A study in estuarine resource management : the Fraser training works proposal
Creators: name: Hobson, Robert Douglas
Publisher: name: University of British Columbia
Year: 2010

description: The Fraser estuarine area is characterized by an abundance of biophysical resources interacting with high levels of human demand for food, recreation, transportation, industrial location, and other uses. Our society frequently relies on the market to allocate resources in a socially optimal fashion. But for estuarine resources this approach is often inadequate because externalities from resource uses are not considered, or because a competitive market is not operative. In such cases government intervention is considered necessary to allocate resources in accordance with societal preferences. This thesis seeks to evaluate the effectiveness of government intervention in allocating estuarine resources in the Fraser estuarine area for navigation and port development in a socially optimal fashion, through an examination of the planning process leading to the generation of a proposal to train the lower reaches of the main are of the Fraser River. The purpose of the proposal is to create, through a self-scouring channel, an improved draft for deep sea shipping. This proposal has been chosen for analysis because it represents a major demand on the resources of the estuary, and has considerable potential for affecting a wide range of interests. As such it should prove a good test of the effectiveness of government intervention in allocating estuarine resources in a socially optimal manner. This thesis thus has the following objectives: 1. To evaluate the effectiveness of the "ports provision system" in arriving at a socially optimal allocation of estuarine resources for navigation and port development. To achieve this objective it is necessary to achieve the following sub-objectives: 2. To identify those interests who will benefit and those who will bear a significant share of the costs that will result if the training works proposal is implemented. 3. To describe the activities and interactions among affected interests in the process of deriving the training works proposal. 4. To determine whether adequate information for the evaluation of alternatives has been generated. These objectives were pursued as follows. Normative criteria were derived for evaluating the effectiveness of an ideal process for allocating estuarine resources for navigation and port development. A basic assumption behind these criteria was that societal preferences can be elicited through a process of bargaining amongst legitimate interests. The interests affected by the training works proposal were identified by reviewing the potential effects on biophysical processes, by identifying other uses displaced by the project, and by a description of anticipated economic effects. The available literature on these factors was reviewed, and interviews were held with representatives of likely affected interests. Next, the involvement of interests in the planning process was determined. This historical antecedents to the training works proposal were outlined to place the project in context and to define the extent of past involvement by interest in port development. Those interests with a formal legislative basis for involvement in the process were then identified. The involvement of other interests was determined by reviewing written material and by informal discussions with as many affected interests as could be contacted within time constraints. For convenience, the planning process was considered in three stages: conceptualization of the problem, derivation of alternatives, and evaluation of alternatives. The decision stage, yet to come, was not considered. The effectiveness of the process in arriving at a socially optimal proposal was analyzed in terms of the extent to which affected interests were able to bargain "for the consideration of alternatives which they favoured, and the extent to which evaluative information generated on alternatives identified the effects on the various legitimate interests. Six general categories of information were evaluated. Finally, a number of behavioural factors which appear to have inhibited the generation of alternatives and of evaluative information were noted, based on a review of the literature on limits to rationality, and on interviews with actors involved in the planning process. The analysis showed that the planning process failed to meet the normative criteria and that the problem was of sufficient magnitude to seriously affect the optimal allocation of estuarine resources for navigation and port development. The ports problem was conceptualized in a manner that precluded the consideration of a wide range of alternative solutions, because only the values of those interests who would benefit from the proposal were brought to bear on the problem. Similarly, the alternative generated, and the evaluative information did not meet the concerns of many affected interests because they were excluded from the bargaining process. The attitudes of those interests involved were thus permitted to guide the process. There was little bargaining amongst interests to determine social preferences because many interests were excluded from the process or lacked the necessary evaluative information to become involved. Finally, elected representatives played a limited role in the process, permitting civil servants in powerful agencies to interpret societal preferences.