaches. The “Stationary” method was a structured interview of pedestrians who had just crossed Centralplan. The “Follower” method was a structured interview that took place as the administrator and the participant crossed Centralplan in tandem. A total of 40 “Stationary” and 22 “Follower” interviews were conducted. The majority of the participants responded positively on making themselves heard within the planning process, indicating that they have important views to share. The methods used in this study can serve as an icebreaker for communication between planners and the public. / Det kan kännas självklart att allmänhetens åsikter ska vägas in i planeringsprocessen men i vilken utsträckning det ska ske är oklart. Lagstadgade former av medborgardeltagande väcker svalt intresse eftersom många upplever det som svårt att påverka. Syftet med den här studien var att engagera de människor som normalt inte kommer till tals i planeringsprocessen. I studien undersöktes två olika metoder för att genomföra gatuundersökningar, så kallade ”on-street surveys”. Platsen för genomförandet av gatuundersökningarna var Centralplan i Gävle. De två metoderna hade olika tillvägagångssätt. Metod ”Stationär” var en form av stillastående strukturerad intervju som utövades på platsen. Administratören frågade ut personer som alldeles precis hade förflyttat sig genom gaturummet. Metod ”Följeslagare” var en form av rörlig strukturerad intervju som utövades på platsen men där administratören slog följe med personen och ställde frågorna under tiden de passerade genom gaturummet. Totalt 62 personer medverkade i studien, varav 40 för metod ”Stationär” och 22 för metod ”Följeslagare”. Resultaten visade att allmänheten hade viktiga synpunkter att dela med sig av, till exempel om attityder och åsikter. Majoriteten av de medverkande ställde sig positiva till att få sin röst hörd inom planeringsprocessen. Metoderna som användes i studien skulle kunna fungera som dörröppnare för dialog mellan planerare och allmänheten.

A historical approach to preserving biodiversity throughout the world is the establishment of protected areas, with the underlying philosophy that the greatest public benefit is achieved by protecting natural resources, despite exclusion of affected human communities. Consequently, protected areas can become arenas of struggle between local communities and state conservation agendas. Some suggest socio-ecological sustainability is gained by shifting to decentralized governance structures and interjurisdictional arrangements. Biosphere reserves allow for policies, management and institutional arrangements that integrate social, economic, political and environmental issues and better aligns them with decision-making processes, place-based governance and dynamic socio-ecological systems. This research project explores the real-life experiences and unanticipated outcomes of public participation in conservation projects and compares them against the scholarly discourse to examine our understanding of public participation and place-based governance in two Atlantic Canada protected areas. Using case studies of South West Nova Biosphere Region, Nova Scotia and Burnt Cape Ecological Reserve region, Newfoundland and Labrador, this study assesses levels of public participation by various stakeholder groups within the two case studies, examines the credibility of the public participation criteria and explores the challenges and opportunities of implementing community-based conservation projects. The case studies were assessed against eight criteria for effective public participation, focusing on public engagement (strategic, inclusive, transparent), the decision-making process (enabling, respectful, constructive) and desired outcomes (instrumental and meaningful). Based on semi-structured interviews, participant observation and a literature review, results suggest that open and public deliberative activities seeking and incorporating public interests into decision-making processes throughout an initiative contributes to local legitimacy, credibility and fairness. The case studies provide insight into the value of the public participation criteria, the long-term regional commitment required, the complexity in shifting to place-based governance arrangements and the importance of linking individual and collective identity with public participation. The primary research findings advocate a comprehensive, flexible, pluralistic, bioregional and contextually responsive approach to public participation and place-based governance.

The scale of the affordable housing problem in Canada is enormous and the situation is worsening due to a number of recent social trends. Continued wealth inequality, an aging population, increased immigration, changing marriage and independence trends, and increased part-time employment, have all contributed to a growing affordable housing problem in Canada. Certain groups such as single parents, recent immigrants, seniors living alone and tourism/seasonal workers are particularly vulnerable. In Canada, cities and tourism-based communities have the most pronounced affordable housing shortages, and this is expected to continue in the future. New and innovative methods of public participation are needed in dealing with the challenges of affordable housing development. Spatial information technology such as Internet-based collaborative geospatial software aims to improve the public participation process. This technology is able to use the Internet, spatial data and carefully designed interfaces in order to engage citizens and increase community participation for difficult planning problems such as affordable housing development. This thesis focuses on three objectives. The first objective is to define a collaborative, spatially-aware approach to create and assess affordable housing options in Collingwood, Ontario. This approach will use existing spatial data, participants with a vested interest in affordable housing, and an open source geospatial software tool called MapChat. The second objective is to implement the defined approach in a real-world setting in order to generate participatory input. The third and final thesis objective is to examine the spatial patterns of existing affordable housing and the locations generated in the study to determine sites that are most suitable for future affordable housing development in Collingwood. The results of the thesis show that the approach used provides a proof of concept in the use of Internet-based collaborative geospatial software that can be applied to any town in Canada. Although the approach involved a modest study design, it was able to offer a number of potential advances in planning the locations of future affordable housing. The approach was successful in creating a set of potential affordable housing options, was effective in assessing those scenarios and was feasible to implement in a real-world setting. In addition, the approach had high potential in the generation and management of information and in supporting community participation and empowerment.

Stakeholder participation has become a valuable tool for agencies in the field of environmental planning. The potential benefits, for both agencies and individuals, of involving stakeholders in the planning process have been widely recognized and well documented. However, the success of participatory initiatives depends on the extent to which local stakeholders are interested in, and capable of, becoming involved in the process. Thus, the outcomes for each process vary as planning issues are dependent on their local context. This study aimed to evaluative the characteristics of successful stakeholder in planning. Specifically, it strived to obtain an understanding of successful stakeholder engagement through developing and integrating an evaluative framework based on the literature with the motivations and perceptions of agencies representatives and local stakeholders. In order to achieve these goals, the evaluative framework was applied to a case study of the Tiffany Creek subwatershed in Hamilton, Ontario. The case study revealed that determining and incorporating the opinions of agencies and stakeholders toward a participatory process can shed light on the characteristics of successful stakeholder participation in a given region. The characteristics of successful stakeholder participation and the integration of agency and stakeholders viewpoints into the planning process are discussed and recommendations to improve participatory processes in environmental planning are provided.

Advances in information and communication technology and the ready availability of Global Positioning Systems (GPS) have made it possible for citizens to create information on the internet expressing their personal perceptions in the form of pictures, videos and text narratives associated with geographic locations. The term Volunteered Geographic information (VGI) was coined to describe the processes whereby non-professionals or “citizen scientists” participate directly in spatial data creation, editing and shared use. VGI offers promise as an innovative way for members of the public to participate directly in the use, production and sharing of spatial information that is relevant to issues of personal or community concern and as a means of addressing some of the issues associated with traditional public participation methods. Planners can find meaning in the heterogeneous, time-sensitive, geo-social geographic information created by citizen volunteers in a bottom-up participation process where planners give up some control over what data is collected and from whom. However, uncertainties associated with volunteered geographic information include relevance, credibility, representativeness and quality of the geographic information. This thesis investigates the opportunities and barriers to the use of volunteered geographic information as public participation in planning. A framework and methodology for collaborative quality control of VGI through multi-criteria subjective relevance ratings of the VGI by its producers and users is put forward in this thesis. The relevance rating framework for quality control of VGI is based on the use of relevance in information retrieval in information science to improve the relevance of search engine results. This concept is transferred to the quality control of VGI contributions to determine the best VGI contributions to be used in planning as public participation. A VGI web application prototype, including the subjective relevance rating system, was created and a methodology and demonstration of its use for public participation was presented.

A historical approach to preserving biodiversity throughout the world is the establishment of protected areas, with the underlying philosophy that the greatest public benefit is achieved by protecting natural resources, despite exclusion of affected human communities. Consequently, protected areas can become arenas of struggle between local communities and state conservation agendas. Some suggest socio-ecological sustainability is gained by shifting to decentralized governance structures and interjurisdictional arrangements. Biosphere reserves allow for policies, management and institutional arrangements that integrate social, economic, political and environmental issues and better aligns them with decision-making processes, place-based governance and dynamic socio-ecological systems. This research project explores the real-life experiences and unanticipated outcomes of public participation in conservation projects and compares them against the scholarly discourse to examine our understanding of public participation and place-based governance in two Atlantic Canada protected areas. Using case studies of South West Nova Biosphere Region, Nova Scotia and Burnt Cape Ecological Reserve region, Newfoundland and Labrador, this study assesses levels of public participation by various stakeholder groups within the two case studies, examines the credibility of the public participation criteria and explores the challenges and opportunities of implementing community-based conservation projects. The case studies were assessed against eight criteria for effective public participation, focusing on public engagement (strategic, inclusive, transparent), the decision-making process (enabling, respectful, constructive) and desired outcomes (instrumental and meaningful). Based on semi-structured interviews, participant observation and a literature review, results suggest that open and public deliberative activities seeking and incorporating public interests into decision-making processes throughout an initiative contributes to local legitimacy, credibility and fairness. The case studies provide insight into the value of the public participation criteria, the long-term regional commitment required, the complexity in shifting to place-based governance arrangements and the importance of linking individual and collective identity with public participation. The primary research findings advocate a comprehensive, flexible, pluralistic, bioregional and contextually responsive approach to public participation and place-based governance.

The scale of the affordable housing problem in Canada is enormous and the situation is worsening due to a number of recent social trends. Continued wealth inequality, an aging population, increased immigration, changing marriage and independence trends, and increased part-time employment, have all contributed to a growing affordable housing problem in Canada. Certain groups such as single parents, recent immigrants, seniors living alone and tourism/seasonal workers are particularly vulnerable. In Canada, cities and tourism-based communities have the most pronounced affordable housing shortages, and this is expected to continue in the future. New and innovative methods of public participation are needed in dealing with the challenges of affordable housing development. Spatial information technology such as Internet-based collaborative geospatial software aims to improve the public participation process. This technology is able to use the Internet, spatial data and carefully designed interfaces in order to engage citizens and increase community participation for difficult planning problems such as affordable housing development. This thesis focuses on three objectives. The first objective is to define a collaborative, spatially-aware approach to create and assess affordable housing options in Collingwood, Ontario. This approach will use existing spatial data, participants with a vested interest in affordable housing, and an open source geospatial software tool called MapChat. The second objective is to implement the defined approach in a real-world setting in order to generate participatory input. The third and final thesis objective is to examine the spatial patterns of existing affordable housing and the locations generated in the study to determine sites that are most suitable for future affordable housing development in Collingwood. The results of the thesis show that the approach used provides a proof of concept in the use of Internet-based collaborative geospatial software that can be applied to any town in Canada. Although the approach involved a modest study design, it was able to offer a number of potential advances in planning the locations of future affordable housing. The approach was successful in creating a set of potential affordable housing options, was effective in assessing those scenarios and was feasible to implement in a real-world setting. In addition, the approach had high potential in the generation and management of information and in supporting community participation and empowerment.

Stakeholder participation has become a valuable tool for agencies in the field of environmental planning. The potential benefits, for both agencies and individuals, of involving stakeholders in the planning process have been widely recognized and well documented. However, the success of participatory initiatives depends on the extent to which local stakeholders are interested in, and capable of, becoming involved in the process. Thus, the outcomes for each process vary as planning issues are dependent on their local context. This study aimed to evaluative the characteristics of successful stakeholder in planning. Specifically, it strived to obtain an understanding of successful stakeholder engagement through developing and integrating an evaluative framework based on the literature with the motivations and perceptions of agencies representatives and local stakeholders. In order to achieve these goals, the evaluative framework was applied to a case study of the Tiffany Creek subwatershed in Hamilton, Ontario. The case study revealed that determining and incorporating the opinions of agencies and stakeholders toward a participatory process can shed light on the characteristics of successful stakeholder participation in a given region. The characteristics of successful stakeholder participation and the integration of agency and stakeholders viewpoints into the planning process are discussed and recommendations to improve participatory processes in environmental planning are provided.