Technical assessment and public perception of environmental issues: the case of the Municipality of Pisa

Abstract

The different approach of specialists and general public to environmental topics has often led to contrasting positions. After decades of strong debate, however, there seems to be a growing agreement on the need for overcoming a mere contraposition in favour of an integration of opinions. This paper aims to contribute to the topic by shifting the setting into the urban environment, through the case of Pisa Municipality, Italy. It compares the scenarios described by the latest State of the Environment Report – expression of the technical evaluation – with the perception of citizens measured by a direct survey. Results were first used to investigate any disagreements about quality of environmental matrices, entity of pressures exerted on them and characteristics of determinants. They were then used to identify the range where the integration of the two positions might be pursued and finally collect, in view of future policies, indications on locally adoptable key factors and strategies.

Keywords:

• technical assessment
• public perception
• urban governance
• policy-making
• integration of knowledge

Notes

Multiple tools can be adopted within the framework of deliberative approaches, for example, “citizen advisory groups”, “citizen's panels” (Mander et al. 2011), “focus groups”, “deliberative mapping” and “cooperative discourse”.