Informed Consent through Collaborative Modeling and Transparent Decision-Making: The Lake Ontario St. Lawrence River Study

The now completed International Lake Ontario — St Lawrence River Study involved continuous feedback and communications between technical experts, stakeholders, representatives from the general public, and the policy-makers charged with crafting final recommendations. A Shared Vision Planning approach was used to structure this process, with the collaborative development and implementation of a transparent computer model used to formulate and evaluate water quantity management strategies. Use of the Shared Vision approach allowed for an open debate over this multi-objective management problem using the some of the best scientific information available. The goal of the Shared Vision Planning approach was to produce a state of informed consent — a state in which stakeholders accept the analytical results of a planning process and the tradeoffs inherent in final decisions, even if those decisions do not provide their preferred outcomes. The means used to achieve this goal, and the degree to which the goal was achieved, will be discussed.