(NOTE: WEB FORMATING TO BE DONE)
The Eco-risk Research Unit (ERRU) is contained within the Institute of Resources and Environment (IRE), School of Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), and the Centre for Human Settlements (CHS) in the Faculty of Graduate Studies (FOGS) at the University of British Columbia.
Mission and Vision
The overall mission of the ERRU is to contribute to the research and educational missions of IRE, SCARP, CHS and FOGS. Hence, this document should be seen as an addendum to those academic plans. Its more specific mission is to conduct interdisciplinary research and educational activities that focus on decision making for managing environment, health and technology risks. Particular themes include (i) effective and conceptually sound methods of involving publics in complex risk management choices, integrating analysis and public discourse; (ii) constructive approaches to understanding perceptions and values of interested parties in social decision processes; (iii) risk communication and decision aiding for public policy choices; (iv) global and regional policy issues related to global and environmental change; (v) decision analysis and decision research as organizing frames for gaining insight into global environmental change; and (vi) fostering adaptive learning by individuals and organizations as a means to address profound uncertainties in environmental risk issues.
The ERRU pursues research efforts that are interdisciplinary, involve real world problems, directly link or partner with agencies and public groups, and address global and regional priorities. Some of our more notable institutional partners include: the Center for the Integrated Study of the Human Dimensions of Global Change at Carnegie Mellon University (where we are ongoing co-investigators in the world's largest research project on the human dimensions of global change); Decision Research, of Eugene, Oregon (the world's best known non-profit research center on risk and decision making); BC Hydro and Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
Goals for Next Five Years
The ERRU is in year 5 of a 10 year plan, prepared when the unit was started. To date, we have accomplished nearly all our goals for the first few years of activity: we established the unit, brought in substantial research funding to support researchers and several graduate students in SCARP and IRE, built great partnerships outside the university, built the limited links within UBC that we could support given the time available, and completed many substantial research and educational products. Now we can turn to the next steps.
The ERRU has three fundamental goals over the next five years, which are the means to address its overall mission:
(i) expand the range of educational programs on campus to which it contributes knowledge regarding risk management issues. Over the last year, the ERRU faculty have built new links with the School of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene (McDaniels is now a faculty associate in that school); established linkages with the civil engineering program by preparing a joint proposal for two professorships (discussed subsequently); and contributed to the undergraduate environmental sciences program (through guest lectures).
(ii) develop a graduate teaching program on environmental risk and decisionmaking within the existing IRE and SCARP programs in FOGS. This could take the form of a certificate program to upgrade skills for individuals with existing graduate degrees, or as concentrations (sets of prescribed classes) within the existing IRE and SCARP programs. A set of proposed classes has been developed and we are in the process of having them co-listed in SCARP and IRE.
(iii) become recognized as one of the outstanding places in the world to conduct research or pursue educational programs in environmental risk and decisionmaking. Because T. McDaniels is head of the Education Committee for the International Society for Risk Analysis, he is familiar with the alternative educational programs around the world in this field. For those who want to study or sponsor research in the human aspects of environmental risk management, the ERRU is already a recognized center of expertise, with few competitors. With additional resources, we can become the most well known and successful program in the world. We are making progress in achieving this recognition.
Research Themes and Recent Progress
Several themes will guide the ERRU research activities over the next five years. These include:
-developing theories and applied tests of prescriptive approaches to decision aiding for environmental risks. This theme directly links to issues of globalization, public policy analysis and public involvement. The focus will be on refining methods we have under development to improve approaches for integrating "analysis and discourse" into public policies for risk management issues. We were just awarded a three-year extension to our efforts with the Center for the Integrated Study of the Human Dimensions of Global Change. This funding will allow us to continue our work on decision-aiding for global change issues.
-building on the "constructed preferences" and "value focused thinking" paradigms that we have developed in recent years, as a means for understanding and guiding individual decision processes regarding environmental risk management tradeoffs. Several of our doctoral and masters' students are pursuing research projects in this area.
-risk communication involving stakeholders as the context in which prescriptive approaches to decision aiding can be applied. Risk communication studies completed or now underway in the ERRU include work on urban infrastructure decisions (e.g., water supply and water treatment for Seattle and Victoria), suburban land use decisions (parks in Richmond, funded by SSHRC) air quality and visibility (for the GVRD), growth management (for the CRD), watershed management (in BC and Oregon) bio-diversity preservation (in BC), energy policy (for BC Hydro and BC Gas), tradeoffs in water allocation between fisheries and electric power (for SSHRC), managing space-exploration technology risks (a Ph.D. student project for SSHRC), risk communication for understanding global environmental change, and others. One of our doctoral students, Joe Arvai, has completed several experimental studies of risk communication process and will defend his thesis in coming days.
-learning as an applied strategy within decision analysis. Here we will focus on how straightforward approaches, such as recognizing "learning over time" as an objective for decision processes can help improve the practice of adaptive management. More broadly this topic embodies work on the study of policies as experiments, a theme already found in the adaptive management literature. Here we could build on existing work through simulation studies, using the Carnegie Mellon ICAM (integrated climate assessment model) to study the influence of different policy strategies on important outcomes such as economic social and environmental measures. We want to develop better approaches for fostering learning as a means to create robust and attractive policies regarding environmental risk.
In January, 2001, we submitted a major proposal to the US EPA and NSF joint program on environmental decision making. We submitted this proposal in conjunction with our partner organization, Decision Research of Eugene, Oregon. The topic of concern in the proposal is the role of learning over time in efforts to manage health, environmental and technology risks. We will hear about the results of this proposal by early April, 2001.
Hiring Plans
Since 1996, McDaniels has planned to work toward bringing two new faculty to the ERRU: Dr Hadi Dowlatabadi, of Carnegie Mellon University and Dr. Robin Gregory, who is an adjunct with UBC but has no faculty position.
Over the last year the Dowlatabadi position has been secured with a Canada Research Chair. The final steps are being taken in the process of him accepting UBC's offer. The Gregory position and a professorship for McDaniels are just being decided. McDaniels has for the last six months been in steady discussions with the Insurance Corporation of BC (ICBC). A proposal for two professorships, one in Civil Engineering and one in Graduate Studies, is now before the ICBC board. Their decision will have a tremendous impact on the ERRU's resources and responsibilities. We will issue an update to this academic plan once the ICBC decision is made.