Keynote

Realizing the potential of community-led, science-driven participatory modeling: A case in green infrastructure planning

Speaker: Dr. Moira Zellner (Northeastern University, MA, USA)

Abstract: Participatory modeling (PM) is particularly well-suited to address complex socio-environmental problems like climate hazards and their implications on sustainable resource management and landscape planning. Despite its potential to inform planning and policy, particularly in conflictive contexts, PM has yet to become a mainstream practice for decision-making. While most of the PM research and development has focused on modeling tools and engagement techniques, multiple other dimensions must be recognized and articulated for impactful planning support. I present a PM platform, Fora.ai, that is supportive of the iterative steps in PM: problem definition and goal setting, preference elicitation, collaborative scenario-building, simulation, tradeoff deliberation, and solution-building. I demonstrate the platform’s effectiveness when embedded in a stakeholder-led process that integrates diverse knowledge, data sources, and values in pursuit of impactful green infrastructure (GI) planning to address flooding. I show how the combination of specific facilitation practices and platform features leveraged the power of data, computational modeling, and social complexity to contribute to collaborative learning, creative and convergent solution-building for urban sustainability and climate resilience.

About the speaker: Moira Zellner’s academic background lies at the intersection of Urban and Regional Planning, Environmental Science, and Complexity. For over 20+ years, she has led and co-led interdisciplinary projects to model how specific policy, technological and behavioral factors influence the emergence and impacts of complex socio-ecological systems problems, where interaction effects make responsibilities, burdens, and future pathways unclear. She has also developed and applied participatory complex systems modeling tools and approaches with stakeholders and decision-makers to support collaborative policy exploration, social learning, and system-wide transformation. Moira has taught workshops on these approaches for scientists and decision-makers in the US and abroad. She is dedicated to serving the public through her engaged research and activism.